Historian Scorches Condescending Greta: 'I Don’t See Her in Beijing or Delhi'
Globetrotting Greta Thunberg may feel at home lecturing western countries about their climate impact, but the young activist just got scorched by a celebrated historian, who called the young climate change activist out for the places she hasn’t visited.
Stanford’s Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Niall Ferguson made his point during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Wednesday.
“The climate issue is not being dealt with in a candid way. Because if it were there would be some acknowledgement that 60 percent of the increase in CO2 Emissions since Greta Thunberg was born is attributable to China,” Ferguson said, “but nobody talks about that.”
“They talk as if it’s somehow Europeans and Americans who are going to fix this problem.”
Thunberg spends much of her time campaigning for change in Europe and the United States. Recently, the young activist has gone beyond the environment and called for complete societal change.
But notably absent from Thunberg’s trips are rising nations like India and China, where massive growth in industry is left largely unchecked by effective environmental regulation.
China alone contributes not only a mind-boggling amount of carbon, but also dumps an unthinkable amount of plastic and other trash into the world’s oceans, another fact Thunberg seemingly refuses to address.
This fact did not escape Ferguson.
“India’s responsible for about 18 percent of the increase of CO2 emissions in Greta Thuneberg’s lifetime,” the historian said.
“But she goes to New York and she comes to Davos, I don’t see her in Beijing or Delhi. And that’s I think the missing link in this discussion.”
If this truly is a global catastrophe poised to change the face of the Earth as we know it, shouldn’t Thunberg be addressing the world’s biggest polluters?
If the end of the world is approaching at such a rapid pace, Thunberg should indeed be using her impressive cultural sway to tackle pollution from India and China.
Instead, she only seems to admonish those from the West, whose countries are models of cleanliness and efficiency in comparison to many others.
Even at the Davos economic forum, where participants from both India and China were present, Thunberg chose to address the delegates as a collective.
“Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fueling the flames by the hour. And we are telling you to act as if you loved your children above all else.”
Here is my full speech at the World Economic Forum in #Davos in print. https://t.co/CjQiKnAFYT— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) January 21, 2020
Ferguson’s argument makes perfect sense — if CO2 and other pollution actually matter to Thunberg, she appears to be addressing the wrong audience. That leaves us forced to wonder how convinced she is about the links between emissions and climate change — or even about the very existence of man-made climate change itself.
No wonder the Swedish activist has openly stated her desire that her critics be silenced.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
