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Opinion | To understand climate change better, we need more Greta Thunbergs, not more scientific data
- The Swedish teenager whose school strikes inspired the world made us stop and think. Climate change is undeniable and must stop being seen as contentious but, for that to happen, we need more Greta Thunbergs and their stories
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We can probably agree that we have reached “Peak Greta Thunberg”. November 30 marks the first anniversary of her real introduction to the global stage, via the School Strike for Climate protests that rippled around the world.
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By now though, the Swedish teenager has become a parody of herself, and her “How dare you!” speech at the United Nations Climate Action Summit in New York in September has become a global meme alongside Homer Simpson’s famous “D’oh!” and US President Donald Trump’s “fake news”.
This is not her fault. She is a dedicated, energetic and passionate young woman. Her activism has given the climate change movement the boost it sorely needed. In fact, her rise and impact have a lot to do with how the climate change lobby has failed to make traction.
Climate change has been on the world stage since the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988 and its first report in 1990, which argued that human-induced global warming is real.
The wave of denialism can be traced to almost the same moment. Vested interests, greed, wilful ignorance and bloody-mindedness have reflexively concocted a wall of schoolyard “is not!” arguments based on less evidence than a Trump Twitter rant.
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The denialist debate has, with the skill of an alchemist, recalibrated environmental concern into a Trojan Horse of red-eyed radicals who will leap out and take your job, rights, freedom and even your life. They have made it personal.
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