Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swedish activist who seems to have turned the world upside down by mobilizing young people to do something about global climate change, tweeted last night that she is on her way to Alberta.
At this is written, while there was lots of excited chatter on social media, no one here in Wild Rose Country seems to know when or where she will arrive.
Nor was there much media coverage. Shortly after midnight, the only mainstream media news story to appear online saying Ms. Thunberg was en route to Alberta was from Montreal’s digital French-language La Presse.
The story didn’t actually contain much new information beyond the contents of Ms. Thunberg’s tweet, which was in English, even if you can read French — which we all can nowadays thanks to Google Translate.
La Presse described Premier Jason Kenney as having been “at war” with environmental charities for their opposition to pipelines carrying diluted bitumen to coastal ports, and went on to recount the role environmental issues, especially carbon taxes, are playing in the federal election campaign.
Regardless of all this, you can count on it that someone in Mr. Kenney’s United Conservative Party Government or its War Room is virtually guaranteed to say or do something really dumb in response.
My money’s on the War Room, given past public relations gaffes of its new managing director, former journalist and lobbyist Tom Olsen. But, really, there is no shortage of candidates among the ranks of the UCP who might say something staggeringly stupid. We really should be placing odds on who puts his foot in his mouth first — and you can be reasonably confident it will be a he.
After all, among the stern teenage environmentalist’s talents seems to be an almost mystical ability to make grown men say ridiculous things — up to and including the president of the United States.
If it happens, it is bound to make Alberta look unreasonable, even idiotic, in the eyes of people all over the world.
Ms. Thunberg’s message may be disparaged and belittled by big shots in Alberta, but it will also be welcome to surprising numbers of Albertans young and old who will try to make her feel welcome.
Perhaps she can be asked how she fits into Mr. Kenney’s foreign-funded-environmentalist conspiracy theory, or even summoned to appear before his Inquisition. Someone should probably alert the Swedish Consul in Edmonton!
What exactly has Greta inspired anyone to do?
Ditch classes?
Protest, and act like children?
Block traffic?
Are these students actually DOING anything to try to stop climate change (as if that were even possible)?
No, they’re still driving to school, watching TV, playing xbox, and texting on their smartphones.
The entire ‘movement’ is a colossal sham.
Your opinion piece proves that.
Found the Boomer.
I wonder what evidence you find in Mr. Climenhaga’s opinion piece that shows “The entire ‘movement’ is a colossal sham.” If you have any, I challenge you to identify it.
Because as things stand, you appear to be nothing more than one of the brain-damaged, hateful, smelly, lying trolls whose appearance here was predicted.
Putting “as if that were even possible” in parenthesis, as if it were a universally acknowledged truth puts you in the “lying” category, by the way.
Remember, Mr. Blogger, the overworked and short staffed Postmedia reporting team can only cover so much territory, no time for Greta Thunberg. Instead, the ink stained wretches are busily tracing the antics of your premier as he roars about our province carpetbagging his way to federal campaign events staged by his buddies in the CPC and Bay Street. Are you Albertans paying for this?
We know. Don’t torture us.
I don’t suppose Greta will have much respect for Kenney and crowd, so there will be even more squawking of the wounded animal variety following her pronouncements which the oil and gas industry will pre-abhor on principle. Kenney and crowd seem to think other Canadians are foreign agitators, let alone someone from Sweden which they’d have a hard time finding on a map.
The current re-rise of the BQ, which is an unlikely combination of xenophobes and smug hydropower environmentalists, has Western Conservatives fuming. Well, as the population rose out West, so did it in Quebec, and more people mean more seats in the Commons. Mere arithmetic. These days, with brains in limited supply, Kenney says Canada still has to bow to what Alberta “wants”, regardless of logic – it’s a freak show, frankly. “What the rest of Canada has to understand about Alberta …” is his favourite opening line.
I fear we are further down the rathole of climate destruction than even the scientists have predicted. The latest identified problem is methane formerly frozen in shallow seas, specifically north of Russia and Sweden and Norway, the Barents Sea. This methane, natural gas, is thawing and bubbling away. The Gulf Stream ends up there if one recalls. I first read about it perhaps a year ago, and now things are really starting to boil over. Very scary indeed.
https://dissidentvoice.org/2019/10/methane-sos/#identifier_0_97473
That’s added to the thawing of permafrost on land in Alaska, the Canadian North and Russian North. It’s just makes you want to get up and have a nice day, doesn’t it? Methane has an order of magnitude greater effect on global warming than CO2, but tends to dissipate with time. Of course, if we get huge releases that hardly matters because it’ll swamp our past experience.
Here at home, so far as I can see and the Anti-Racist Canada blog shows in detail today, Scheer is a nasty piece of work who basically manages to keep his mouth shut on his various faux pas of the past. And the Conservative idea is to get us all under their thumb to berate us for our social policies and lax ways, cut and trim all the “excess” meat in government, in particular spending they seem to think is a venial sin like supporting the less fortunate, and let those of us who can afford it party like Bacchus until one day soon — oops!
There are many who are trying to downplay Greta as a tool of part of the elite who are plotting a way to monetize climate change action and make going Green profitable. I imagine that fits with the paranoid Kenney’s idea that foreigners are trying to ruin his little patch of paradise with global warming “nonsense”, so the Energy Centre will have nutcases working overtime to reassure Albertans that everything is just great, and that they’ve got the foreign propagandists on the run. Frankly, it hardly matters if Greta is being “manipulated” in this way – she obviously doesn’t believe it – and if it means some action takes place to dial things back on the GHG front, we can worry about who’s unduly profiting after some real change occurs.
Still, I remain pessimistic that anything meaningful will happen. The big money cannot stop itself from the dream of infinite growth
Thunberg: “The eyes of all future generations are upon you. And if you choose to fail us, I say – we will never forgive you.” – UN Climate Summit, 2019
Alberta’s delusions collides with scientific reality.
Greta won’t get a warm reception from any of AB’s denialist leaders.
While Jason Kenney takes refuge in his war room, count on the NDP’s Frost Queen to drip with her usual contempt:
Premier Notley: “Here in Alberta, we ride horses — not unicorns — and I invite pipeline opponents to saddle up on something real.” (ATA, 2018)
Premier Notley on the UofA’s decision to award David Suzuki an honorary degree: “Speaking personally as an alumni (sic), I’m not a big fan of this decision. It struck me as being a bit tone deaf.”
“If I’d been on the senate, I wouldn’t have personally voted for it.”
Notley responded likewise to Jane Fonda’s visit in 2017: “Super tone-deaf.”
Notley forbid her NDP sheep from posing for pictures with federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.
Deputy premier Sarah Hoffman: “I recall many times Jagmeet Singh has not been a friend to Albertans, to working people or to our nation when it comes to energy policy.”
“Alberta’s NDP Premier Rachel Notley has all but declared war with federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh.
“In a remarkable interview Friday, Notley criticized her fellow New Democrat as thoughtless, elitist and pretty much an enemy of the working people.
“She was so critical of Singh that at times I had to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t interviewing United Conservative Party Leader Jason Kenney.
“She ridiculed Singh’s opposition to the Trans Mountain pipeline project and literally laughed at his suggestion on how Canada can best wean itself off Saudi Arabian oil.”
“Graham Thomson: Rachel Notley is fed up with fellow NDPer Jagmeet Singh’s anti-pipeline, ‘elitist’ views” (National Post, 2018)
Premier Notley heaped scorn on federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh several times over Trans Mtn:
“To forget that and to throw [working people] under the bus as collateral damage in pursuit of some other high level policy objective is a recipe for failure and it’s also very elitist.”
“To do that and forget the needs of working people, or to throw working people under the bus, means that both economic growth and environmental protection are bound to fail.”
Elitist? In service of Big Oil CEOs, Notley travelled the country, preaching salvation by pipeline to choirs of business elites. In May, Notley hosted a hundred businesspeople who flew into the AB Legislature from BC.
Notley refused to meet with local communities or their representatives in the Lower Mainland to hear their concerns.
The NDP is throwing its friends under Suncor’s driverless trucks — that eliminate hundreds of jobs. About which Notley says nothing, because she is too busy flogging the 90 permanent jobs created by her pet pipeline. (More if it leaks.)
Same treatment for Tzeporah Berman:
Cheryl Oates, Communications Director for the Premier: “We have been clear that when it comes to Alberta’s oilsands, Berman is dead wrong.”
“Asked about Berman’s Tweet, Phillips bluntly replied: ‘I’m really not all that concerned about anything Tzeporah Berman says.'”
“Alberta’s Minister of Education David Eggen: “When it comes to Alberta’s oilsands, Berman is dead wrong.”
Of course, the science supports Berman’s position on climate change, not the NDP’s.
When it comes to educating young Albertans, inconvenient science ranks a distant second to politics and corporate power.
Notley’s oilsands promotion could not be more cretaceous.
Wrong century to support fossil fuels.
Thunberg: “Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago.” – COP24, 2018
Thunberg: “Change is coming, whether you like it or not. ” – Instagram, 2019
The former NDP premier has a solid track record of pandering to the cardinals in Calgary. She proved more than willing to carry the can.
http://www.rave.ca/en/news_info/205137/canada/
https://www.canlii.org/en/ab/abqb/doc/2018/2018abqb324/2018abqb324.html
https://www.cbc.ca/news2/interactives/unproven/
“Non-profit suing CBC for defamation over series of articles”
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/non-profit-suing-cbc-for-defamation-over-series-of-articles/amp
When Jason Kenney and company appear in international publications — the Washington Post, the New York Times and The Guardian to name just a few — it’s usually not the kind of publicity conservative “war room” propagandists would consider beneficial or positive.
Outed in recent days for their political stance on the lack of rights for the LGBTQ community and harsh criticism over their vacuous climate plan to deal with anthropogenic greenhouse gases, you just know Greta Thunberg’s visit to Alberta will be made highly controversial by the UCP, their minions and Postmedia scribes — with just the appropriate mixture of schadenfreude and smear spewing from the PR cauldron of the Canadian Energy Centre to attract international condemnation. Will the UCP ignominy ever end? Answer: Not while Jason Kenney continues to run Alberta into the ground with his harebrained and expensive ideological debacles like the UCP “war room.”
Excellent article on Greta Thunberg in the Guardian (see link below)
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/mar/11/greta-thunberg-schoolgirl-climate-change-warrior-some-people-can-let-things-go-i-cant
Another person salivating for Alberta economy to collapse. Why? Alberta is responsible for less then 1% of global emissions. Oi fug ov. I’m all for new technology and transitions away from fossil fuels but in the mean time please don’t be idiots and ruin people’s lives with such glee over idealism. Yes climate change is real. No we are not all going to be dead in 12 years and people flying pollution spewing aircraft all over the world to talk about it when, hello we have the internet, is ridiculous. Blocking roads in protests so people can’t get to work and causing cars to idle longer then neccesary is stupid and massively hipocritical. Sad to see such a caring young person used by politicians.
Pure gold…..! Go Greta!
I’m looking forward to the Kenney UCPers and who surrounds them, to screw up, yet again. The impression now, for many of us, is that what/who surrounds the Kenney UCP, can say, and do, anything they want, and, think they can get away with it.
Also to mention, I met a young person from Romania the other day, now in Alberta/Canada for seven years, and now, a Canadian citizen. As someone who experienced communism, their comment on the now Alberta government reminds them of a dictatorship. This was said in discussion with a group of Alberta folks with regard to some thought re: populist authoritarianism here. Hopefully, these folks, and many of us, will help jumpstart the rejigging of these disturbing political trends in Alberta and Canada, and, globally.
A young person from Romania could not experience communism. I used to live in the country ruled by communists. If you are making up stories make them believable.
yes pls
Beware the Zombie apocalypse. The virus has already infected the minds of many millennials left wing thinkers and politicians around much of the world.
Some symptoms are, extreme fear and belief of imminent extinction from climate, a loss of all sensibility. Inability to rationalize, belief they can control the earth’s climate and the sun. Seemingly suicidal acts in protest to the human race’s CO2 output. Incapable of wisely handling money with no regard for out of control debt.
No cure or vaccine is yet known
for the virus.
So the problem, in a nutshell, is those slacker millennials and their avocado toast. Good to know
As for the actual situation….nobody is saying we’re all going to die in 12 years…that’s just disingenuous, subversive, lying trolls, like yourself, putting words in people’s mouths. What many are saying is that there is no more time to waste in addressing the crisis at hand, and that every year we wait will make the results that much more horrifically worse. You and people like you, who are fighting a desperate rear-guard action to delay any change, are condemning countless species to extinction and billions of humans, living or soon to be born, to suffering, disease, homelessness, starvation, and death. What do you think would be justice for such a crime?
For those still in climate denial, please consider this headline from today’s Guardian: “Firms ignoring climate crisis will go bankrupt, says Mark Carney”. The article continues: “Companies and industries that are not moving towards zero-carbon emissions will be punished by investors and go bankrupt, the governor of the Bank of England has warned. Mark Carney also told the Guardian it was possible that the global transition needed to tackle the climate crisis could result in an abrupt financial collapse. He said the longer action to reverse emissions was delayed, the more the risk of collapse would grow.”
What a joke, send this squabbling child back to Sweden and back to school.
Insightful comment, great sentence structure. Thanks for sharing. Hope all is well in Three Hills.
This young lady has a far better grip on what is best for this province (and indeed this planet) than those currently running provincial and federal government. She’s got the science on her side and science doesn’t care about whether or not it coincides with your socioeconomic agendas, it is just fact. If it threatens your current world view and approach to resource cultivation and usage, be it in the energy sector, agricultural or otherwise, then you need to adjust your ways because that is the reality of your situation.
Just like when you were a wee child trying to put the triangle shape into the circle hole, it won’t work. You need to adjust your actions to fit the reality, and despite how many tantrums we collectively throw, as much as we do not want this to be fact, it still boils down to correct interpretation of data and adjusting how we do things to work with it.
That is science and that is nowhere to be found in the modern conservative agenda.
Perhaps that is why they are so scared of a 16 year old woman who is punching light through all of the many holes in their flimsy arguments?
How is she funded?Does anybody remember the name of the young boy who led the campaign against plastic straws?
Milo Cress.
No. In the age of the internet, it’s impossible to find out a fact like that before you post in an online forum. Pity.
Prediction 1: these loud-mouthed bullying schnooks will not be able to resist attacking her, with the playbook seen in the opinion pages of the National Pest.
Prediction 2: Most Albertans will cheer them on.
Talk about a biased heading…
You may not have noticed that this is an opinion blog, not a news report. So the biased headlines here are intended to reflect the opinion – the bias, if you insist – of the author. Whereas, the biased headlines on Postmedia stories are intended to deceive readers into thinking they are unbiased. Normally I charge for journalism lessons, but this one is free. DJC