An open letter to men of a certain age: do you find Greta Thunberg annoying? Good.

Some people find Greta Thunberg annoying, particularly men of a certain age who are skeptical about the climate emergency. If you are a man born before the 1980s, that’s not your fault: so was I, and here I am, trying to get to grips with the world around me. And if you’re skeptical about the climate emergency, you’re behaving like an IDIOT, but at least that’s something you can change. So listen up.

First, take the time to read up on the subject. Understand that your “position”, the one you’ve been boring your family with every year at the Christmas dinner table, contradicts the findings of 99% of the scientific community, which can’t be bothered to argue with you, because it doesn’t need to: they have data, mathematical models you would never understand, along with exhaustively checked research papers. Dude, do you really think you’re seeing something they’ve missed?

Second, Greta is a 16-year-old Swedish girl who long ago grew tired of the nonsense being peddled by her government — and the rest of the world’s governments — about the climate emergency, and instead decided to act. Her parents are supporting her, because children’s rights are taken very seriously in Sweden (which may seem like an aberration to you, but the Swedish education system is way ahead of those of most other nations), and they decided their daughter was mature enough to think for herself, and decided to support her. And while you’re at it, you can park your moral superiority about Greta: Asperger’s is not a disease, it’s a syndrome suffered by many people, in many cases undiagnosed, possibly including some of your friends and family. Asperger’s often means an ability to focus more fully and efficiently on a given topic, so in a sense, Greta is superior to you.

Third. Greta, with the movement she has created, with her speeches, her actions and her travels, has already done more to raise awareness about the climate emergency than all the politicians in the world together. She deserves a place in the history books. Greta knows that all those promises by politicians and businessmen to decarbonize by 2050 are nonsense, and that in reality, what we do in 2050, when she will be 46 years old, will make no difference, because by then you will be lucky to be alive.

Let’s face it: Greta’s is the only valid view of the climate emergency: COP25 is a farce and very few of those attending it understood or care. The only proper response to the climate emergency now would be what I call it climate nihilism, a rejection of every contextual principle in the current economic system. Forget the economy, creating wealth, or social justice: we are way beyond the impact of closing factories or job losses, no measure is too drastic to stop the climate emergency. Decarbonization is a technological problem, and we have to apply all available technology to it, whatever the cost, which means closing every factory we have to close (now, not in 2040), and isolating those countries not prepared to engage and do something to be part of the solution.

Men of a certain age also fear Greta because she has become the visible head of an increasingly large and radicalized movement and what’s more, she refuses to fly. But the more that movement grows and the more radical it becomes, the better for everyone, because even if you don’t or won’t understand it… your survival depends on it. Greta doesn’t care what you think of her, because she knows that if we don’t act now to address the climate emergency, in a few years, nothing will matter anyway.

As long as you believe that the only thing that matters in the world is holding on to your standard of living, your “right” to use your car, or your country’s GDP, Greta will continue to annoy you. The problem is that Greta, and all the other Gretas, are going to keep on reminding you that we can’t put off decarbonizing until the middle of the century. There will be more and more Gretas, and they will boycott your company’s products, they will demonstrate outside your house, they will keep on protesting.

But you know why you really find Greta so annoying? Because in your heart of hearts, you know she’s right.

(En espa?ol, aquí)

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