This week, anyone with a social media account has been subject to an on slot of news about Greta Thunberg, the Swedish 16-year-old climate change activist who went to New York to protest climate change and made a passionate speech to world leaders in which she said, “How dare you!”
Having world leaders schooled by an adolescent girl seems to be a must these days. Five years ago, Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist and terrorism victim, won the Nobel Peace Prize with her passionate speeches on the education of young women. Unlike Greta who is only now taking her first steps in superstardom, we can already evaluate the consequences of Malala’s speeches and her organization, the Malala Fund. According to CEIC from 2015, when Malala started her campaign, to 2016, the last recorded data the number of female students doing primary school in Pakistan actually decreased from 3,343,895.000 to 3,040,280.000
But why bother with the numbers when you can have a young girl preach to politicians and to our guilty first world consciences? God forbid you criticize Malala and Greta! You won’t be “woke”. And that’s not good. That’s worse than keeping a girl from going to school or taking down a forest. After all, they are young girls, a symbol of purity and of innocence. They can atone for the sins of the world. Who needs to recycle or vote for a politician who makes climate a priority when you can put a "like" on a Facebook post about Greta? Why boycott Pakistan when you can hear Malala speak about the beauty of the Swat valley?
Like sacrificial lambs, these girls wash away our sins and at the same time keep us from doing anything about them. No one wonders why we need a Swedish adolescent to remind us of what we know, because she is a symbol of “wokeness” and of the impending destruction upon us in which hype is more important than substance. How dare politicians do nothing about climate change, she asks?
Because the people who put “likes” on Greta’s speeches don’t elect better politicians who can do more than beautiful speeches – a better planet.