I like publicity stunts as much as the next activist. But haven’t we had enough of the whole Greta Thunberg bit yet?
On Wednesday, the 16-year-old Swede provided testimony on an apt stage, let us grant her that — the U.S. House of Representatives’ foreign affairs subcommittee joint hearing on the global youth climate change movement.
She didn’t prepare any remarks, though. She merely “attached” the IPCC Special Report on Global Warming “as her testimony.” Her rationale? “I don’t want you to listen to me, I want you to listen to the scientists.” And “to unite behind science.”
You know, for “real action.”
It was what happened right after she demanded “real action,” though, where the stark reality of the situation became clear: a grown man in a suit, elected to Congress, asked, “Could you expand on why it’s so important to listen to the science?”
And then the non-scientist spoke … not very expansively.
Forget that science qua science isn’t to be “listened to,” it is to be engaged in, with conjectures, research and refutations. (There was nothing like that at the hearing.) Forget also that the science is increasingly less clear on the severity of what warming we see. Remember only that an elected official used a girl to imbue a text (the IPCC report) with moral legitimacy, dubbing it “best available ‘united science’” — the better to push an unargued-for massive coercive government intervention into the life of our civilization.
Is no adult in the room ashamed of what they are doing … exploiting a cute youngster to subvert rationality?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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3 replies on “Listen to the Warm”
Seriously skeptical that a 9 year old, particularly this one, is going to have anything useful to say to Congress.
Reminds me of the Paul Simon song about One Trick Pony.
Spending time on this by Congress is abuse of office. Suggests a lack of accountability and serious lack of utility from the recall process.
9?
Get your head out of the sand and look around1