Greta Issues Latest Demands

By Paul Homewood

 

h/t Robin Guenier

 

Greta and her chums have issued their latest demands:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/16/pandemic-shows-climate-has-never-been-treated-as-crisis-say-scientists

 

 

The letter to EU leaders comes from Greta and three other school strike leaders from Belgium and Germany, and contains the usual nonsense:

 

https://climateemergencyeu.org/#letter

But perhaps what is most is most significant is that it is only addressed to EU leaders, and no other countries. The EU  accounts for less than a fifth of worldwide emissions, so even eliminating emissions completely would only have a negligible effect.

The letter refers to the Paris Agreement:

When you signed the Paris Agreement the EU nations committed to leading the way. The EU has the economic and political possibility to do so, therefore it is our moral responsibility. And now you need to actually deliver on your promises.

In fact the EU is delivering on its pledge to cut emissions. The reality is that most of the rest of the world got away without any cuts at all, as the letter admits:

If all countries were to actually go through with the emission reductions they have set as goals, we would still be heading for a catastrophic global temperature rise of at least 3-4°C

Obviously “leading the way” made no difference at all.

 

As the list of demands makes clear, this all goes well beyond cutting down on fossil fuels and replacement with renewables:

Net zero emissions by 2050 for the EU – as well as for other financially fortunate parts of the world – equals surrender. This target is based on a carbon budget that only gives a 50% percent chance of limiting the global heating below 1.5°C. That is just a statistical flip of a coin which doesn’t even include some of the key factors, such as the global aspect of equity, most tipping points and feedback loops, as well as already built in additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution. So in reality it is much less than a 50% chance…..

The world’s planned fossil fuel production by the year 2030 accounts for 120% more than what would be consistent with the 1.5° target. It just doesn’t add up.
When you read the IPCC SR1.5 Report and the UNEP Production Gap Report, as well as what you have actually signed up for in the Paris Agreement, even a child can see that the climate and ecological crisis cannot be solved within today’s system.

What Greta and her pals want is to completely replace the West’s economic system:

Of course we welcome sustainable investments and policies, but you must not for one second believe that ​what you have discussed so far will be even close to enough. We need to face the full picture. We are facing an existential crisis, and this is a crisis that we can not buy, build, or invest our way out of. ​Aiming to ‘recover’ an economic system that inherently fuels the climate crisis in order to finance climate action is just as absurd as it sounds. Our current system is not ‘broken’ – the system is doing exactly what it’s supposed and designed to be doing. It can no longer be ‘fixed’. We need a new system.

The letter is signed by the usual collection of hypocrites and charlatans. Names like Leo di Caprio, Emma Thompson, Michael Mann and Hans Joachim Schellnhuber tell you all you need to know.

One of the Greta’s co-writers, Luisa Neubauer, 24, a central figure in Germany’s school strikes movement, said young people were becoming increasingly frustrated with politicians.

“We are asking our leaders to take care of the most fundamental thing: the safety of us, the safety of people around the world, the safety of our futures,” Neubauer said. “It is worrying on a democratic level when you ask for such substantial things, which seem so obvious, and yet you see how leaders are widely ignoring it, or not considering it to be as important as other things.”

She must have a strange idea of democracy, if she thinks governments should ignore the votes of millions, and instead kowtow to a tiny group of eco-loons!