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Discerning the Many Meanings of Greta Thunberg and Climate Change
Greta Thunberg is a lightning rod. Everyone who pays attention to world events has an opinion about the Swedish teenager who, in the past two years,vaulted into the public eye due to her outspoken stance on climate change.
This essay is my attempt to break down my own sometimes conflicting, complicated feelings about her. And hopefully help you with yours.
To really dig in, though, I ask a favor: Let’s give each other some space and opportunity to explore these topics. Much of the pushback I’ve gotten in the past few years on social and political issues often comes from former allies because I am a person who likes to ask questions, I like to dig deep and I tend to distrust mass media narratives. In fact, I tend to require a lot of introspection as well as open, honest conversation with people who have various perspectives to really develop my sense of understanding.
Unfortunately, it seems that the climate change discussion has become such a hot button issue and caused so many strong emotional reactions that we are having trouble having these conversations. While I’ve been an environmentalist for decades now and have felt my own frustration about the slow pace of addressing the issues, I don’t buy into time lines that say we’ve got only a set amount of time before we act. Such…
