Greta Thunberg Seeing Donald Trump At UN: More Carrie Or Firestarter?

Why not both?

The hot new gif on the Twitters today shows the 16-year-old climate activist Greta Thunberg appearing to scowl at Donald Trump as he arrived at the UN's Climate Summit.

We are all Greta Thunberg. https: //t.co/dEyjsfTOJE

— Greg Hogben (@Greg Hogben) 1569254105.0 

Obviously, Yr Wonkette will now Zapruder the fuck out of this.

Sky News has a version of the video clip here, complete with slow-mo of the scowl; we also found this longer clip from German TV, where Greta is more of a footnote:

23.09.2019 - Statement Donald Trump / Greta Thunberg - UN-Klimagipfel / Climate Action Summit 2019    youtu.be 

Was Greta scowling at Trump out of loathing? That seems reasonable enough, seeing as how he's loathsome and all, and when he's not dismissing it as a hoax, doesn't even seem to know what climate change is -- Trump talks about "clean air" as if people were upset about smog.

Then again, in the longer clip above, Thunberg looks solemn and over it from the get-go; she's not really a big fan of photo ops, or of people fawning over her, or any of that stuff. She readily acknowledges that as someone on the spectrum, she doesn't have a lot of time for grinning politely. If it's not about what we're going to do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to prevent runaway global warming, she doesn't have a lot of use for it.

We aren't saying you shouldn't ignore pissed-face Greta, not at all. But we should also be damned well sure we listen to her, as well, since she's just putting one 16-year-old face to what the scientists are saying: We're in trouble. And we made it this way. If we don't change things, people Greta's age will live in a far worse world. Actually, they already will. But we can decide how much worse her future will be.

Greta Thunberg at #UNGA: "This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be in school on the other side of the… https://t.co/w8sMEg9HOt

— Kyle Griffin (@Kyle Griffin) 1569251450.0 

Asking world leaders, "How dare you?" Thunberg rejected the notion that children's climate activism is cute, or even hopeful. It's desperate, because the times are:

This is all wrong. I shouldn't be up here. I should be in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet you come to us young people for hope. How dare you. You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I'm one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing.

We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money, and fairy tales of eternal economic growth.

You grownups are supposed to be the smart ones. Why are you acting so badly, then, she'd like to know:

You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency. But no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act, then you would be evil. And that I refuse to believe.

So sure, enjoy the pixels of Greta Thunberg glaring at Donald Trump. Crom knows he deserves to be glared at, and impeached. And remembered as a monster.

But we're all accused of not doing enough to stop our species' continued fouling of the nest. Greta's not only glaring at Donald Trump. And we deserve it. Maybe we should do better.

[ NPR / Sky News ]

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