Recently I’ve been seeing more and more commentary around the web calling Greta Thunberg “misguided”. Seeing how ridiculously busy my past year has been, I knew far less about Greta Thunberg and her message than I would have liked. When I read people saying she was misguided, my first thought [probably the bias of my background] was that perhaps she’s making claims that are not scientifically sound. However after spending a bit of time listening to what she has to say, so far I’ve not heard anything that doesn’t match the science and the facts. So then I wondered, why all the harsh judgement?

That’s when I realised people have a problem with her approach. She’s loud, bold, and panic inducing. She says what no one wants to hear, and she doesn’t sugarcoat the situation. She is slapping our collective faces real hard, and for a lot of people, especially the politician type, this is just not something they enjoy. And since her facts can’t be questioned, her approach and persona receive all the assault.

And then more recently I’ve been seeing increasing attempts at character assassination in the form of absurd nonsense like this.

When I saw this thing yesterday, I finally lost my cool….. why? Really? Must you? Why are we so quick to turn off our bloody brains? This comparison is like trying to make a case against water because oxygen is more important.  These two young people are each doing something very important, very necessary, and very different from each other. But on the other hand there’s an almost symbiotic relationship between what they’re doing, that whoever came up with this shortsighted  infographic isn’t taking into account at all.

Boyan Slat has come up with a solution for an incredibly large problem. He’s doing something amazing to save our oceans. And yes, it’s definitely a problem how little attention he’s receiving, it’s bloody embarrassing. In fact he’s one of the several scientists / technologists who are doing a lot for the environment, without receiving proper recognition for their work. And is that a surprise? There’s a growing list of environmental concerns and quite a few of these are by now getting completely out of hand, and our human society still acts like these are imaginary issues that are never going to touch our lives. We are acting like the problems don’t exist, is it any wonder we’re ignoring the people trying to solve them?

And this, my dear people who are calling Greta “misguided”, is why we bloody well need people like her! We are slumbering, and she is the WAKE UP CALL!! Boyan Slat is changing a world that is in deep deep trouble, and we are not paying attention to any side of that equation. Then when Greta calls us out for it, we call her misguided? What the hell people? If this was still some 200 years ago and we had time for niceties and refinements of speech, then maybe there would be a little bit of point in saying panic wouldn’t help. But holy hell, our sodding house is ON FIRE!! It’s time for panic like it’s never been before! Issues like climate change, deforestation, soil pollution etc, are no longer future concerns! Our very generation is already grappling, and soon will grapple much worse, with the consequences of all of these! And then you fault Greta Thunberg for panicking? My god, at this point if you’re not panicking you’re simply out of touch.

Boyan Slat is creating solutions, but that’s not enough. We need a lot more Boyan Slats. We need a lot more of a spotlight on the environmental issues, which requires a lot more awareness in our human society. We need to be woken up and educated. That’s what Greta Thunberg and people like her are trying to do, so don’t you dare question the importance of their work. If you think Greta Thunberg is “misguided” for trying to get us to panic, maybe you need to wake up and smell the bloody coffee.