Greta & the childrens crusade: it's over

We all saw Greta in action back in 2019-20 and – promoted by whatever adult agency was lurking in the background – how she captured attention and captivated gullible politicians; and how the ‘Greta phenomenon’ briefly led children out of the classroom, to stamp their feet a bit in public and demand that the grown-ups do, errrr, something.  Now, it seems, that’s all over; and leftie-greens are, as so often, left to puzzle over how the Revolution didn’t quite happen – again.  Here’s a convoluted piece from the Grauniad, Where have all the young climate activists gone? which offers the thesis that they have gone quiet because they want to avoid being coopted for ‘youth-washing’ by nasty politicians and corporations.  (That’s ‘youth-washing’ as in greenwashing, not as in … and get yer bloody hair cut!, much as though some of them need a bath.)  Oh, and they realised they were distracting the world from the plight of the Global South, and other piteous gems: 

… climate politics was awash with ideas around children, the future, and intergenerational justice … For a time, it seemed that a climate movement was emerging in which children acted simultaneously as the spark, inspiration and energy. This wave seemed unstoppable. But that moment has passed. [Now] media focus and activists themselves are placing less emphasis on age; it is often incidental, and less central to activists’ strategy … a critical repositioning in parts of the UK climate movement, recognising climate breakdown is not a future issue, but a devastating present reality … world leaders and corporations were “youth-washing” by co-opting child climate activists  -  inviting them on to platforms and into private meetings to burnish their own images; but their demands – from urging for financing for loss and damage, an end to the racist Home Office or an end to capitalism itself  -  were not heard …

(An end to capitalism itself?  Surely not!)  Finally, avoiding the obvious possibility that it was all a fad, the piece concludes by clutching at straws: 

It’s a good thing that young activists are now viewed less as angelic saviours, and more as political actors in their own right.

So that’s alright.  It also cites an earlier piece of detailed navel-gazing by the earnest folk at Novara media – who naturally offer a convoluted leftie analysis; but at least they also have the intelligence and self-awareness to recognise that the sheer nastiness of ‘progressive’ politics had a role to play in causing the whole thing to fizzle out.

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Longtime C@W readers will know my 30,000-ft view on this.  In the real world, Peak Greta might be thought to have happened in mid 2019 when for example the desperate Theresa May strikingly committed the UK to ‘Net Zero by 2050′, way ahead of the pack, causing some people to credit Greta with this result.  But actually, the tectonic plates really shifted at the end of 2018 (when Greta hadn’t yet got much further than her truant picket line in Sweden), when a key UN committee backed ‘adaptation’ and ‘resilience’ to climate change as being officially Green.   At this point, every traditional steel-n-concrete industry on the planet realised that instead of non-stop opprobrium and decline, there could be plentiful government-underwritten contracts in this for them, too!  The banks weren’t slow to draw the same conclusion and Bingo!  Net zero carbon quickly became the only game in town.  Nothing to do with Greta, except that the timing looked like she might have had something to do with it.  But correlation doesn’t mean causation, eh?

And now Putin has de-railed much of this, at least for the time being.  Hell, lignite-burning is coming back into fashion!   And the armaments industries. 

None of it looks like a youth movement now.  Where will all that enthusiasm and energy find an outlet?   I guess we will have to wait and find out.  Can’t see them all joining the Young Conservatives though, Boris.

ND