
Greta Thunberg: TIME's Person of the Year 2019 - tambourine_man
https://time.com/person-of-the-year-2019-greta-thunberg/
======
rvz
I'm sure that people here are more than aware that we should certainly do more
to address climate change before we see more emerging catastrophes in the new
decade. By that, the action that should happen must be practical and makes
sense to act upon before those important deadlines. All thanks to the
scientists and activists highlighting this and to Greta + social media for
further amplifying this.

However, while she is deserving of this, I tend to be put off of by her
constant berating and shaming of the accused via her scripted speeches which
really doesn't help changing people's minds especially the 'big bad orange
man' and going off on a 2 week zero carbon trip from Portsmouth to New York to
show its possible, but I'd say for many, it is in-practical for now.

She (and mostly the behind the scenes grown-ups) brought this into the public
agenda rightfully so, but perhaps she could change a lot of minds if she could
change her own approach to raising awareness without being so spiteful towards
everyone (even to the converted and loyal) and without being used by the
extreme climate-change grown ups projecting her catastrophe-like and
scaremongering rhetoric.

One day, if she was able to change the mind of the 'orange man' then she + the
activists should all be deserving of the Nobel Peace Prize.

~~~
duelingjello
The Nobel Peace prize is very political and plays favorites. She already won a
Right Livelihood Award "alternative Nobel prize." I don't think people should
win awards because they have the spotlight but because they got something
done. She may well get something major done, and we sure need it either way...
then I hope she wins every award because she would basically be one of the
literal saviors of the world, like that Russian officer who didn't launch the
nukes.

------
makerofspoons
Well deserved. She has brought the seriousness and gravity of climate change
into the public discourse without the sugar coating and hand waviness
activists have had in the past. The bluntness people criticize her for is
exactly what we need now- world and industry leaders need to be held
accountable.

~~~
leovingi
Which leaders? Please be specific and provide a full list of names.

~~~
makerofspoons
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_heads_of_state...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_current_heads_of_state_and_government)

With the exception of the government of Bhutan, the only carbon-negative
country as of 2019.

~~~
bryanlarsen
That's a pretty high bar; I'd also exclude the countries on track for their
1.5 degree C Paris commitments, Morocco and Gambia. Still a pretty small and
dismal list.

[https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/](https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/)

------
duelingjello
This maybe too political for HN. It's nice to bring attention to a change
agent but the more important part is the issue: there is a climate change
emergency that depends on getting CO2 to 290±10 ppm rapidly. We better mostly
agree that and on taking action or we and most species are all effectively
dead sometime <1000 years.

So, if you had a trillion dollars (less than student debt and less than the
wars in the Middle East) how would you spend it on remediation?

0\. Bio carbon capture & sequestration (CCS)

Some ideas:

\- ferrous oceanic seeding of phytoplankton - only small amounts needed (See
IRONEX I)

\- Kelp farming + underground sequestration - there's an absolutely massive
kelp forest between Mexico and Africa, and thousands of tons wash-up on
Mexico's beaches daily

1\. Solar radiation management (SRM)

\- numerous ideas:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_radiation_management](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_radiation_management)

And please don't say planting trees because it doesn't scale well [i] and they
aren't a permanent sequestration solution. More trees + increasing wildfires =
more soot falling on glaciers = faster melting glaciers = more sea level rise
= a really bad idea.

i. [https://youtu.be/Z5uuIcS4kqE](https://youtu.be/Z5uuIcS4kqE)

~~~
voisin
How about simply altering the way we now farm industrially so that we can trap
carbon in the soil? See permaculture and biointensive farming practices.

~~~
brodouevencode
Regenerative agriculture is the term I keep seeing thrown around a lot - do
you happen to know how it's different than these?

~~~
voisin
Unfortunately I am not familiar with that term. Sorry!

------
djschnei
Didn't the HK protestors win the online poll? Was that not legitimate?

~~~
Gwypaas
And in 2009 the winner was Moot from 4chan with the order spelling out "Marble
Cakes also the game".

[https://techcrunch.com/2009/04/27/time-magazine-throws-up-
it...](https://techcrunch.com/2009/04/27/time-magazine-throws-up-its-hands-as-
it-gets-pwned-by-4chan/)

~~~
Jamwinner
I would argue Moot had more sociatal impact than many 'legit' winners did.
Good or bad, I will leave up to the reader.

------
natecavanaugh
I'm actually a little surprised by the general praise of this move here on HN,
if only because I don't see what, if any impact she has had on either climate
change, or climate change awareness. If anything, she's only contributed to
the overall polarization of these topic. Most people I know don't find her
engaging or interesting in any way, but rather grating, petulant, and full of
childish arrogance. At least that sense to be the tone that's constantly
reviled on social media along political lines.

If she somehow found a way to inspire change from both parties working in
unison, then I'd get it. But these sorts of popularity contests are usually
unimportant, but personally, I think it should've gone to the HK protestors.
That at least is an interesting story, and is bringing forth discussions
around China's influence on American businesses, as well as the general
struggle in China for political freedom.

------
mempko
Amazing that HN flagged this one but not previous Time's Person of the Year
posts.

------
lewisflude
Well deserved! I'm interested to see what the fallout from this will be, as
climate change has ultimately become a politically divisive topic.

------
unraveller
This fashion of photographing a person from the "frog perspective" seems to be
very much a part of the desire to spread anxiety. Rappers in the 90's used to
punch down at a camera pointed up from the ground and I guess it means to
subliminally elevate the figure and imply that the audience is lower than the
"authority" figure up shot.

~~~
lm28469
I mean, if you don't "elevate" the "Person of the year" with a slight low
angle shot idk when you'll do it... Why wouldn't you want to elevate someone
trying to better the world ?

------
Fjolsvith
She brought 'Flying Shame' to the US in a solar powered sailboat:

[https://www.wsj.com/articles/flight-shame-comes-to-the-u-
s-v...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/flight-shame-comes-to-the-u-s-via-
sailboat-11567162801)

And then had her crew fly across the Atlantic to bring the boat home:

[https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7365909/Greta-
Thunb...](https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7365909/Greta-Thunbergs-
Atlantic-trip-zero-carbon-yacht-generate-emissions-saves.html)

~~~
lm28469
What are you trying to imply ? It's not like one person faults/hypocrisy
somehow invalidate science.

~~~
Fjolsvith
I was pointing out that Time selected someone who had such faults and
hypocrisy. She's in good company with MLK, Clinton, Hitler, Stalin, Krushchev,
and Khomeini. [1]

1\.
[http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/...](http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,2019712,00.html)

------
thepangolino
The true climat crisis is how people worry about the weather of tomorrow
ignoring the real issue of the people’s comfort of living.

We are no longer cavemen looking for shelter. Look at the Netherlands, half
their country has been reclaimed from the sea. Look at China during their
Olympics. They literally made it rain over the suburbs in order to keep the
skies clear above stadiums.

The climate and the planet will be alright. People are gonna suffer from this
moral panic.

~~~
saiya-jin
> ignoring the real issue of the people’s comfort of living

I am sorry to disturb your comfortable life (you comment here so like it or
not, its true), but some of us see the drain the planet and living beings on
it go down, and it ain't pretty and will get worse, much worse.

Maybe if a billion of climate refugees will arrive knocking on your country's
door begging for survival, you may reconsider your opinions. Some of us prefer
earlier actions, not only because of that.

~~~
duelingjello
_It 's difficult to get a man to reduce his carbon emissions when his air
conditioning, daily Big Mac, bitcoin miner rig, long solo commute in a
Cadillac Escalade and weekly jet-setting depends on his not understanding it._
\- Upton Sinclair also said this ;)

