Environment Monday - If Greta Thunberg was a bloke she wouldn't get all this nonsense

I was pretty busy yesterday, hence didn't have time to post my scheduled Environment Monday blog. I thought the Thomas Cook story was more important and needed the focus. As a result I rescheduled the blog I'd been working on for next Monday. I hadn't intended to write anything on the subject this week. I had to pick my daughter up yesterday and when when we returned, I watched News at Ten. There was a small piece on Greta Thunberg addressing the United Nations. I thought to myself "Wow, that is a pretty powerful speech for a sixteen year old". I thought back to myself at that age. How would I have been able to deal with addressing the great and good? I had nothing but admiration for her gumption and passion. It was the biggest moment of her life and she got on global news. She has become the face of the campaign to reverse climate change.

“Right here, right now is where we draw the line. The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.”
My full speech in United Nations General Assembly. #howdareyou https://t.co/eKZXDqTAcP

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) September 23, 2019

I have no illusions about how hard it must be for her. When I was sixteen, I had strong views about many things. I joined CND, I joined Friends of The Earth and  I formed a band to get my points across. It took us 18 months before our first gig and I was terrified when I played in front of 100 mates. It was so terrifying that our lead singer, who I'd founded the band with bottled it and didn't show up. Greta wasn't playing to 100 mates. She was playing to the whole world and some of the most powerful people in the world were watching her. The stress I had if the gig went wrong was that a few mates would think I was a plonker. She had the hopes of a billion young people on her shoulders.  I can only imagine how hard that was and if she was a bit emotional, it is understandable. A few  years ago, I went on a business trip to India. It is not only teenagers who are affected by ssuch stress. One of my colleagues had to give a presentation to the board of the large multi national company we were seeing. He had a panic attack, left the room and said to me "you do it". This was a man with decades of industry experience. Make no mistake, it isn't easy. She did amazingly well.

I wanted to see more, so I did what I always do. I went on Twitter to find a link. I mistakenly put in Greta Thunberg and was disgusted to see a complete torrent of bile. Sadly, the vast majority of it comes from the demopgraphic I sit in, white men of a certain age. I was ashamed. What's worse was that it was sexist, demeaning and patronising. I was so sickened that I was prompted to post a tweet myself.

I was impressed with @GretaThunberg speaking at UN. For all the nasty trolls criticising her, wtf had you done at that age? What was the most important audience you’d addressed? What have you done to make the world a better place? Crawl back under your stones

— Roger Tichborne/RogT #CTID 🏴‍☠️🇬🇧 (@Barneteye) September 23, 2019

It seems that a lot of people agreed with me. All manner of strangers have liked it and retweeted it and it has had a massive response. Given her age, not only do I think the response has been a form of bullying, I think it verges on child abuse. I am not at all surprised that people with criminal records for such things have jumped on this bandwagon.

The sad truth is that if Greta Thunberg was a young man, she'd have to put up with none of this. Sure, she'd have to put up with people attacking her arguments, but not for all of the sexism and patronising comments. I am proud of Greta Thunberg. As the father of two adult daughters, I want a world where women are judged by what they have to say, not by their lack of a penis, their looks and the colour of their hair. To me it is criminal that Twitter allows such hate. I hope that by the time Greta Thunberg is my age, such sexism will be seen as a thing of historical oddity, rather like the way women could not vote was in the earlier part of the last century. As a society, we need to grow up. If you look at Greta and see anything other than someone who you should admire, even if you disagree with her, then it is you that has a problem, not her. As I said in my tweet, what have you done to make the world a better place. If you can't answer that positively, STFU.