This was so predictable:
.@GretaThunberg is TIME's 2019 Person of the Year #TIMEPOY https://t.co/YZ7U6Up76v pic.twitter.com/SWALBfeGl6
— TIME (@TIME) December 11, 2019
And here’s the opening paragraph (emphasis ours) where TIME met with Greta before she set sail from America to Portugal:
Greta Thunberg sits in silence in the cabin of the boat that will take her across the Atlantic Ocean. Inside, there’s a cow skull hanging on the wall, a faded globe, a child’s yellow raincoat. Outside, it’s a tempest: rain pelts the boat, ice coats the decks, and the sea batters the vessel that will take this slight girl, her father and a few companions from Virginia to Portugal. For a moment, it’s as if Thunberg were the eye of a hurricane, a pool of resolve at the center of swirling chaos. In here, she speaks quietly. Out there, the entire natural world seems to amplify her small voice, screaming along with her.
“We can’t just continue living as if there was no tomorrow, because there is a tomorrow,” she says, tugging on the sleeve of her blue sweatshirt. “That is all we are saying.”
Weird. TIME — for some inexplicable reason — left out the part where the YouTubers flew in a captain which is the only reason Greta was able to complete this stunt in the first place:
VIP CONTENT ==> The YouTubers sailing Greta Thunberg across the Atlantic FLEW IN A CAPTAIN for the trip https://t.co/SWwE5ievqu
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 3, 2019
So we’re to believe that the message that her travel does not actually save any CO2 is somehow still important? No thanks:
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"@GretaThunberg wanted to sail because it's a good way to send a message to the world that there is no real sustainable option to travel.
"She's not telling anyone how to travel, she's not telling anyone how to live their life."https://t.co/cc6U21Fem3
— BBC Newsbeat (@BBCNewsbeat) December 4, 2019
And, actually, she IS telling people how to live their lives. Which is why TIME bragged about her no-flying pledge is actually changing consumer behavior:
At the individual level, ordinary people are following Thunberg’s example. In Sweden, flying is increasingly seen as a wasteful emission of carbon—a change of attitude captured by a new word: flygskam, meaning “flight-shame.” There was an 8% drop in domestic flights between January and April according to Swedavia, which runs the nation’s airports, and Interrail ticket sales have tripled over the past two years. More than 19,000 people have signed a pledge swearing off air travel in 2020, and the German railway operator Deutsche Bahn reported a record number of passengers using its long-distance rail in the first six months of 2019. Swiss and Austrian railway operators also saw upticks on their night train services this year.
The Greta effect may be growing, but Thunberg herself remains unmoved. “One person stops flying doesn’t make much difference,” she says. “The thing we should look at is the emissions curve—it’s still rising. Of course something is happening, but basically nothing is happening.”
Anyway, she’s now turned on nations that actually say they believe climate change is a problem, so this will end well:
"This is not leading, this is misleading"@GretaThunberg accuses countries of misleading people with seemingly "impressive" climate pledges, adding the COP25 summit has become an opportunity "to negotiate loopholes and avoid raising their ambition"https://t.co/xId8XkR1Nc pic.twitter.com/3USpLJPXZu
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) December 11, 2019
Maybe now that TIME is killing all these trees to put her on the cover something will be done?
"Almost nothing is being done:" Activist Greta Thunberg tells nations at a UN conference that they need to stop looking for loopholes in climate rules and step up their fight against global warming. https://t.co/J9WjMhLz5C
— AP Europe (@AP_Europe) December 11, 2019
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Related:
Greta Thunberg says she’s be striking for over a year ‘and still basically nothing has happened’ https://t.co/RRdlNf4aLK
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) December 7, 2019
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