The "save the climate" movement is the most powerful but also dangerous movement because it is backed broadly by the "intelligentsia". It is so dangerous because climate change is used by the intelligentsia not only for business but these days more to show off moral and intellectual superiority. One has to go back for a very long time in human history where fortuntelling had such a huge impact on everyday life. Back then the times where bad and they will be bad again for the people.
Greta was of course right but with some littel distinction: "Climate change is coming, whether you like it or not." We know it for over hundred years that at the end of this warming cycle bananas will grow in Europe - wheater you like it or not!
Politicians and their intelligentsia all over the world seem to be eager to play god and save the human race. What a task. Neither the Pope nor the most powerful King could "accomplish" it in past centuries. But today with "democratic" parliaments we think the elite can do it and more important, it can do it the humane way. The elite will concentrate the power, which is already very concentrated in the hands of a few, even more. Democracy is no guarantee for a peaceful life anymore. Even the biggest King would be astound what power a "democratic" President has already today. Not to mention what power he will have in the future. Every King would go green with envy.
The human race is dancing on a knives edge because of the climate apostles and if it goes bad we will lose no less than our freedom and democracy. History has shown that neither science nor the elite or politicians were very keen in protecting human freedom. In every case politics, the cultural (moral) elite and the "aristocracy" have joined forces to oppress the people. There is no difference today. It was always of "good intentions", for the better of all and this would justify even the most cruel terror against the own people.
It is the irony of history that the people who want to "save" the human race almost exterminated it. Of course for some climate activists this would be a very good collateral damage. But it may also strike themself.
What has Greta done? Nothing (she hasn't even finished school)! It is symptomatic for such times that people who sit around and do nothing are respected the most from our society. Thanks to mass media, of course. And this is dangerous. People are fed up with all that hysteria and that's why they are quiet. They hope it will vanish and all will be good at the end. So they will tolerate the oppression and hope that one day it can be turned around. Unfortunately they forget the fanatics - they will march to the bitter end.
About the climate hysteria I can only quote Schiller: "We want to be free, as our fathers were, and rather die than live in slavery." But many people think different today. The end goal justifies even slavery.

The auther seems to "forget" to mention that the radical group Extinction Rebellion wants to exterminate the human race to "save" the planet! It is very likely that any sort of civil disobedience will therefore change into a radical movement were those people will be judge and hangman in one.
BTW those "intelligent" people seem not to know how a mega city like London or New York gets fed. They seem not to know that 12 mio. people can't be fed by some urban gardens. There are thousend of tons of food that have to be transported from the country side into the city and waste out of it! After three days of blocking the roads also the most stupid urban activist will notice that he will soon starve to death or die of plague.

Ain't that the truth: a speech entirely free of guile, based only on fact and forceful beyond anything one could ever have imagined from such a young person. Best short (or long) speech I have ever heard.

Mr. Singer’s statement that he has never heard a more powerful four minute speech might be true. Either because he has not heard that many speeches at all of any length or because most speeches, powerful or not are not four minutes long, either they are three minute, five or twenty, who knows. I read once that the Gettysburg Address was under three minutes, for example.
Barring the above word gimmick, I find appalling, though not unique, that thinkers one expect to be honest, if not out of courage, simply due to their insulation from the risk of hunger, cold or violence, contribute spread confusion. “People are dying”, she says. Are more people dying today from global warming or from lack of electricity?
Miss Thumberg probably would have trouble getting hired in Hollywood if her acting and reciting are always as poor as displayed in the referenced four minute speech. But if many appear to be piling on her, the real issue is the damage to the truth that is done by people like Mr. Singer.
Maybe I am being unfair because I have known Asperger from up close, but it is beyond me that anyone can really believe a 15 year old person with no experience and a condition that makes for a short attention span is managing the enterprise of traveling the world, meeting leaders, marketing online and offline and writing touching speeches. Before the age of the internet, such charades would only appear in youth oriented books or movies. I have no doubt others plan and execute and pull the strings.
As for comparing Gandhi’s struggle to individuals whose CO2 footprint includes dumping their perfectly good phones every year and their perfectly good sweaters every time their influencer tells them to, the disingenuousness leaves me aghast.
Human action and development comes at the expense of other species undoubtedly. We eat, get warm and lay waste, just like any other species, but we seem to do it so successfully that we are crowding out the rest. From the warmth of the Princeton faculty lunchroom, it may seem this is a really bad thing, but maybe not so much from the viewpoint of those who have known the stench of rotting human flesh during famine or have bled from pushing a plow by hand.
We may have come to a point where our elbows are rubbing too close and we may be as a species chewing more grass than our pastures afford. Management of our limited real estate is clearly subject to the tragedy of the commons and rational coordination can make us all better.
As with all large scale human negotiations though, complexity is hard and special interests taint everyone’s opinions without exception. Resorting to violence or deception is to be expected. Individuals or small groups will often take the Attila view and not hesitate to pursue a small benefit even when it inflicts an enormous damage on the collective.
That can apply to the small thug who will irradiate half a continent around Chernobyl to advance his career or to protect his weekend dacha near Moscow or to the oil executive who skimps on platform maintenance in the Gulf of Mexico but also to the loose brotherhood of intellectual and entrepreneurs who will take many freedoms and opportunities away from people all over the world while pushing an agenda that benefits them though may inflict on humanity far more harm in the short and long term.
Green entrepreneurs are likely as old as fossil fuel executives and it is cheap trick for the former to have their children accuse the latter of not to care since they will not be here to face the consequences of their actions. Achieving the best compromise between raising the welfare of less fortunate people, letting Swedish teenagers shop a bit on Zara and Apple Stores and keeping our planet reasonably sustainable requires rational discussion, not hysteria.

Greta Thunberg was reprimanding the representatives of people assembled at the UN for thinking about stupid “economic growth” when we all are apparently facing mass extinction. Says Greta Thunberg of Sweden. Maybe her audience should’ve included people from places like South Sudan, DRC, Chad and Ethiopia, who get by with about USD 250 per head a year and mock them for thinking about stupid economic growth when the world is going to freaking end. What’s her solution for them? We are keen to listen.

Civil obedience is fashionable in Western democracies. But democracy is imperiled when the minority does not accept rule by the majority for the elector chosen period of Government. The risk is Tyranny by the Majority (John Stuart Mill). In this respect Peter Singer is on orthodox ground. When he meddles in climate change/global warming he is venturing out of philosophy into the politics of fear and hysteria. Why does he do it?

What word is conspicuously missing from this article? That would be China. China is (by very far) the largest CO2 emitter in the world and (since 2000) the fastest growing emitter as well. Does Greta take her children's crusade to Beijing? Of course, not. Does Peter Singer take his call for civil disobedience to Beijing? Of course, not.

In real life, most (more than 50%) of all CO2 emissions are from developing countries. More than 100% of the growth in CO2 emissions are from developing countries. But supposedly, the problem can be solved by the advanced industrial nations.

As it turns out, Sweden's record on CO2 is actually not good at all. Sweden's per-capita CO2 output isn't all that high (lots of bad nuclear power plants and hydroelectric dams). However, Sweden massively imports CO2 from other countries. Sweden imports 29 million tons of CO2 per year (according to Mapped: The world’s largest CO2 importers and exporters). Adjusted for imports, Sweden's record is not great (at all).

Fake news. If anything, the green technology that is promoted by massive interests is even more polluting than carbon emissions (check the recent lithium mining environmental catastrophes). Also, it's not surprising that Greta Thunberg (a social-media product of the aforementioned interests) comes out of a rich country like Sweden. In poorer countries they have other preoccupations, like, er, working in order to eat. They're not stupid enough to shoot themselves in the foot by artificially hiking the price of coal.

Hello Peter,

Am Sadrach Nirere, Coordinator Fridays For Future Uganda, I want to make this additional comment to this article.

To us as young people the "school strike for climate" inspired by Greta have given us ground to demand for urgent climate action. To Africa and Uganda in particular the opinion towards the strikes by the public has been politicized but we still have stood on our clear message. As a born of this climate generation, I have my self witnessed how my community has been crippled by the effects of a breaking down climate and now through striking is the way I can raise attention to this fact.
In Uganda, we are engaging with schools, universities, government, organisations and the general public, to power this process we have set up the Uganda Students and Youth's Climate Action Demands. Through this we have given attention to tackling issues affecting our country and demand for there inclusion among priorities in the national climate action plans.
As the Fridays For Future movement, since we started this struggle we have increased awareness, advocacy and inspired action.

Thank you.

Nirere Sadrach
Fridays For Future Uganda
nireresadrach@gmail.com
nirere@fridaysforfutureug.org

Reflecting on the concerns of ordinary people about the serious environmental pollution we are experiencing today and its threatening effects on life on Earth, and the timid efforts of national governments and multilateral organizations to control and reverse it, I get to thinking that there is no sense in encouraging the creation of mechanisms, including not even in tolerating the use of the existing ones, enabling OECD countries (mainly developed countries) to continue emitting pollutants into the environment, whether they be gases, liquids, or solids, critically above the average global emissions by industry, geographic area, or country. Leadership at this time of anthropogenic climate change, and catastrophic global warming, requires behaving, and getting others to behave, in line with Roosevelt’s advice to the American people and the people of the world, in his first inaugural address: “This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.” It would seem that Greta Thunberg was, till weeks ago, the only human paying attention to Roosevelt's momentous and hopeful plea. Let that not be true henceforth.

https://www.academia.edu/15092472/LIVING_IN_PERU_-_Peru_in_Copenhagen_Thoughts_on_The_Right_to_Pollute_-_Does_it_Exist_-_2010102701

https://www.academia.edu/15092558/LIVING_IN_PERU_-_Peru_in_Copenhagen_2009_-_My_Comments_-_2010102702

Reflecting on the concerns of ordinary people about the serious environmental pollution we are experiencing today and its threatening effects on life on Earth, and the timid efforts of national governments and multilateral organizations to control and reverse it, I get to thinking that there is no sense in encouraging the creation of mechanisms, including not even in tolerating the use of the existing ones, enabling OECD countries (mainly developed countries) to continue emitting pollutants into the environment, whether they be gases, liquids, or solids, critically above the average global emissions by industry, geographic area, or country. Leadership at this time of anthropogenic climate change, and catastrophic global warming, requires behaving, and getting others to behave, in line with Roosevelt’s advice to the American people and the people of the world, in his first inaugural address: “This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.” It would seem that Greta Thunberg was, till weeks ago, the only human paying attention to Roosevelt's momentous and hopeful plea. Let that not be true henceforth.

https://www.academia.edu/15092472/LIVING_IN_PERU_-_Peru_in_Copenhagen_Thoughts_on_The_Right_to_Pollute_-_Does_it_Exist_-_2010102701

https://www.academia.edu/15092558/LIVING_IN_PERU_-_Peru_in_Copenhagen_2009_-_My_Comments_-_2010102702

I witnessed a protest act by Extinction Rebellion. It seemed something set up by some climate-change-fight profiteers and some Marxist redistribution profiteers, who had decided that joining forces would help to further the value of their respective franchises.
http://ourpiedaterre.blogspot.com/2017/04/solutions-that-share-out-all-benefits.html

Civil disobedience was a monumental tool against government indifference or incompetence or sheer unwillingness to deal with massive counter-social and counter-economic political framework or practice realities, as exemplified in the moral fight by Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, and by others in fighting the fight against Vietnam. It was courageous and right then, and still is when the people cannot or will not be heard when seeking fairness or justice or economic or social redress from clearly failed governments. But it is a tool that can and is used by abusive governments wielding the club of indifference, or unwillingness, or in the end, incompetence, to quiet the masses, through manipulation, falsehoods, or violence real or threatened. This was recently patent in Turkey, Hong Kong, as well as in the U.S. The world the baby boomer generation's grandparents knew as children has been obliterated by a century of recurring monstrous wars, concurrent with exponentially increasing revolutionary scientific and technological discoveries and inventions, and massive economic, social, political, and legal changes which for many signify development. These changes have occurred in a stark and pervasive moral and ethical vacuum, in the context of unconscionable, unsustainable, and monotonically increasing welfare disparities between the rich and the poor. The world as we know it now is at the historical fork between the threshold of recovery and the brink of a new conflagration, indeed at a very promising and very threatening tipping point, and begging for drastic global financial, economic, and social redress, which only the most comprehensive multilateral and national governance reforms that would redefine the social contracts in the East and the West, the North and the South, and between them, could satisfy. Some of the more evident issues in need of holistic attention are addressed herein:

https://www.academia.edu/23094646/OFA_-_At_the_Brink_of_Recovery_or_Conflagration_The_World_at_a_Tipping_Point_2011111506

There is a great deal of populism in Greta Thunberg activism ( and certainly her supporters and ideologue). For populism to enjoy success the options are either black or white. They, the populists are pure therefore white and the “others” are evil therefore black. This is a simplistic form and it is always difficult to argue with a populist.
Recently, an article published by the WEF alerting for the doomsday scenario made the case arguing that it has happened before . And goes on identifying several examples :

“It is widely accepted that the Earth’s climate is in a near-constant state of flux. There have been seven ice age cycles... But there’s more to climate change than the spread of glaciers and many once-mighty civilizations have been devastated by the effects of locally changing climate conditions.

-The Mayan civilization in Mesoamerica lasted for some 3,000 years.

- in Mesopotamia.. the Akkadian empire ruled supreme. Until a 300-year-long drought quite literally turned all their plans to dust. It was part of a pattern of changing climate conditions in the Middle East around 2,200 BCE that was constantly disrupting life and up-ending emerging empires.

- the Khmer empire of south-east Asia, which flourished between 802 and 1431 CE. It too was brought down by drought, interspersed with violent monsoon rains, against the backdrop of a changing climate.

- Even the Viking are believed to have been affected by climate change. Temperatures dropped, reducing substantially the productivity of their farms and making it harder to raise livestock. They adapted their eating habits, turning their attention to the sea as a source of food. “

Now ... when I read it, I, a stubborn advocate of action to reduce pollution, found myself thinking:- these populists are blinded by their fanaticism. When the great climate changes took place, world population was a small fraction of what it is today and there were no “industries”, no “cars”
or coal burning power plants, ie, none of the polluters of today. Yet radical climate changes took place.

I believe campaigning for a better world requires balanced policies rather than extremism. One can not ignore the billions of human being brought out of poverty over the last 50 years. Yes, at a price. But does anybody question that it was worth to pay for?
Like the Vikings the reasonable answer is adapting ie reducing pollution through new technologies . Certainly no populist will advocate sending billions back into total poverty.

This article is no surprise … Project has always focused and promoted the lefts fanatical religious rantings.. with hardly any balance….

The scientific facts don’t support anything said in this article and the sad part is that we now have our children involved in this mass fraud.

It’s the same non fact based hysterical activity that has slowed up the only REAL green energy initiative …nuclear..

When will we start to act like intelligent people and get our scientists to talk to our individual governments for the good of the population…?

Here are some links worth a review..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYtPTt9fnzc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IagqMq4wfCc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXxktLAsBPo&t=1s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GONlwJWh3w&t=1477s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWahKIG4BE4

The problem with Civil Disobedience is that it is quickly trumped by 'Communal' violence. Gandhi failed in South Africa and in India for this reason. People don't kill for what is ethically right. They do kill so as to gain power over others. Once the killing starts, Civility disappears and obedience won't stop your throat being slit. It is sometimes said that Gandhi did succeed in stopping ethnic cleansing in West Bengal. However, as K.Anis Ahmed has said in an article in the NYT, Muslims in West Bengal weren't ethnically cleansed though some did migrate to the East for better economic opportunities. In other words, in the one place where Gandhi succeeded, there was no actual threat. The Hindus who got the upper hand in the Calcutta riots were not Bengali. They were immigrants keen to protect their investments. They had no animus against Muslims- whom they wanted to employ. They just didn't want Calcutta to go to Pakistan.

The problem with Ethics is that it has a free rider problem. Incentive compatible Violence, however, can find a workaround so a coalition rewards the killers and the arsonists. Civil Disobedience can't take the same route. It can generate livelihood for a few pointy headed Pundits but recoils from paying the hoodlums and rapists.

On the other hand, I agree that Professors must do much more to convey the urgency of the situation. I suggest that they set fire to their heads and streak through the streets shrieking unintelligibly.

Psychologically and culturally the situation is interesting not least because children are now teaching themselves to see that the adult world was not only criminal in the past, e.g. nazi dignitaries high and low, but also nowadays, e.g. letting people drown in the Mediterranean sea, governments and business elites essentially carpet bombing the civilians of the future, preferentially in poor countries of course.
One difficulty is that children and teens are being taught that human life's worth is proportional to it's rate of production of high added value goods or services.
As a consequence most adults at least in the EU don't really identify strongly to the populations that are most exposed to global warming, e.g. black people drowning in the sea are perceived differently to germanic people or japanese people in the same situation.

La Prophétesse a parlé.... and it's really time that we take her terribly seriously, otherwise we risk our sitting rooms being invaded by three legged rats, or whatever is better adapted to colder or warmer weather than we are. So as we adapt to electric cars, charged by coal burning power stations, we should be thinking the Good Thoughts and encourage less developed nations to live with more goodies, as well as prepare our moves back to caves as we focus on a lower carbon footprint in Europe and the US ...

"no government in the world has yet achieved a “very good” performance in protecting the world’s climate"- maybe because no government takes it that seriously and shouldn't- there are a number of highly qualified scientists who think the problem is vastly over rated- most governments are doing something- that's a beginning- they aren't going to follow the advice of Bernie Sanders and spend $16,000,000,000 in the short term which would do more damage to the economy of the planet than a few degrees rise in temperature. Not everybody is enthralled by Greta.