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Greta Thunberg has contacted again. It is a sunny day with good wind, writes the climate activist via Twitter from her sailing trip to New York, to positional data. That is now 21 hours ago, meanwhile, the "Malizia II" may already have moved north to the Azores, between her and America only the emptiness of the Atlantic Ocean.
21 hours without news from Greta Thunberg, that's not quite true. Of course, she is silent, but the world can not stop talking about her, of course. Almost exactly a year ago, the Swedish schoolgirl started her school strike for the climate, in these 52 weeks she has become probably the most influential youth icon since the Beatles, with millions of mostly young followers who drop out of class with her every Friday for climate protection to protest.
Secret course change on vacation
The world owes much to Greta Thunberg. It has politicized a whole generation. It has brought the climate issue into the public consciousness with a force as world political climate summits, scientific warnings and rousing documentary films have not been able to do for decades - all with the means of the sincere perseverance of a serious student.
In the column Agitation and Propaganda Stefan Kuzmany writes about the current developments in politics and society. Subscribe to the newsletter directly and for free here:
It is downright superhuman what Greta Thunberg has achieved in this one year. And that's why it's time to let them go. Now would be a good time for a secret course change. No more position reports from the "Malizia II", just away from the radar and off into a year-long holiday. It would be best for the millions of fans and opponents Thunberg, the best for the world climate and possibly the best for Greta Thunberg itself.
Because the world has become Thunberg-crazy. It started slowly, but now the full extent of the madness is obvious. It is virtually impossible to open a newspaper, read a news website, turn on a television channel without looking straight into the face of the young Swede. Public perception has thus centered on the person Thunberg, as if it were not about melting glaciers and impending floods, but only about the action and letting of a single individual. The absurd climax so far is the debate over whether Thunberg's boat trip to New York is indeed climate-friendly. Ironically, the climate skepticism completely unsuspecting "taz" has calculated exactly and found out: "Gretas cruise more harmful than flight" - because to return the sailing yacht back to Europe, a crew must be flown.
After that, there was no stopping. Of course, it had to be expected. For not only does Thunberg cause other air travel with her journey, she also undertakes it on a high-tech sailboat whose manufacturing climate balance is difficult to doubt. All the journalists who came to leave did not walk either. And how much CO2 do the server farms actually need to bring all the tweets and reports from and about the climate activist to interested audiences?
An infantile debate
This debate is infantile. For it is perfectly clear that Greta Thunberg is not an immaculate figure of light. It too, like every human being, is full of contradictions and mistakes. She is not a prophet but still a student from Sweden. Therefore, it makes no sense to accuse her of individual misconduct and thus to want to hit the entire climate protection movement. Thunberg can not save the climate alone, so it's no surprise that she does not.
Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
Greta Thunberg in September 2018 in front of the Swedish Parliament
This is probably less popular than the latest news on a possible seasickness on board Malizia II, but effective climate change is an individual but above all a collective task that has to be decided at lengthy political conferences and implemented in laws and regulations , It does not matter if and how Greta Thunberg comes to New York. On the contrary: the absolute focus on the young Swede harms the cause for which she fights because she follows the natural law of public interest: the higher the rise, the deeper the case. So when the mood inevitably turns and interest fades, when the last book is sold, the Netflix documentary is up and the school strike is nothing new, the world is still facing the climate catastrophe. But she does not want to know anything anymore, because she is tired of pictures of the climate icon. Greta Thunberg can only be wished that she emerge unscathed from the personality cult that has arisen around her.
It is already being discussed how Greta Thunberg returns from the USA: is she sailing again? Is she taking a container ship? Is she flying? Do not let it matter. Take care of the climate protection.