A message for the school strikers: Get serious, and tell your teachers to switch off the air con…

Saint Greta’s comeuppance 

US site RedState was very impressed with this letter sent to Alan Jones, and read on SkyNews, Australia.

Someone was very fed up with the vainglorious students who skipped school to do a rent-a-crowd climate protest:

“To all the school kids going on strike for climate change, you’re the first generation who’ve required air conditioning in every classroom. You want TV in every room and your classes are all computerized. You spend all day and night on electronic devices.

More than ever you don’t walk or ride bikes to school, but you arrive in caravans of private cars that choke suburban roads and worsen rush-hour traffic. You’re the biggest consumers of manufactured goods ever. And update perfectly good, expensive, luxury items to stay trendy. Your entertainment comes from electric devices.

Furthermore, the people driving your protests are the same people who insist on artificially inflating the population growth through immigration, which increases the need for energy, manufacturing, and transport. The more people we have, the more forest and bushland we clear, the more of the environment that’s destroyed.

How about this? Tell your teachers to switch off the aircon, walk or ride to school, switch off your devices and read a book, make a sandwich instead of buying manufactured fast food.

No, none of this will happen, because, the piece says, ‘you’re selfish, badly educated, virtue-signaling little turds inspired by the adults around you who crave a feeling of having a noble cause while they indulge themselves in Western luxury and unprecedented quality of life’.

The piece ends by saying ‘wake up, grow up, and shut up until you’re sure of the facts before protesting.’”

 

Watch it on YouTube.

h/t Scott of the Pacific

 

9.9 out of 10 based on 108 ratings

114 comments to A message for the school strikers: Get serious, and tell your teachers to switch off the air con…

  • #
    Lance

    Butthurt Group Whining happens in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

    Oh, the self indulgent emotions this video will generate are oh, so very, tantalizing and amusing to conceive.

    Which barrister will represent the poor dears? He’d best get paid up-front, if at all.

    This is going to be so entertaining, it might even be worth paying to see and hear.

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  • #
    anne simon

    They need to shout a noble cause BECAUSE they indulge in earth-damaging luxuries.

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  • #
    PeterS

    I wish people stop calling here Saint Greta. She is certainly no saint, and secondly it is very demeaning on the past saints who were extremely good people.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      We could call her Doom Goblette Greta but that would also be offensive to Goblettes.

      230

    • #
      Yonniestone.

      Well amongst other steps she needs at least two miracles to get there,

      – Addressing the UN on climate change, Isaiah 11:6 “A little child shall lead them,”
      – Insists everyone have a covid-19 vaccine because of inequity , “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13:16-17

      Err scrap that sainthood theory the last one is more on track.

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    • #
      Dennis

      Poor girl was forced to tell the truth answering questions with penalties applying for deceptive commentary.

      She admitted that her presentations are, in my words, “hyperbole and puffery” in the sales and marketing sense or no sense.

      40

    • #
      Gaz

      I have a plant in my garden called a Thunbergia. It has horrendous spines, its colour starts off green but rapidly turns red, and when it is attacked it has highly toxic green/yellow sap. You cannot kill it – it seems to thrive on poisons. I am sure it is related to Greta

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      • #
        sophocles

        I notice thunbergias appear commonly in Weeds of Australia 😀

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        • #
          sophocles

          Let us see” there’s:

          thunbergia alata
          thunbergia fragrans
          thunbergia laurifolia
          thunbergia grandifolia
          thunbergia gregorii
          thunbergia mysorensis
          thunbergia erecta
          thunbergia annua
          thunbergia atriplicifolia
          thunbergia battiscombei

          … just 10 of the thunbergia species. There’s a gibsonii (not listed here) but no gretas.
          … But this is not a particularly comprehensive list.

          10

  • #
    Yonniestone.

    If the little dears want planet destroying fossil fuel generated electricity or transport to stop then they’d better get ready to exercise or generate their own because when that grid falls over and fuel can’t be pumped they’ll get all of this in abundance.

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    • #
      Ronin

      Can you imagine the wailing and gnashing that will occur when the little dears can’t keep their phone charged.

      140

  • #
    Travis T. Jones

    Another great Alan Jones moment was Q&A, 2019, when he schooled the low information green idiots.
    Talk about a slap upside the head.
    Note the business expert who yells out “too much” when asked the question.

    The fun starts at 1.1.00 …

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WPXjzf2aU3c

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  • #
    Contemptible Blackguard

    Its the teachers and the schools that inculcate the insufferable little prigs. Defund the teachers that spruik climate diatribe

    290

    • #
    • #
      sophocles

      Its the teachers and the schools that inculcate the insufferable little prigs.

      because nobody, but nobody I’ve heard tries to give the youngsters the correct foundation.

      This is an exercise in proportion I use with youngsters and I am continuously amazed that most of them don’t know it:
      Do it yourself:

      Start here:
      ———–
      It we take a Unit of Atmosphere as 10,000 gas molecules and atoms, then how many of you know the nitrogen and oxygen form 99% of
      the atmosphere? Argon atoms make another 0.9 % of the atmosphere so one unit of air is 99.9% of Nitrogen, Oxygen and Argon.

      That means, for dry air, nitrogen (at c. 78%) would make up 7,800 molecues and oxygen (at c. 21%) is c. 2,100 molecules.
      So 9,900 molecules of nitrogen and oxygen are in every 10,000 molecules of air.

      How many of you also know that the remaining 100 milecules contain 90 atoms of Argon? That means 99.9% of the air is NOT carbon dioxide. There are just 10 spaces or particles left to dole out. At 0.04 percent, it means that there are just 4 molecules of CO2 per unit of dry air.

      Last Century, there were just 3 molecules of CO2 per unit of atmosphere.
      (Parts of a molecule are not allowed.)

      So where’s the Krisis?

      (All the numbers I’ve used are very close approximations. It can be repeated with 100,000 molecules + atoms per unit. CO2 is still miniscule at only 40 – 41 molecules (0.04 to 0.0411%) More accurate quantities are 78.09% nitrogen, 20.95% oxygen, 0.93% argon, 0.04% carbon dioxide. If you like, you can use 0.041% for CO2 and they can work out how much it changes. )

      Once the proportions are known, panic disappears. Try it and see how you get on.
      Make sure they know how to check your figures.

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      • #
        Ronin

        The children need to be educated by their parents, but then maybe that’s where problem stems from, that there is something they can do ‘save’ the planet, demand the teacher turn off the aircon in the schoolroom and they can turn off their smartfone and stop charging it up, and get dad to fit one of those timer switches to the light in their bedroom, you know the one, you push the button and the light goes on then off after about 5 mins.

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      • #

        Sophocles

        I think we may have found the successor to where’s wally?

        Now if we can just get someone to make up a screen of 10000 pixels suitably comprised of the various gases by type, number and represented by a colour and the object will be to find the 4 blue co2 pixels out of the 10000

        10

  • #
    Lance

    Highly suggest the children watch Tony Heller’s video

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8455KEDitpU

    140

  • #
    JB

    May I respectfully suggest a change in the order of recommendations to “Shut up, wake up and grow up”.

    100

  • #
    Penguinite

    A beautiful piece. Just hope these junior protestors do precisely what the prescient advice in the last line commands. Sadly, the little “turds” will not have given a thought to the essence of their futile protests! Even sadder are the parents and teachers that encourage and facilitate them! Perhaps the guardians and those in loco parentis “wake up, grow up, and shut up until you’re sure of the facts before protesting.”.

    180

  • #
    Tony Dique

    Amen, brother

    70

  • #
    Peter Fitzroy

    And yet they are winning in the courts, both in Australia and in Europe. Odd that. How can these pampered indoctrinated junior leftist greenies manage it you might ask? Courts are where right thinking self appointed judges like Mr Jones have their views validated. Oh wait, the courts have not been kind to Mr Jones. I know. The courts have been taken over by the same indoctrinated leftist greenies

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    • #
      Yonniestone.

      I actually gave you a green thumb for that last line even though its obviously sarcasm, its nice to think for a moment, be it ever so fleeting, that you are a rational human being.

      250

      • #
        robert rosicka

        No sarc Yonniestone, Peter believes the Judges have been taken over by rabid greenies so he gets a green tick from me as well.

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    • #
      Serge Wright

      Ah yes, but what are they winning ?.

      With a sole focus on our tiny and stable 1% and a “don’t care” attitude on the rapidly growing 70% of emissions from the developing world, which includes China as a 30% emitter, what do you think is the objective ?. And why are all of the protesters outside parliament house, but never a single climate protester outside the Chinese embassy ?. One thing that is obvious by the lack of Chinese embassy protest, is that this cannot be about the climate, else the front lawn would be full of screaming greenies in full super-glue panic mode.

      As a member of this religious clan, enlighten us PF !.

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      • #
        Richard Owen No.3

        Serge,
        clan or cult?
        At least The Flagellants used their whips on themselves not others.

        “The Flagellants were religious zealots of the Middle Ages in Europe who demonstrated their religious fervor and sought atonement for their sins by vigorously whipping themselves in public displays of penance. This approach to achieving redemption was most popular during times of crisis. Prolonged plague, hunger, drought and other natural maladies would motivate thousands to resort to this extreme method of seeking relief. Despite condemnation by the Catholic Church….”.

        Can’t use Covid as a plague excuse as they have been doing this for 40 years. Hunger? With food production in record amounts? Times of crisis? when their predictions of 30 years ago (and 20 years ago, and 10 years ago) have almost universally failed to result in the disaster predicted. And they want us to make public displays of penance. The phules like Phitzroy want to rule.

        90

        • #
          Serge Wright

          AGW does have similarities to a cult, with members now worshiping an autistic child ‘messiah’. Perhaps this embracing of the messiah is an indication of the movement becoming a cult ?. We have also seen other Marxist splinter movements such as BLM embracing the deceased George Floyd as their spiritual leader, despite him being a career criminal with a very long rap sheet that included an armed assult on a pregnant woman. However, it should be noted that cults usually don’t work out work well for their followers, such as the case with the Branch Dividians.

          20

          • #
            Gary Simpson

            A cult indeed, perhaps even a religious cult, according to John Kerry, Biden’s Climate Crawler. Having met with Il Papa, Kerry declared him ‘a compelling moral authority on the subject of the climate crisis’ and ‘one of the great voices of reason’.
            I don’t know what authority his ‘morals’ carry in the climate science debate, but strange that Kerry misses the irony of someone who he considers a great voice of reason being someone who leads a religion, which is based on pure faith, not reason.

            40

    • #
      Melissa

      In the absence of contrary evidence, Alan returns to ad hom attacks – always an indication of failure.
      Still, his target audience will count it as ‘proof’.

      211

      • #
        Yonniestone.

        No not proof but a rare example of someone questioning the accepted climate narrative in mainstream news.

        The search for true evidence always starts with an open mind, oh and lets not start with the MSN and ad hom attacks!

        60

        • #
          Melissa

          Questioning is fine but eventually you have to come up with evidence, which hasn’t happened.
          Ceaseless and baseless criticism is not having “an open mind”.

          11

          • #
            Yonniestone.

            You mean evidence of CO2 not being a driver of climate temperatures?, besides this site there is plenty of evidence and has been for decades from very highly qualified scientists relevant to this field.

            I agree with the last point but we have to start somewhere and Mr Jones has spent years on radio and TV trying to get genuine climate facts through to politicians and the public, sometimes we all get a bit frustrated.

            10

    • #
      Ronin

      We can all see how out of touch with reality the courts are, just one example is all the rapists and domestic abusers who are given bail and go on to repeat their crimes.

      40

    • #
    • #
      Harves

      You stopped using products made using fossil fuels yet, Peter? Posting using your ‘renewables only’ device? Nah, thought not. Hypocrite.

      50

    • #
      R.B.

      So you think that left-wing policies are a punishment equal to being locked up in a gulag where death rates reached 20%, because it was just a recommendation to voluntarily reduce their own carbon footprint.

      Careful. Someone might think your neurons run on fossil fuels and you are doing your bit for the planet.

      00

  • #
    John R Smith

    For most of human history we had to live with capricious unpredictable weather.
    Death or starvation a storm front away.
    Now we can look up the near precise temp, wind, and precipitation 36 hours out on our hand held government monitoring device.
    We can stay warm, dry, cool, and fed.
    We don’t have to chop wood (which is now called Deforestation).
    Gives us time to worry about the weather 50 years from now.
    Life is hard.
    Poor kids.

    220

  • #
    Ian

    Amid all this reviling of those who went out and physically protested about something they consider important rather than just sitting at home and criticising others, which doesn’t take much effort, those commenting here might like to remember that today’s “school kids” are tomorrow’s movers and shakers. Tomorrow’s politicians. Tomorrow’s workers. Tomorrow’s employers. Tomorrow’s income tax payers who will be those largely contributing to our aged pension. It is them not us who will feel the impact of climate change should it occur as predicted by the scientists who study the climate..

    It may well be that most commenting here do not remember the protests about the war in Vietnam, protests that played a significant part in its cessation. Many in the peace movement within the United States were children and students. Additional involvement came from many other groups, including educators, clergy, academics, journalists, lawyers, physicians and military veterans.

    The climate change debate is akin to these protests as indeed is the politics. Support for the war in Vietnam was primarily by those on the Right while those on the Left were urging for its cessation. That political divide is very similar to the current situation regarding climate change.

    125

    • #
      Michael Spencer

      Ian: The thing that makes me sad is that here we see children being indoctrinated with ignorant propaganda received by their likewise propagandised teachers.

      Unfortunately the old adage that “Good news does not sell newspapers!” is very much relevant, not forgetting Mark Twain’s most relevant quip: “If you don’t read the newspaper, you are ill-informed. If you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed!” And this is precisely why political movements get their impetus.

      Not that long ago a somewhat infamous German, Herr Doktor Josef Goebbels put into practice the idea that if you tell a lie that’s big enough then people will believe it to be the truth. (And what would the Herr Doktor have been able to do with the Internet, and with every man and his dog with a mobile propaganda dispenser?) Just look where his endeavours got us all …..

      The very sad part of this can be summed up by another quip from Mark Twain: “It is easier to fool people than to convince them that they’ve been fooled”!

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      • #
        Ian

        “Not that long ago a somewhat infamous German, Herr Doktor Josef Goebbels put into practice the idea that if you tell a lie that’s big enough then people will believe it to be the truth.”

        Goebbels’ axiom has very recently been put into practice and has been shown to be true.

        60

        • #
          Analitik

          Yes, there have been quite a few examples of late:
          The science is settled.
          The 2020 US election was the cleanest, ever.
          Hydroxychloroquine is dangerous and unhelpful in treating CoViD-19
          Ivermectin is dangerous and unhelpful in treating CoViD-19
          Renewables are driving down the price of electricity
          Renewables are a reliable source of electricity

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          • #
            Analitik

            Thanks again, moderation filter

            [Regarding that, please check your email Analitik! – Jo]

            00

    • #
      Annie

      ‘Tomorrow’s movers and shakers’, with very poor education and plenty of indoctrination.
      Heaven help us!

      130

    • #
      Ronin

      Just how many of these kids do you think would have turned up at a protest on the weekend, and had to get there under their own steam, not many.

      40

    • #
      Harves

      “…those commenting here might like to remember that today’s “school kids” are tomorrow’s movers and shakers.”
      Definitely tomorrow’s ‘shakers’. Shaking uncontrollably under their beds if someone calls them a name, or criticises their new hairstyle, or suggests that it might be 1 degree warmer in 100 years time. How will he poor darlings stop shaking?

      60

    • #
      Gary Simpson

      Perhaps the reason for the Right supporting the war in Vietnam `had something to do with attempting to stem the advance of communism. Domino theory. Bad system as it turned out.

      30

    • #
      tonyb

      The fact that people won’t see things in context or through the prism of history, but want to be activists in causes they don’t even understand, is a microcosm of our present day politicians and movers and shakers.

      More frightening, the current crop are woeful enough but many of the coming generation appear to even more deliberately ignorant and, through social media, even more combative..

      00

  • #
    Forrest Gardener

    I would avoid tarring the entire generation because of the abject stupidity of a very small fraction of their number. At this very moment others within the student body are at work disagreeing with the fashionable dogmas because the self-righteousness of the protesters grates on them.

    Rhetoric pointing out the hypocrisy of being chauffered to protests against the weather in air-conditioned comfort will penetrate all but the very stupidest in time. And those who realise they have been deceived and used will grow up innoculated against those who deceive and use.

    After all as the song goes “you can’t fool the children of the revolution”.

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    • #
      Ian

      A very good last line (to be picky it is actually you won’t fool) but the song refers to my generation which had a very different childhood from later generations

      You write

      “I would avoid tarring the entire generation because of the abject stupidity of a very small fraction of their number. At this very moment others within the student body are at work disagreeing with the fashionable dogmas because the self-righteousness of the protesters grates on them.

      I think you will find that it is the majority rather than a very small fraction that are concerned about climate change.

      Whether you like her or not, Greta Thunberg she has had considerable impact on the young an impact reflected in her “school strike for the climate” which has now grown into a global movement that has brought more than 10 million people onto streets worldwide to demand action on climate change.

      The links below also provide some evidence that it is the majority of the student body that is concerned about climate

      https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/media-releases/articles/generation-millz-australian-millennials-gen-z-thinking-200519.html

      This poll showed a survey of Australian Millennials and Gen Z, collectively called ‘MillZ’, found both generations were disappointed with traditional institutions like government, sceptical of business’s motives, and pessimistic about economic and social progress.

      “Despite Australia’s strong economy, younger generations have become wary about the world and their place within it. The millennials and Gen Z, are a generation disrupted, perpetually caught in a crossfire of social, political, and economic commotion.”

      Climate change and protecting the environment was the number one concern among both generations globally, at 29 percent. Australian respondents were even more worried, with 31 percent of millennials and 37 percent of Gen Z noting their personal concern.

      “We cannot deny that climate change has become a leading social issue for younger generations. They hold deep concerns for the way our environment is being treated,” said David Brown.

      “Our research found that almost half (49 percent) of Gen Z believe universities are best placed to solve the world’s most pressing challenges, compared to less than a quarter (22 percent) putting their faith in government, and only 11 percent believing business is up to the challenge,” said David Brown.

      “Despite some exceptions, business and government generally appears to be out of step with the aspirations and expectations of the MillZ generations. They need to pay attention and listen more, as these are the leaders of the future.”

      https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/26/key-findings-how-americans-attitudes-about-climate-change-differ-by-generation-party-and-other-factors/

      https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2021/05/26/gen-z-millennials-stand-out-for-climate-change-activism-social-media-engagement-with-issue/

      A very recent survey conducted April 20-29 2021 among 13,749 U.S. adults, includes a sample of more than 900 Gen Z adults (those born after 1996), allowing for an in-depth look at the views of the youngest American adults. It finds that members of Generation Z, as well as Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996), are more open than older Americans to some of the farther-reaching policy proposals related to climate change.

      Younger generations in the U.S. are especially likely to express an interest in addressing climate change – and to say they have personally taken some kind of action to do so. About a third of Gen Zers (32%) and 28% of Millennials say they’ve done something in the past year to address climate change, such as donating money, volunteering, contacting an elected official or attending a rally or protest. And two-thirds of Gen Zers, as well as 61% of Millennials, say they’ve talked with friends or family about the need for action on climate change in the past few weeks. Smaller shares of Gen X and Baby Boomer and older adults say they’ve done these things.

      Younger generations are more likely than older Americans to favor proposals to shift U.S. energy reliance away from fossil fuels or even eliminate fossil fuels entirely. Overall, a majority of Americans (71%) say the U.S. should prioritize development of alternative energy sources over expanding production of fossil fuels, such as oil, coal and natural gas. But Americans are closely divided over the idea of phasing out the production of new gasoline-powered cars and trucks by the year 2035, and 64% want to use a mix of sources – including oil, coal and natural gas – to meet the country’s energy needs, rather than phasing out fossil fuels entirely.

      Attitudes on these questions differ substantially by generation. A majority of Gen Zers (56%) and Millennials (57%) support a move to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles, compared with smaller shares in older generations. Younger generations are also significantly more likely than older ones to support phasing out the use of oil, coal and natural gas entirely, though about half or more across all generations favor using a mix of fossil fuel and renewable energy sources going forward.”

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      • #
        Forrest Gardener

        Yes, won’t fool the children of the revolution. I would have remembered that once upon a time.

        Sadly I put very little stock in surveys and polls. They will always generate the answers they are designed to generate. At best they tell us what those who commissioned the survey or poll are interested in at any given moment.

        Always remember that 97% of scientists believe whatever their grant money requires them to believe.

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        • #
          Ian

          Apologies in advance for this bit of silliness which is perhaps somewhat out of place in this rather serious blog but since reading your comment #14 I have been unable to get the “children of the revolution” out of my head. My wife isn’t best pleased as I’ve been humming and singing continuously and indeed I am doing so as I write. Brings back my yoof.

          00

      • #
        Raving

        Emotional twigging has become socially acceptableand very big business.

        Think of all the bleeding heart causes.

        You know, its not the soldiers or the ‘adults’ that get killed in wara, itsthe poor defensless innocent children.

        War is hell and bad things happen. Thzt it might occur to an old cripple, a soldier, a woman or a baby is of secondary concern. I mean one doesnt make the distinction when a pyroclastic volcanic cloud wipes out a town. War is somehow ‘special’. Didnt stop the allies or axis waging war on civillians in WW2

        Using kiddies to skip school to appeal to courts for social justice is emotional manipulation

        You want to appeal to courts for social justice then do so for its own merit. Leave the children out of the process. Its exploitation. Not nice

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        • #
          Ian

          “You want to appeal to courts for social justice then do so for its own merit. Leave the children out of the process. Its exploitation. Not nice”

          But is the children that are going to have to live with any significant changes in the climate should they occur

          09

          • #
            Raving

            So what? It is still the responsibilty/perview of adults

            Moreover, I trust that my children have the capacity to adapt to change There is much more adaption required for things beyond climate. It is the lesser of their problems

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    • #
      tonyb

      Surely a more coherent view is from the Beatles ‘Revolution’.

      Aaahhh!
      You say you want a revolution
      Well, you know
      We all want to change the world
      You tell me that it’s evolution
      Well, you know
      We all want to change the world
      But when you talk about destruction
      Don’t you know that you can count me out?
      Don’t you know it’s gonna be
      All right
      All right
      All right

      Much as I like that TRex song the tag line is the only good one!

      20

  • #

    Good stuff.
    Just this morning my wife, normally silent on matters of climate change, said how sick she was of the ABCs totally negative coverage on virtually everything. She notes climate change is endlessly pushed and she for one is utterly sick of it.

    Of course this non stop negativity and stream of falsehoods is swallowed hook line and sinker by the kids teachers. Idiots who bask in the technical advances and excellent lifestyle provided by fossil fuel based power.

    All I can say is that there will be a very rude awakening at some stage when the rolling blackouts begin and a large proportion of the population has to disconnect electrically as they simply cannot pay the astronomical bills they will be presented with. No air cond in schools then.

    Take a tablespoon of concrete each day and harden up for goodness sake I say. A whole lot of lazy selfish narcissistic idiots provided for at our expense.

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    • #
      el gordo

      Before too long the MSM should begin to question the scientific paradigm and then the education system will become a battleground. Teachers need to be educated on climate change as its happening in the real world, blocking is a global cooling signal.

      ‘ … it is my impression that there has been a tendency for high latitude blocking/high pressure this spring and that could persist for much of the summer. If high latitude blocking persists in a certain region it could contribute to cool and/or wet weather downstream. An example from this spring is Greenland blocking contributing to the cool spring across Europe. Blocking near Alaska/Gulf of Alaska could not only bring warm temperatures to the west coast of North America but cooler weather to the interior of North America.’ (AER)

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  • #
    Vladimir

    The main problem, at least here in Victoria, is negative selection (in Darwinistic terms) used for entering teaching profession. Students, who failed elsewhere become teachers. Can not spell, can not do simplest math in your head – go teach in schools…
    After couple of generations, no wonder that the main thing our poor toddlers learn in kindergartens is “respect for the traditional owners”. To repeat, like a cockatoo, a sentence or two without any idea of the reasons, without any compassion.., enough said…

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    • #
      Michael Spencer

      There’s an old saying (and I don’t want to denigrate all teachers – there are some excellent ones!): “If you can, you do; if you can’t, you teach. But if you can’t teach, you teach teachers. However, if you can’t teach teachers, then you become an academic/bureaucrat/fill-in-this-space!”

      The tragedy of all of this is that the indoctrination of our teachers began years ago, and I would hazard a guess that almost none of today’s indoctrinated would have a clue that back in the 1970s the climate alarm was ‘global cooling’ – ‘anthropogenic’, of course!

      A wonderful example of how this transmogrified into ‘global warming’ was demonstrated by the late Dr Stephen Schneider who was an enthusiastic promoter of the notion that we would all plunge into a new ice age and die, but later when things started to warm his mantra changed to ‘global warming’ that would likewise result in disaster.

      Famously, he said: “On the one hand, as scientists we are ethically bound to the scientific method, in effect promising to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but — which means that we must include all the doubts, the caveats, the ifs, ands, and buts. On the other hand, we are not just scientists but human beings as well. And like most people we’d like to see the world a better place, which in this context translates into our working to reduce the risk of potentially disastrous climatic change. To do that we need to get some broadbased support, to capture the public’s imagination. That, of course, entails getting loads of media coverage. So we have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified, dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we might have. This ‘double ethical bind’ we frequently find ourselves in cannot be solved by any formula. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest. I hope that means being both.”

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    • #
      Annie

      No one seems to be taught how to hold a pen and pencil properly these days, let alone a knife and fork.
      I wish Sky News would stop showing that clip of a hand writing on a whiteboard holding a crayon ineptly and displaying the scruffy remains of purple nail polish! It certainly conveys a lack of proper education and makes me wonder at the abilities of those youngsters who are protesting against something about which they haven’t a clue.

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      • #
        Serp

        That’s the policy, nobody is shown how to hold a writing implement. In my day with nib pens and inkwells naturally we had to be taught how to manage the apparatus but today it’s figure it out yourself and devil take the hindmost.

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          Chris

          And if you were left handed and touched the page as you were writing , your work was smudged and you went home with ink on your sleeve again. I know a couple of sadists masquerading as teachers who would sidle up from behind and whack you on the knuckles with the edge of a ruler for smudging your work or sloping it backwards. Neatness was next to Godliness.

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            sophocles

            I’m strongly left-handed. I had trouble writing left to right and got the cracked knuckles treatment.
            I fixed that by writing backwards and told him that if he couldn’t read it he had to use a mirror. I could read it no problem.

            He was not amused. So I took it over his head. The school headmaster was highly amused and the sadist had to use a mirror.

            After I left school. I used to practice reading backwards, and upside down by reading copies of the NZ Herald of other passengers on the bus into work. One passenger worked out what I was doing once and held the paper flat over his legs. He soon tired of that. I could read much faster than the paper owners so it took some time before anyone managed to work it out. I just spread `the load’ around more.

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              Michael Spencer

              It is no coincidence that the Latin word for ‘right’ is ‘dexter’, from which we have derived that positive word ‘dexterous’. On the other hand the Latin word for ‘left’ is ‘sinister’, from which we continue to use the word but with a very different meaning. (And the foreshortened version is, of course, ‘sin’. So it’s no wonder that Lefties were given a hard time!)

              As I am also of the sinister variety, I can relate to the experiences of both Chris and Sophocles; although I was most fortunate and was not subjected to that treatment – perhaps enlightenment had started in my primary school. (I used a blotter to dry the ink as a wrote. And pushing a nib that’s designed to be dragged is not the best idea. I wish that I had thought of the Sophocles inspired system! And I’ve often thought how much better it would be perhaps to write in Arabic or Hebrew or Chinese!)

              Happily, these days, more and more people realise that being right- or left- is governed by the wiring of the brain and that it’s genetic, exactly the same as is the colour of your skin, eyes, hair etc..

              And then I have the advantage of being Red/Green colour-type also! (And, despite the popular belief, that doesn’t make me colour blind – only Albinos are!)

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      Yonniestone.

      Anyone can become a teacher in Victoria if they’re a rabid lefty woke climate [snip insults -J], feelings over facts, emotions over evidence, communism over colonialism etc etc….

      Interesting when I was a student we were told by teachers and indigenous people that they never owned any land as they belonged to it, fast forward a few decades after a lucrative established welfare system and fabricated histories they suddenly owned everything and its worth this much thank you very much.

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        Yonniestone.

        I can’t use A or I words as its sensitive to a filter how?

        But I can be called any ‘ist’ or ‘ism’ or reference my skin color because someone not related to me did something bad 150 years ago.

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        • #

          Yonnie, and if you can just kill off Section 18C I will change the moderation filter.

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            sophocles

            Some of this blog are programmers.
            Maybe we could make a project of fixing the silly thing?
            If it’s in an interpreted language (or JIT compiled from source like Python etc)
            Then we could audit it and fix it’s bugs …

            First thing, would be to derive a specification from 18C

            Just a thought.

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            Yonniestone.

            Apologies Jo, not directed at you good people just had a moment, then had a memory of Roy calmly explaining how things are.

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      Ando

      Yes. Ive had my catholic high school attending daughter come home and seriously ask are we all going to die from climate change? In primary school making ‘environmental’ posters with greens party logo on them…some teachers are a disgrace.

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    John in Oz

    All of these children should be forced into home detention, preferably in a cellar, to ensure that they are not struck by hail and/or lightning, do not fall down sink holes, are not caught in a cyclone, blizzard, hot weather, cold weather or any weather that they might find uncomfortable.

    Having a duty of care does not specify the actions taken to provide that care. They may not like the results of their ‘win’.

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    Rick

    The point here, as referenced in the last line of the piece, is that those entitled little turds ARE certain of the facts. They are absolutely convinced they know it all because they spend their entire pampered lives in echo chambers where they never get to see both sides of any environmental or political issue.
    They are “educated” (read; brainwashed) by teachers who have never spent any time outside of a classroom in their lives, and who in their turn have been brainwashed by their similarly unworldly teachers and professors.
    Give them a taste of what the Greens et al have in store for them – a week or two camping in a cold wet forest without running water, electricity, heaters, internet or mobile phones – and see how quickly they change their minds about how right they are. Better still, make them forage for their own food while they’re there and see how they fare.

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      Ian

      “They are absolutely convinced they know it all because they spend their entire pampered lives in echo chambers where they never get to see both sides of any environmental or political issue.”

      They are certainly not alone in that, It is very common in social media and in many blogs

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    Ruairi

    Young children attending their school,
    Could be taught by a big climate fool,
    That the breath they exhale,
    Can cause a great gale,
    Which for kids must sound pretty cool.

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    Earl

    I have a niece, 21 years old, who recently attended a climate change demonstration.
    Her mother drove her to the event as she has yet to get her drivers licence. Her mother picked her up on the conclusion of the occasion.
    On returning home, she found the entire situation so stressful, she ordered a bubble tea, on line, delivered by Uber.
    Unfortunately we are dealing with individuals who have no mirrors in their house.

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    Michael Spencer

    And this is the very reason why I am suggesting that in order to counter this propaganda war for political control being waged using children as the cannon fodder, where those children/young adults have been convinced that there is a ‘climate disaster/crisis/emergency/whatever’ that the best method in the first instance is not to try to counteract the “‘carbon [sic] emissions’ from ‘fossil [sic] fuels’ is evil” lie but, rather like ‘socialism by stealth’ they can be introduced to the notion that there is a solution to their non-problem! And that ‘solution’ will fix their perceived non-problem.

    This is somewhat akin to ‘socialism by stealth’. Let’s call it ‘re-education by stealth’, by providing some good news of technology that will take away their worries – based principally on electricity generation (most people knowing nothing about other CO2-emitting factors – Oops! we can’t let them know about volcanoes now can we? Especially undersea ones!).

    So I think that the way to go is via a positive ‘good news’ approach about a ‘modern’ form of technology that will ‘solve’ their perceived problem – ‘carbon [sic] emissions’ from electricity generation. Good news! And let them gradually discover that they’ve been conned by pseudo-scientific charlatans as they start to learn about a very positive future. So how to do this?

    I’ve compiled this (sneaky) introduction to the technology that will achieve this goal. Oh look! “Zero-emissions electricity”! And, even better, it’s cheap! And “Oh look! There are some beneficial side effect too!” And, “Oh look! What everyone thought was a problem can now be converted into a non-problem!”

    So, I would be most interested to hear from Jo’s Blog followers about this presentation. I think that this – or something like it – could be the political way forward. And, the first thing will be the removal of the ridiculous and ignorant ban on this technology. I refer, of course, to nuclear energy.

    I’ve made this into a two-part presentation that will, hopefully, overcome that wonderful combination which is the very cause of alarm in our young people: Instilled FEAR and IGNORANCE! So, Part 1 is a straightforward and uncomplicated introduction to cover the main points without technicalities (We mustn’t frighten the natives, you know!); and the optional Part 2 allows technical information to be introduced, with a number of excellent movies paving the wayinitially.

    See what you thinks: http://www.galileomovement.com.au/media/SaveThePlanetStart.pdf

    Yes! Let’s “Save the Planet” with some commonsense! (And: “Oh look!” Viewers might just discover a thing or two about some REAL science. And “Oh look – again!” There might just be a link here and there to Jo’s blog posts!)

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      Serp

      Zero emissions is part of the false rigmarole and needs striking from all agendas.

      Let’s just dig up our coal and make electricity from it.

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      • #
        Michael Spencer

        Serp, I’m very well aware of that! And there’s no doubt that with the huge supplies of the highest quality coal in Australia, we should continue to use it. At the same time we should be conscious of the uses of coal for purposes other than electricity generation,

        So, the logical way to go surely would be to use nuclear energy for electricity generation, and to use coal for other applications. (And here I looking at the very long term!)

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      joseph

      Michael,
      I’ve downloaded parts one and two and have had a quick run through them. You’ve got my attention. I’ll spend more time with your creation over the next few days. Always much more to learn.

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    Ronin

    Can you imagine the wailing and gnashing that will occur when the little dears can’t keep their phone charged.

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    Ronin

    I tend to take no notice of the little dears, because what kid would say ‘no’ to bunking off school on a Friday, hello long weekend.

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    R.B.

    Apple should bring out the i-smuggness. It’ll sell by the millions.

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    Peter Fitzroy

    Of course, until they abandon this leftist green ideology and adhere to righthink then according Mr Jones, they should be segregated and punished by the removal of all the benefits of modern society like heat, light air conditioning etc. Still, does tie in with the gulags at Manus and Nauru, and now devient thought must be suppressed. So much for democracy

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      Serp

      Come to Victoria, wall to wall gulag.

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      Analitik

      We only want them to stop skipping school and do their protesting in their free time.

      But that would intrude on their free time activities, just as adhering to their own demands would reduce their own comforts and conveniences. Ie, not gonna happen

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        Analitik

        Actually, far from your sarcastic attempt at a knee jerk response, the letter to Jones said quite clearly

        Tell your teachers to switch off the aircon, walk or ride to school, switch off your devices and read a book, make a sandwich instead of buying manufactured fast food.

        Again, not gonna happen

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    Harves

    Schools should support these protests 100%. Let’s have one school day a month where students are not allowed to wear, use or travel by any product that has been produced using fossil fuel. No plastics, no steel, no aluminium for starters. So no computers, phones, aircon, walk to school only, no canned food or drinks. Show them what a ‘renewable’ lifestyle really looks like.

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    Peter B

    Jo, some 27 years ago we put a sign on the fridge that said:
    “TEENAGERS. Leave home now while you know everything.”
    Recently one of our boys asked if I still had the sign? Strange you might say?
    Not at all, he was just letting us know that after 3 decades and his 3rd daughter going into puberty, it had stuck in the back of his mind all this time.
    So, every time I see “a Greta Thunberg: on TV I remember the sign and the Aust Rock Band Goanna 1980’s song (Solid Rock) that says: Out here nothin’ changes, not in a hurry anyway…”

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    Raving

    School children raving? Hah heh heh
    Brodcaster raving? Uh huh

    We live in a society wherein the emotional pitch is high art.

    Geez, hasn’t it always been that way.
    In wartime they call it propoganda
    In peacetime it is the basis of advertising
    The charismatic speaker

    When you cannot do anything about thermonuclear war, you can redirect your attention to saving the cute koala bears. Just dont take too many ecotours to see the cute penguins in Antartica

    By all means get a Ford 150 lightning homestead storage battery to save on petrol costs and suck up,all that excess wind and solar energy. That is real progress for free energy paid for with real dollars with real eniromental costs in manufacture and elsewhere. Nevertheless ,on balance it is probablyba good thing because one gets more energy for less which can becparcelled out over several days. Just dontvtry to replacecall thr base powervgeneration in the next 30 years, especially since all that free energy generation and storage will lead toveven more opportunities to use that free energy!

    I dont know how to solve the problems which ail thecworld. People have been building and rebuilding ion volcanoes, major earthquake and tsunami zones, flood planes and fluctuating coast lines sincecthe start of civilization. How many ports have sunk or been uplifted. How many cities have been razed by natural calamities. Humans are masters at rebuilding, moving on and adapting.

    Read an article in the NYT which claims that it is really hard for airlines to go net zero emiisions. No kidding! Break outvthe mobscof demonstrating truent kiddies demsnding social justice and an endcto jet travel … or just accept thst hydrocabons are a necessary evil forvflying and maybecthe offset can becdonecelsewhere by growing trees and burying them in future coal beds. God save the world

    (Appologies for the huge number of typos. Editing with the iPad is horrible)

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      Dennis

      Imagine the profits to be made from recycling internal combustion engines, from demolition and recycling materials from liquid fuel distribution and roadside service stations, from exporting later model ICEV to developing nations.

      And then a whole new market for EV to replace ICEV and profits from new recharging infrastructure, and even from selling more electricity and installing recharging points for commercial and private real estate.

      But this is my imagination, climate changing and warming are the motivating factors, wealth creation compared to those hoaxes pales into insignificance doesn’t it.

      sarc.

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        Raving

        Not sure what you mean by the sarc

        Ultimately, Wealth Creation is the only thing that matters. Whatever is done, it ultimately needs to be more efficient than what it replaces

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        Raving

        Technology is improving to the extent that it is or will soon be plausible for a house with a yard attached to a town grid of peripheral generators to provide net positive power generation and storage. That is a real game changer because it will be cheaper to make and store your own electricity than to buy off the grid ….. but remember that this is to provide for one house on a moderate amount of real estate.

        People in North America are buying external hard wired, natural gas powered home generators for $6,000. Not much more to pay $20,000 for a storage battery to power the entire house for a few days. In the cost of home ownership it is feasible

        Cities and industries have higher energy density requirements.
        Australia has low population density and large renewable enery production potential

        Most of the world has much higher population and industry densities

        Urban sprawl has its own large energy costs compared to the benefits provided in the compact denisty of city life

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          sophocles

          What do you propose for storage?

          Have you investigated availability of resources for this storage?
          Economics?
          As resources strain, prices go up (way up).

          It wouldn’t do to run out. That’s what will happen to EVs in not too many years.

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            Raving

            Ford has a lot of skin in the game. aif they cannot turn out truck scale storage batteries at large scale and inexpensive they will be in deep trouble. They aren’t Tesla and I trust they have good reason to feel confident about their efforts.

            Its not the Ford EVs that intrigue me, its the cost of the batterytechnology they use. It means that a battery can be made for $10k to $20k which will have sufficient storage to power a house for more than 24 hrs.

            That threshold allows a homeowner to spend $10 – $20k to have power storage that can fill up on electricity at any time of the day when it is freely available in excess and use the power over the remaining 24 hrs

            The home supplies 100% base load over the interval of 24 hrs

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    Ross

    Visited a Melbourne suburban university a couple of weeks ago. Lots of staff idly sitting around drinking coffee and virtually no students because, you know, COVID. Poster boards all had notices of the upcoming Global Climate strike by students. Which is sort of ironic considering that most weren’t doing anything anyway. But the big joke was that next to some of the posters were other notices urging people to attend the Global Climate strike “Working bee”. So, were these guys on strike or not? Apparently they needed time to make their paper mache polar bears and their witty signs.

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    Ed Zuiderwijk

    Greta Thunberg.

    Pixie of Climate Doom.

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    CHRIS

    Would that be “working bee” or ” woking bee?” Our kids have been so completely brainwashed by the Neo-Marxist trash (ie: teachers), that they don’t know how to think independently. God help our future…

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    NZer

    I would love to see the schools take a stand, and mark kids absent and apply appropriate penalties for skipping school (where they might learn about temperatures and clouds and plants needing CO2) and being out at “protests” during school time.
    But before slamming these kids – remember they didn’t think this nonsense and drivel up for themselves, they’ve been brainwashed for many years, and I remember some of that when I was a kiddo in school. Some of them are genuinely frightened by the lies they’ve been told and the barrage of dishonest claims in media and documentaries. As a parent, I’ve had to put a lot of effort into combatting the false teaching forced on them in school… and at the same time teach them how to pretend to spout what is expected (though completely untrue) in order to get good grades. One of the unfortunate side effects has been that they get mentally “crushed” in the middle, and don’t want to even hear about it anymore, or try to think it through. For the more intelligent kids (not the ones so easily led into protesting for a day off), it is actually stifling their will to ask and learn.

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