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PostPosted: 12/11/19 12:05 pm • # 1 
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Greta Thunberg is Time's 2019 Person of the Year
The 16-year-old climate activist from Sweden is the magazine's youngest choice to be named Person of the Year.


Image

By Safia Samee Ali and Elizabeth Chuck

Greta Thunberg, the soft-spoken Swedish teenager who became a global conscience for climate change and environmental activism, has been named Time magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019.

The magazine announced the 16-year-old as its choice Wednesday exclusively on the "TODAY" show.

"She became the biggest voice on the biggest issue facing the planet this year, coming from essentially nowhere to lead a worldwide movement," Time editor-in-chief Edward Felsenthal told the show, adding that Thunberg is the magazine's youngest choice ever to be named Person of the Year.

Thunberg quickly bloomed into one of the world's most notable climate change activists, sparking a collective movement to fight the issue after protesting alone outside the Swedish Parliament during school hours on Fridays when she was 15. The teen held up a now universally recognized hand-painted sign that read “skolstrejk för klimatet,” which translates to “School strike for the climate.”

Her initiative to strike galvanized students to protest against climate change throughout Europe and that momentum quickly fanned across the globe, becoming the “Fridays For Future" movement.

Her solo protest, Fensenthal noted, eventually prompted millions of people in 150 countries "to act on behalf of the planet."

He also said that Thunberg "represents a broader generational shift in the culture" — with youth standing up for what they believe in — from Hong Kong to Chile.

"Young people are demanding change, and urgently," Felsenthal said. "She embodies youth activism."

Thunberg's signature no-nonsense blunt style of speaking made her a force that could not be ignored by world leaders and she was asked to speak in front of several high-profile entities, including the United Nations and the U.S. Congress.

Thunberg, who has Asperger’s syndrome, first learned about climate change at 8 years old and said she became instantly concerned to the point that she plunged into depression over it.

“I remember thinking that it was very strange that humans that are an animal species, among others, could be capable of changing the Earth’s climate,” she said during a 2018 Ted Talk.

She gave up eating meat and traveling via airplane, among other things, to reduce her carbon footprint.

In October, Thunberg was the recipient of another honor — an environmental award at a Stockholm ceremony held by the Nordic Council. But she declined it, explaining in an Instagram post, "The climate movement does not need any more awards."

"What we need is for our politicians and the people in power start to listen to the current, best available science," she wrote.

When asked what he thought Thunberg's response would be after learning that she is Time's Person of the Year, Felsenthal said, "I don't know, but I think what she has done, her rise in influence, has been really extraordinary."

The young activist sailed for just over two weeks on a zero-emission boat with her father in August to New York City.

When she appeared before Congress in September, Thunberg refused to read prepared remarks and instead submitted a 2018 United Nations global warming report to lawmakers, telling them, “I don't want you to listen to me. I want you to listen to the scientists, and I want you to unite behind the science."

One of her most notable appearances occurred at the U.N. Climate Action Summit in September when she excoriated global leaders, including U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres by telling them they had “stolen her dreams and childhood” with their “empty words.”

"People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing," she said. "We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!"

The “how dare you!” sentiment reverberated universally, emboldening climate change activists while making politicians uncomfortable.

Her fiery words drew ire and sarcastic responses from several detractors, including President Donald Trump.

“She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!” Trump commented after retweeting a video of Thunberg's speech.

Despite being a frequent target of criticism, Thunberg has trudged forward on her quest for environmental justice.

Earlier this year, Thunberg, along with 15 other young climate activists, filed a legal complaint with the United Nations against five countries under the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child alleging the nations are not doing enough to combat climate change and that their inaction is affecting their right to thrive.

Her efforts also earned her a nomination for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize. While the teen lost the award to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Ali, she remains one of the youngest nominees for the illustrious prize.

The other 2019 finalists for Time's Person of the Year were Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Donald Trump, the Hong Kong protesters, and the anonymous whistleblower whose memo on Trump's dealings with Ukraine triggered the impeachment inquiry.

Instead of doing runners-up this year, the magazine gave awards in different categories, including the U.S. women's soccer team as athlete of the year, Lizzo as entertainer of the year, and Disney CEO Bob Iger as businessperson of the year.

The magazine has selected a Person of the Year annually since the 1920s. Last year, Time chose "The Guardians and the War on Truth,” which included four journalists and one news organization who paid a hefty price, either with their lives or freedoms, to be journalists at time when the profession has been under attack on several fronts.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/gr ... r-n1099396

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PostPosted: 12/11/19 12:54 pm • # 2 
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I thought she would be their choice.

:tup


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PostPosted: 12/11/19 1:09 pm • # 3 
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YAYYY! ~ I love it for 2 reasons: first, she DESERVES this honor ~ :st ~ and second, the DiC must be seething given how he ridicules her ~ :elephant

Sooz


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PostPosted: 12/11/19 1:42 pm • # 4 
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sooz06 wrote:
... the DiC must be seething given how he ridicules her ~ :elephant

That was my first thought. You have to wonder how long it's going to take for him to start ranting on Twitter.


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PostPosted: 12/11/19 5:41 pm • # 5 
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I see in the other place, that his son has already gone on a tirade. She certainly gets people stirred up but I'm not sure it's in a good way. The right wing seems to have taken to the cyber waves in their thousands today.


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PostPosted: 12/12/19 6:56 am • # 6 
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You gotta love this young lady ....

Quote:
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro this week called Thunberg a “brat” after she criticized mounting violence against indigenous people in which two Amazon tribesmen were shot dead.

The activist retorted by changing the biographical description on her Twitter account to “Pirralha,” the Portuguese word Bolsonaro used to insult her.

https://canoe.com/news/world/teen-climate-activist-greta-thunberg-is-times-person-of-the-year


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PostPosted: 12/12/19 7:30 am • # 7 
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As predicted it didn't take long for Trump to blow a gasket. BTW - am I the only one that finds it "humorous" Trump saying that someone else has to work on their anger management issues?

Trump launches snide attack on Greta Thunberg after she beats him to Time Person of the Year
'So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend', president writes on Twitter.

Vincent Wood

Donald Trump has lashed out at teenager Greta Thunberg after the environmental activist was named Time magazine’s person of the year - claiming she needed to "work on her anger management problem".

The teenager was lauded by the US magazine for having launched a grassroots campaign that became an international movement to hold governments to account over climate policy

However Mr Trump - who has previously attacked the teenager for her the stern rebukes she has issued to the international community - referred to the move as "ridiculous" on Twitter.

The president wrote on Twitter: “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill".

Mr Trump was also on the shortlist for the title alongside US house speaker Nancy Pelosi - but did not win the prize has he previously had done in 2016, his inaugural year in office.

Greta has not responded directly to the tweet - but has changed the description of herself on her Twitter profile to "A teenager working on her anger management problem. Currently chilling and watching a good old fashioned movie with a friend."

The tweet marks the second time the president of the United States has picked on the teenager for her emotional state.

The 16-year-old has been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a variant of autism which can effect a persons relation to social and emotional cues while also having an impact on communication. She describes the condition as a "superpower" that she says "sometimes makes me a bit different from the norm".

In September the president attended the same event as Greta, who furiously told world leaders she would "never forgive them" for letting down her generation on climate change. In response Mr Trump tweeted "She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see".

Greta responded at the time as she did to the latest attack - changing her twitter page's description to "A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future."

The president's long-standing interest in the accolade and the magazine stretches back to before his time in the White House.

He complained about not having been listed in the magazine's top 100 people in 2012, while in 2017 claimed that he would have won the award two years running but turned it down. Time magazine denied the claim.

In the same year he was chastised by the magazine for having hung fake Time covers with his face on them on the walls of his Mar-A-Lago golf course.

More follows…

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... 43711.html

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PostPosted: 12/12/19 1:04 pm • # 8 
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Can you imagine a grown man, supposedly President of the United States so jealous that he attacks a 16 year old girl over something that she didn't even do. After all, it was Time Magazine that picked her. She didn't pick herself. Grabem is such a sad, pathetic man/child!


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PostPosted: 12/14/19 3:10 pm • # 9 
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Trump’s team photoshops his face over Greta Thunberg’s on Time Person of the Year cover
US president mocks climate-change activist: ‘Chill Greta, Chill!’

Samuel Osborne

Image


Donald Trump‘s team have edited his face on to the body of teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg after she was named Time‘s Person of the Year.

The official Trump War Room account on Twitter posted the altered front cover of the magazine on Wednesday, the same day the 16-year-old won the accolade for “turning vague anxieties about the planet into a worldwide movement calling for global change”.

Mr Trump’s team said: “When it comes to keeping his promises, there’s only one Person Of The Year.”

Listing the reasons why they believe he deserved the award, they added: “Booming Economy, Record Job Creation, Historic Tax Cuts, #AmericaFirst Trade Deals, Isis Destroyed, Building the Wall.”

The US president mocked Greta after she received the recognition, tweeting on Thursday: “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”

Quote:
Trump War Room (Text TRUMP to 88022)
@TrumpWarRoom
When it comes to keeping his promises, there's only one Person Of The Year:

✅Booming Economy
✅Record Job Creation
✅Historic Tax Cuts
✅#AmericaFirst Trade Deals
✅ISIS Destroyed
✅Building the Wall

#TIMEPOY #PromisesMadePromisesKept

Image

Mr Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr, also took issue with Time‘s decision, instead suggesting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong who were “fighting for their lives and freedoms” instead of Greta, whom he described as “a teen being used as a marketing gimmick”.

It comes after Mr Trump’s campaign team depicted the president as Marvel villain Thanos.

They posted a video showing Mr Trump’s face superimposed on the body of the superhero’s nemesis in a scene from the film Avengers: Endgame, which features the character saying “I am inevitable” before snapping his fingers in an attempt to wipe out all life in the universe.

The video then cuts to Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders disintegrating into dust.

The US president previously posted a photo on Twitter showing his face on the shirtless body of Sylvester Stallone in the Rocky films.

He posted the image after claiming during a campaign rally in Florida that a doctor had told him to “show us that gorgeous chest” during a medical exam.

On Wednesday, Greta used her address at the UN’s annual climate summit to accuse governments and businesses of misleading the public by holding talks that she said aren’t going to stop the world’s “climate emergency.”

“The real danger is when politicians and CEOs are making it look like real action is happening, when in fact almost nothing is being done, apart from clever accounting and creative PR,” she said.

Mr Trump was named Time‘s Person of the Year in 2016.

[Shift's comment - remember that Time's Person of the Year doesn't necessarily go to someone who is doing good. The only requirement is that they have a significant impact. That's why Hitler and Stalin among others made the list.]

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/worl ... edium=Feed

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PostPosted: 12/22/19 3:21 pm • # 10 
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About what you'd expect from the whack jobs of the world ....

CONSERVATIVE PASTOR SAYS GRETA THUNBERG IS 'PSYCHOLOGICALLY DISTURBED,' POSSESSED BY 'DEMONIC SPIRITS' AND 'NEEDS JESUS'

BY AILA SLISCO

conservative evangelical pastor has proclaimed that climate activist Greta Thunberg is "the most iconic picture of the death of the west" who may be possessed by a "demonic spirit," after being outraged that the teen was named Time magazine's 2019 Person of the Year.

"Friends, this is it," said pastor Kevin Swanson on Monday's edition of his evangelical Generations Radio podcast. "This is the unravelling of the western world. This is what it looks like."

Swanson also made disparaging remarks about the appearance of the 16-year-old, who he mockingly dubbed "the prophetess of the new age." He claimed Thunberg, who has Asperger syndrome, is "psychologically disturbed."

"Her face is contorted in a horrible, horrible shape," claimed Swanson. "But whatever the case, she does have these psychiatric disorders and I guess that's no secret, that's been around."

The pastor also insisted that the "disturbing" young climate change activist was being used by "other demonic spirits" to take control of the world.

"I have to say, there's something very disturbing about the appearance of and the presentation of this Greta Thunberg," he said. "Now she's being trotted out in front of the others, the other demonic spirits are using her to lead the world, wherever it's going. I don't know where this world is going."

Swanson used Bible passages to illustrate his arguments. One compared Thunberg to a boy whose "demonic spirit" was said to have been driven out by Jesus. Another referenced a warning about civilization being harmed when children become insolent "oppressors" while women "rule over" society.

Thunberg's view that climate change is threat to earth caused by humans, which is in line with the scientific consensus, clashes with the minority denialist opinion held by Swanson. An episode of his radio show from five days earlier promoted discredited theories denying climate change.

"Friends, if this isn't a quintessential demonstration of the death of the west, of what an entire empire, what multiple empires look like at the verge of collapsing, this is it," he claimed. "It's ridiculous. On the one hand, we want to be compassionate with Greta. I truly believe that Greta needs Jesus and short of her coming to Christ, I don't know what is going to happen to this young lady. It's sad to watch her. It's a sad to see her in the condition that she is in."

Swanson was appalled that Time would name Thunberg Person of the Year, and later decried what he referred to as society's "fetish" for youth. He claimed that allowing young people to develop culture or "establish music tastes" will lead to "entire empires" being destroyed and "imploded." The notion of women taking leadership roles in politics also seemed to greatly trouble Swanson.

The Colorado-based Swanson has previously been known for his vociferous anti-gay rhetoric, which has included speaking in favor of the death penalty for homosexuality. He has made multiple claims that terrorist attacks and natural disasters are punishment from God for "sins" related to LGBTQ people. He once claimed that the movie Frozen was being used to convince children to become gay and accept bestiality.

Swanson is also a self-styled authority on homeschooling. His website lists qualifications which include having "homeschooled himself in the 1960s and 70s."

https://www.newsweek.com/conservative-p ... ts-1477844


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PostPosted: 12/22/19 7:53 pm • # 11 
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Bottom line:

Quote:
Another referenced a warning about civilization being harmed when children become insolent "oppressors" while women "rule over" society.


IOW, if she "finds" Jesus (religion in his opinion) she won't be an uppity, insolent woman. Typical religious patriarchy gobbledygook.


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PostPosted: 12/23/19 1:27 am • # 12 
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I'd be surprised if GT was not nominally Christian.


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PostPosted: 12/23/19 8:30 am • # 13 
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macroscopic wrote:
I'd be surprised if GT was not nominally Christian.

Not so sure about that. Sweden is generally considered to be one of the most secular and irreligious countries on the planet.

Quote:
Sweden is one of the world's most secular and irreligious nations, partly because many Swedish people define themselves as irreligious but spiritual people. Phil Zuckerman, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College, writes that several academic sources have in recent years placed atheism rates in Sweden between 46% and 85%, with one source reporting that only 17% of respondents self-identified as "atheist". Gallup Poll found in 2016 that 18% of Swedes self-report as atheist and 55% as non-religious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irreligion_in_Sweden


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PostPosted: 12/23/19 10:29 am • # 14 
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interesting. thanks, shift. I didn't know (nor did I expect) that.


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PostPosted: 12/23/19 10:33 am • # 15 
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Actually much of Europe (at least western Eurpope) is far more secular than the US.


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PostPosted: 12/23/19 10:47 am • # 16 
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shiftless2 wrote:
Actually much of Europe (at least western Eurpope) is far more secular than the US.


now THAT I was aware of, from the University of Chicago Center of religious studies.

we are approximately as religious in the US as is IRAN.

the most secular country in Europe is (if memory serves), Poland.

I just thought Sweden was MORE religious than most countries in Europe, not less.

I don't know why I assumed that, actually.


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PostPosted: 12/29/19 5:24 pm • # 17 
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Polish archbishop blasts Greta Thunberg as Antichrist
A Polish archbishop has blasted Swedish anti-climate change icon Greta Thunberg as nothing short of the Antichrist for her defence of the environment.

By: Novena

Driving the news

In an interview with TV Republika on Christmas Eve, controversial Archbishop of Krakow Marek Jedraszewski launched an extraordinary spray at the “very dangerous phenomenon” of “ecologism”.

He said that “phenomenon” is “contrary to everything that is written in the Bible” – which instructs humankind to “subdue the earth” for its own needs – and signals a “return to Engels”.

But Jedraszewski saved some of his harshest criticisms for young anti-climate change campaigner Thunberg, whom the archbishop said “is becoming an oracle for all political and social forces” trying to “break with the entire Christian tradition”.

The big picture

The Krakow archbishop dismissed “teenage activist” Thunberg and the hundreds of thousands of young people around the globe joining her in taking care for environment into their own hands as part of “various” sinister “new movements” turning the world upside down.

Quote:
“Everything is suddenly being questioned; in fact, our culture is being questioned; the whole world order is being reversed, starting from the fact that the existence of God, the creator, is being questioned; the role and dignity of every human is being questioned”, Jedraszewski complained of Greta and her movement.

“I’ll put it briefly: [this is] a return to Engels and his claims that marriage is another manifestation of oppression, and that in the name of equality one must break with the entire Christian tradition”, the archbishop continued.

Those are some of the “political and social forces” that Jedraszewski sees Thunberg as opening a door to.

Go deeper

Artur Stelmasiak, editor of the Catholic magazine Niedziela, praised the Krakow archbishop for recognising “the problem of the extreme-left ideology of ecologism”, adding that “in my opinion, abortion, LGBT and climate are a common ideological vehicle”.

But other Polish voices piled on top of Jedraszewski.

Warsaw deputy mayor Pawel Rabiej, for example – from the liberal Modern (Nowoczesna) party – tweeted a photo of the Australian bushfires and wrote of the archbishop: “there is no worse plague in the civilised world than those who question the need to care for our planet”.

Quote:
Rabiej finished by telling Jedraszewski to “go to hell, that’s your place”.

Why it matters

Jedraszewski has a history of outrageous public statements and actions against homosexuals – whom he considers a “rainbow plague” invading Poland – and also against single women, whom he fired from the Krakow Curia.

Not only are the Krakow archbishop’s comments on gays and women absolutely out of sync with the tone and direction of the Church, especially under Pope Francis, but his contempt for the environmental movement also clashes horribly with one of the major concerns of the current pontificate.

Quote:
Just in the past month, the Pope has praised young people like Thunberg for showing “a heightened sensitivity to the complex problems” that arise from the climate “emergency”.

Francis has also pleaded for leaders to “hear the voice of all those young people”, like Thunberg, “who help us to realize what is happening in today’s world and who ask us to be peacemakers and builders, all together and not individually, of a more humane and just civilization”.

As if that papal support for Thunberg wasn’t sufficient, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, Cardinal Peter Turkson, described the young Swede as “a great witness to what the Church teaches on the care of the environment and the care of the person”.

Former Vatican spokesman and now deputy director of the Dicastery for Communication of the Holy See, Alessandro Gisotti, was the latest Church figure to come out in favour of Thunberg, describing her as an “icon” in a recent conference in Madrid.

SOURCE

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PostPosted: 01/11/20 3:39 pm • # 18 
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It's so unfair. Not only should he have been Time's Person of the Year but he was robbed of his Nobel Prize!!!

Quote:
Trump says he deserves Nobel Peace Prize not Abiy Ahmed

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-51063149

I admit that when this turned up on my Facebook feed I had lot look to see that it wasn't from The Onion or the BabylonBee.


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PostPosted: 01/11/20 4:17 pm • # 19 
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If only Trump would get what he really deserves................ :angel


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PostPosted: 01/11/20 4:35 pm • # 20 
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roseanne wrote:
If only Trump would get what he really deserves................ :angel


That would be too medieval.


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PostPosted: 01/11/20 10:22 pm • # 21 
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So the guy that one week ago tried to engineer a war by assassinating a political leader and lying about the reason for the killing thinks he deserves a Nobel Peace Prize? Ooookaaaaaaay!!!

I think the next Peace Prize should go to the victims of the Tehran air crash. Their deaths brought both the warring nations and their rhetoric to a screeching halt.


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PostPosted: 01/12/20 8:58 am • # 22 
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roseanne wrote:
If only Trump would get what he really deserves................ :angel



I don't think there is a Nobel prize for telling lies. ;)


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PostPosted: 01/12/20 9:09 am • # 23 
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There isn't even an Ig Nobel Prize for that

https://www.improbable.com/ig-about/


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PostPosted: 01/19/20 3:00 pm • # 24 
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Just in case you wondered what sort of impact she really has ....

Canadian airlines feel the pressure of flight-shaming and the 'Greta effect’

CHRISTOPHER REYNOLDS

Swedish may not be the lingua franca of the aviation world, but ask any airline executive about the term “flygskam” and they’ll likely know exactly what it means.

Flygskam – Swedish for “flight shame” – is a growing environmental movement that highlights the flight sector’s carbon footprint, putting pressure on Canadian carriers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while managing the cost of passenger guilt.

“It does seem like a switch has flipped,” says airline expert Seth Kaplan.

“For a while, there was this very incremental recognition of the urgency (of climate change), and then over the past year or so all this has really gotten into the spotlight – aided by Greta Thunberg.”

The Swedish teenage activist, who travelled by racing yacht to a climate summit in New York to avoid flying and its attendant emissions, has focused attention on aviation’s role in global warming, with consequences for travel companies.

The CEO of SAS, one of Scandinavia’s largest carriers, has attributed declining passenger numbers in Sweden to flight shaming. Meanwhile the country’s main train operator, SJ, said it sold 1.5 million more tickets in 2018 than the previous year, thanks to what’s been dubbed the “Greta effect.”

Other European countries are experiencing the same phenomenon. Germany saw a similar decline in domestic flights in 2018, along with a corresponding increase in rail travel.

To combat this trend, airlines are turning to carbon offsets, where they invest in projects such as wind farms and tree planting to compensate for plane-produced carbon dioxide.

Such measures could cost airlines billions, Citigroup Inc. said in a research note last October. The banking conglomerate forecasts that carbon offsetting economy-class flights will cost US$3.8 billion per year within five years.

Carriers could absorb the expense or pass it along to consumers via a higher ticket price, but airlines will struggle in the long run if increased costs deter travellers from flying, Citi said.

If airlines foot the bill themselves, “the cost of carbon offsetting all leisure consumption could be as much as 27 per cent of airlines’ profits by 2025,” wrote analyst Mark Manduca.

Offsetting corporate travel – which Citi defined as business-class seats – will cost another $2.4 billion, reducing airline profits by a further 17 per cent, the report said.

Commercial aviation accounts for about two per cent of global carbon emissions – a far smaller share than that of cars (estimates range between about 15 per cent and 20 per cent) or coal-generated power (30 per cent). “But it emits carbon in a very visible way,” Kaplan said.

“You look up in the sky and you see airplanes flying.”

In Europe, where the European Commission has called for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050, airlines have taken big steps in response.

EasyJet announced in November it would begin to offset emissions immediately, a move that they claim makes them the first major airline to operate net-zero carbon flights.

British Airways followed suit and began offsetting all flights within the United Kingdom as of Jan. 1

New York-based JetBlue unveiled plans to go carbon-neutral on all domestic flights starting in July, the first major U.S. carrier to do so.

Canadian airlines have also made efforts to reduce their carbon footprints, albeit less ambitious ones than their European counterparts.

“Using fuel-efficient aircraft is our best hedge against rising fuel costs and improves our carbon footprint,” WestJet Airlines Ltd. spokeswoman Lauren Stewart said in an e-mail. “We are proud to have one of the youngest and most fuel-efficient fleets in North America.”

Air Canada has committed to carbon-neutral growth starting this year, meaning Canada’s biggest airline plans to cap net emissions, regardless of expansion.

Other efforts by the airline include more fuel-efficient aircraft and biofuel investment, said spokesman Peter Fitzpatrick.

However, the proliferation of budget carriers and a robust tourism sector is resulting in more emissions even as aircraft become increasingly fuel efficient.

A recent study by the International Council on Clean Transportation found that airplane emissions are increasing as much as 50 per cent faster than forecast by the United Nations, whose aviation body predicts aircraft fuel consumption will more than double by 2045.

Europe’s keen awareness and aggressive efforts around climate change may justify a little “tagskryt” – “train-boasting” in Swedish – but travellers on a densely populated continent have a built-in advantage.

“There’s no high-speed rail network here like there is in Europe. The cities are not as closely located as they are in Europe or in Japan. And if I have to go to meetings in Montreal or the West Coast of the United States, flying is my only option due to time and cost concerns,” said Brandon Graver, the Washington D.C.-based airline researcher behind the clean transportation council study.

A lack of investment in high-speed rail by governments in North America is also to blame, experts say, with flights between Montreal and Toronto more appealing in the absence of bullet trains.

Even if Canadian airlines were to proclaim carbon neutrality, its effectiveness remains up in the air.

“There’s been a lot of talk lately that, ‘Look, it’s nice to go and plant trees, but it’s not truly a one-for-one offset – that there’s not enough tree-planting in the world you could do to truly offset the impact of emissions,“’ airline expert Kaplan said.

Nor do carbon offsets address the issue of fossil fuel dependence, according to a recent paper by the David Suzuki Foundation and the Pembina Institute.

“It’s not the silver bullet … to reducing their emissions, but it’s one option of many – while others would call them modern-day indulgences where you’re paying for your sins,” Graver said.

“We’re hopeful that industry and governments together can come together and come up with a climate goal, an actual action that is beyond just lip service.”

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PostPosted: 01/19/20 3:34 pm • # 25 
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Quote:
“There’s no high-speed rail network here like there is in Europe. The cities are not as closely located as they are in Europe or in Japan. And if I have to go to meetings in Montreal or the West Coast of the United States, flying is my only option due to time and cost concerns,” said Brandon Graver, the Washington D.C.-based airline researcher behind the clean transportation council study.


Too self-important to Skype, eh?


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