On March 13, 2024, Greta Thunberg was dragged away from blocking the Swedish Parliament entrance for a second day. She was among 40 or so people protesting the ‘political inaction’ over climate change. (If only that were true, I sigh…) She’s been at it since even before her embarrassingly hammy How dare you! speech at the United Nations in 2019. Climate change is the magic pudding of protests.

In 2005, the Global Day of Action (aka Kyoto Climate March) established the magic pudding recipe for annual protests, intended to force all governments to take action to ‘combat climate change’. Yep, almost 20 years ago.

According to Treehugger.com:

‘One of the first globally recognised protests took place in Copenhagen in 2009. Halfway through the UN’s environmental summit on December 12, tens of thousands of climate activists lined the streets to demand effective environmental policy. This was part of the Campaign for Climate Action’s annual Global Day of Action, and it ended up being the largest of the events to take place – estimates range from 25,000 to 100,000 people. What captured significant media attention was the violence incited by a few at the protest, and the arrests that followed.’

So much pushy passion, so little intelligence…

Much of the signage at these protests reflects faux moral posturing. In the 2014 People’s Climate March (more about ‘People’ later), one large blue sign carried the panic prophesy, all in caps:

WHEN THE LAST TREE IS CUT DOWN THE LAST [fish image] EATEN AND THE LAST STREAM POISONED YOU WILL REALISE YOU CANNOT EAT MONEY

This sort of presumptive argument by assertion is par for the alarmist cause. You can also run images of bushfires and storms with the assertion that they are caused by climate change and nobody challenges you. That is why it is done over and over again. As for ‘People’s Climate March’, it’s worth noting that ‘people’ in this context is usually a political sleight of hand, as in The People’s Democratic Republic of (North) Korea, etc.

The ever-recurring protests against climate change (a nonsensical statement but you know what I mean) enjoy the benefits of the never-ending, ‘renewable’ source of angst for the alarmist cohort. Like climate change ministers, the protesters will not be around long enough to be embarrassed by their alarmism in 50 years. But perhaps this ever-renewable protest will still manifest. Greta will be over 70 – and no doubt still thundering, still protesting, still accusing the world of stealing her childhood dreams. (Of what?)

Global concern for climate change began in 1972 when multiple scientists at the UN Conference on Human Development in Stockholm presented on the development of the climate over the century. By 1979, climate conferences were held and led to the creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by the United Nations in 1988. The IPCC is now one of the leading organisations that provide countries with scientific data to create informed policies.

This was reported by Sharmon Lebby for her June 2021 article in treehugger.com. Sharmon is, as the website states, a ‘writer and sustainable fashion expert. She has written and spoken on panels about the ties between environmentalism, social justice, inclusivity, and fashion. She is the founder of Blessed Designs, an ethical fashion brand, and the President of the Ethical Network of San Antonio’. She cites her expertise as ‘Sustainable Fashion, Clean Beauty’. Good for her.

I am quoting from her treehugger.com article to stifle any knee-jerk criticism that I have selectively plucked material from a ‘denier’ source…

In September of 2014, around 400,000 demonstrators would gather in New York City for an event that would dramatically overtake Copenhagen’s protest numbers. This event was significant because even though the environmental movement gained real ground with the inception of Earth Day, polls would show that the United States ranked second to last in public knowledge about climate change. The  Climate March would be known for its diverse attendees, all of whom gathered under the slogan “To Change Everything, It Takes Everyone”.

In other words, groupthink climate gullibility.

There have been many more climate change protests or climate strikes… The latter is a fun outing for school students prodded into action by the thought of saving the planet. All you needed to do was wag school.

In conclusion, Lebby wrote:

The number of climate change organisations appears to be growing. From government organisations to nonprofits, more and more leaders are beginning to see the urgency in working to heal the planet at its source. Many organisations such as Extinction Rebellion, Campaign Against Climate Action, and Fridays For Future were created for the sole purpose of using civil disobedience and peaceful marches to push for climate action. How effective these will be remains to be seen, but it does seem that these methods increase public support.

I’m not convinced about that, but my point is that the topic of climate change is a reliable source of renewable protesting, never running short of panic, angst and finger pointing at governments who ‘must do something’.

The terrible addiction of this topic is that no matter how much governments do something to satisfy their own alarmist craze (including our very own climate tsar Chris Bowen), there is nothing positive to show for it. Some people seem to expect instant and localised results but what would that look like? Even if you were to accept that fossil fuels cause warming, those economy-weakening policies would not have any effect for a long time. You can protest every day for 50 years! The signs and the paraphernalia are reusable – and universal.

Many governments have ‘done something’ (too much) already, eg Net Zero, chasing the elusive dream of renewable energy replacing coal and gas all while luxuriating in the financial contributions to the nation’s well-being by the same coal and gas. Sure, you can’t eat money, but you sure can’t eat without money, either.

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