Bon voyage Greta Thunberg

Alexa I think most of the posts are thoughtful and reasonable.

It was for GG13 Callistemon - sorry, I should have made that clearer!

Although...

I am surprised at the amount of negative ideas among the grans, about Greta Thunberg. A little disappointed.

I am and will always be grateful to her for her hard work in today's most urgent cause , and I thank the seafarers who are taking her on her journey.

Oh!
Was that for me or GG13's post SirChenjin?

No - surely not

Speechless (for once!)

In one of the Swedish Newspapers it is being reported that “5 crew members” are flying from Germany to New York to crew the yacht back.

I used to find I didn't feel as sick when it was rough, perhaps it concentrates the mind. A gentle swell is worse imo.

I don't envy her heading for the Azores at the moment. DSiL is also sailing in that direction but in a RN Destroyer, not a racing yacht and he's relying heavily on his Stugeron patches!

I agree with HappiYogi.

I'm sure you're proud of your GD's Paddyann, especially the one who won the award for climate change.

I'm very proud of mine as they are all very aware of the danger of climate change. Two are vegans, one a vegetarian and one has just decided not to pursue her ambition to be an airline pilot because it is incompatable with being an environmental activist. They all know about Greta Thunberg and listen to her warnings.

But it is the older people who are in a position to make the changes necessary: develop the technologies, apply them, build them and finance them.

I think oldies saying "she hasn't changed my view" are ignoring the fact that maybe she is influencing those of her own generation? Surely that is the relevant point. If by sailing the boat and getting some publicity it influences others to listen to the message and maybe act on it that got to be good surely?

"Many of usoldies know whats what with regard to climate change but many more either aren't interested or deny its happening a la D J Trump.
Greta has brought it back into the limelight for some who will take it onboard simply because she's not the green leftie in a crumpled suit they think of when climate change is mentioned.
Young people may be aware but will often take more heed if the message comes from someone their own age or generation than an old fuddy duddy .My own GD's are all quite up to speed and one in particular won an award for climate change videos she made, shes 12 .Every little helps and we should be firmly behind Greta in her fight for the planet

Yes I know she’s taken a year out but it’s a free choice she can make because she’s past school leaving age - not a privilege granted as GrannyGravy suggested. That was my point.

Can those that keep ranting on about eye-contact/she's not autistic please educate themselves about female presentation of autism. Seriously ill-informed comments like these are one of the reason that autistic girls struggle to be diagnosed

Many people obviously still believe only the outdated stereotypes of male Asperger presentation. Whereas girls present very differently as they are adept at observing and copying behaviours. My dd1 makes eye-contact - it didn't come naturally when she was very young but she is intelligent and has learned that this is "what people do" - very much like learning another language.

Teenage Swedes also speak very good English. DD2 had high school friends who are fluent and wrote their high school projects in English rather than Swedish. Swedish youngsters are also expected to be able to read and discuss University texts in English once start University

GGMK3 if you had read my post of yesterday at 18.44.03 you will see that myself and family take climate change very seriously.

Suziewoozie, Greta said that she was taking a year out of education to concentrate on climate change in one of her interviews.

Agree maddy

Arron Banks has defended his widely-criticised tweet about teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, saying his post was "a joke".

The Brexit-backing businessman initially tweeted: "Freak yachting accidents do happen in August."

His remarks were in response to a post about the 16-year-old's ongoing transatlantic voyage in a racing yacht.

It sparked a negative reaction from other Twitter users, who called the Leave.EU founder "vile", and reminded him of Thunberg's age.

One Twitter user, @smilinglaura, said: "Veiled death threats towards a 16-year-old. What a vile individual."
Another user, Ian Maher, said: "You should be ashamed. But that presupposes a moral compass."

news.sky.com/story/arron-banks-defends-vile-greta-thunberg-tweet-it-was-a-joke-11785625

We can chose to ignore twitter, and I'm sure many of our generation do, but millions are influenced by it. As of 2018 there were more than 320 million who accessed twitter at least once a month and are doubtless influenced by those they follow. That is why politicians like Trump tweet all the time.

Arron Banks is a dangerous individual, his poisonous ultra right wing ideas, almost certainly funded by Russia, were promoted by the brexit liars and climate change denial is a key policy of the ultra right, hence his attack on Greta Thunberg.

Oh if only AB were an irrelevance ?

GrannyGravy where did you get the information in your post from? Mandatory schooling in Sweden finishes at 16 so who told you only someone privileged/wealthy etc could get a year off school?

Aaron Banks is an irrelevance to be honest, but that’s my opinion of Twitter in general, best ignored.

I think we all wish Greta a safe journey. And an enjoyable one as well (though sailing across the Atlantic in a sailing boat would not be my cup of tea, or even in the massive Queen Mary 2 to be honest, but that’s because I’m a big coward around boats.)

What she may achieve is obviously up for discussion, as proved here on this thread. But I think whether we agree or disagree with what she is doing, every one of us wish her a safe journey.