Bon voyage Greta Thunberg

And where is the lucrative market for the cheap, pollution-causing goods made for us in India and China???

I’m actually not sure when anyone of any age told me something I didn’t really know about that was actually important ( at least in my later years) - but some people bring a freshness or new impetus to the message. I admire Malala but I knew all about the issues her case illustrated. But I do realise that an important message is never wasted in the re-telling and we need the next generations to hopefully do a better job than we have.

She should talk to the peoples of India and China who are the worst polluters.

I think you may have put your finger on it crystaltipps.

I think many like to sneer at anyone who is trying to draw attention to the problems we face as a planet, maybe as a defence mechanism to their own lack of interest/ willingness to change and the real extent of the environmental emergency. I think some people think that doing a bit of recycling is enough and everyone else should just shut up.

No-one is disagreeing with that - but this 16 year old girl isn't saying anything that we don't already know, and there are plenty of experienced people who are far further ahead of her in terms of real achievements. She might be a good soundbite, a slightly kooky public face, but let's keep it in perspective - we'll all perfectly well aware of the issues and many of us have been doing practical things to address them for many years.

If I had time, I'd find a way to do it in words of one syllable.

The points are:

1 To get to America via a carbon-neutral means.
2 To demonstrate that we have a global default setting of travel which is massively contributing to the death of our planet, by highlighting how very uncomfortable and impractical and unavailable any alternative is.
3 To draw global attention to our global plight.

Life as we have enjoyed it is not sustainable. If we wish to continue to eat food, breathe clean air, heat our homes and move ourselves or goods around the earth, we need to - really, really quickly - find sustainable alternatives.

What is this planned voyage but an antic? It is completely puposeless.

I honestly don’t see how this journey is being funded actually matters. As for the use of the already existing yacht, perhaps the only criticism would be if it had been built specially for this one trip and then thrown away? I do think some posters are being quite unnecessarily critical of her and very nit- picking and overall, it’s not a very ‘good look’ is it really?

A single "no" would have sufficed in my last post! Sorry.

And there no no single way to do it. Malala is to be applauded for doing what she needs to, in her way.

Please, M0nica, what she is doing can't be called antics. She's asking for people to respond to the crisis. A crisis not made by her generation, but one which they will have to deal with and, hopefully, survive.

My point was that in the main we're very much behaving as if business as usual will suffice.

Oops 4 million pound....

I hope she arrives safely.

I question how many of us could afford to sail the Atlantic on a 4 million racing yacht? Who is funding this journey?

Hmmm she's too young to influence politicians and those in power?

It was teenagers like I was then, campaigning and demonstrating that eventually pulled in millions of others that eventually stopped the war in Vietnam and eventually stopped apartheid. Yes it took time and took teenagers ignorant of so much but with a strong sense of right and wrong.

And you know what: it is so important that this ignorant girl does get the support for her views that we should all get on our knees and pray for ears to hear, eyes to see and minds to understand such that politicians act more decisively than hitherto.

So I repeat God bless her and her efforts

I certainly wouldn't wish bad luck on her, but launching yourself on a long journey on an ocean racer, a boat whose technology can contribute nothing to any changes in transport technology or strategy and when it is entirely unnecessary, is just attention seeking. There are safer, and arguably, more effective ways of putting her point across,

Happiyogi I absolutely agree with you that the problem needs to be treated with much more urgency, but I cannot see, for the life of me, how her antics contribute an iota to either raising its profile or contributing any practical solutions

She would be better off following the example of Malala Yousafzai, who after she had got out of Pakistan and recovered from her injuries, went back to school, concentrated on her studies and now she has graduated from Oxford is able to pursue her campaign for women's education in an informed and practical way.

Well Gonegirl that went well?

This was only a thread to wish good luck to a young girl.

What do you suggest then Happyogi?
That we all go back to pre-Industrial Revolution ways of living or that we seek better alternatives?

Most people speaking at conferences are up on giant screens these days in the conference venue. And of course the journey gives far more publicity - it’s only just starting and we all know about it.

"Rainman"?! Who thinks of that these days?

I do think the environmental message needs to be top of any political agenda, and if it needs activists to bring it to the fore then hats off to them. The media wouldn't be mentioning it if it wasn't for this sort of publicity.

that was to janipat (who knows much more than the rest of the human race, obviously)

Oh for goodness sake!

OK. I'm stupid. Happy now?

M0nica, it mostly is NOT being treated as a crisis! That is the point.

Mostly, (not everyone) people are eating meat and fish, buying new 'fashion' items and travelling the globe for pleasure. As they've always done if and when they could afford to. Irrespective of whether the planet can afford it.