Greta Thunberg’s climate activism in practice

Greta Thunberg is cited as one of the loudest voices in the fight against climate change. However, the teen activist’s actions raises doubts about her ability to perceive the complexity of the problems she strives to solve. One example of her inability to understand the carbon costs of travelling is well documented in the aptly named ‘Yacht controversy’.

Greta had reportedly chosen not to fly to the US for her big UN speech, citing high carbon emissions in the aviation industry. Rather she had opted to travel from Sweden to the US on a ‘Low carbon emission’ yacht, which took 15 days. This move was widely regarded as a visual representation of leading by example and practicing what one preaches.

It was only later that the full picture came into light. On paper, the ‘Zero carbon emissions’ sailing yacht, donated by a Russian billionaire, used a fraction of the fuel consumed by an airliner. Even disregarding the time cost of such an endeavour, when fuel consumption per person per mile is considered, the airplane is the clear winner. Moreover, to bring the Yacht back from America, team of 7 people had to be flown all the way from Europe to the US. The result was that nearly eight to ten times carbon had been released to fuel this publicity stunt than would have been released, had Thunberg taken a flight.

Despite these revelations, it would be wrong to undermine Greta’s contribution towards climate change. Her popularity has been a catalyst in bringing climate change back into the spotlight. Greta can be thought of as an important tool to get the message of climate change to the people. However, anyone who looks to her for real world solutions might be disappointed as her ability to understand the complex socio-economic nuances around climate change leaves a lot to be desired.