He’s bang on. It goes back to the point I was making earlier. It’s not hypocrisy to have a big footprint because you live in a western capitalist country. To engage with society you have to live in it.
I find it infuriating that whenever there is any public discourse around climate change or pollution there is a deliberate effort by the government/corporate communicators to bring it back to what you can do to make a difference
Like with the straws thing. It was piss boiling. Their isn’t an apocalypse of marine life because my kid is using a plastic straw to drink his juice through. The problem is the handful of corporations and industries using the oceans as a trash can to dump industrial quantities of plastic waste. Stop telling me what I can do.
I don’t particularly find her annoying, but I can understand how she comes across to others, especially if they don’t understand that a lot of it is rooted in her autism. But I also think a lot of it is just fucking nasty.
I remember arguing with someone once who described her as ‘creepy’. Another saying she looks permanently homicidal. I’ve also seen some particularly gruesome attacks on her (on Twitter admittedly) suggesting ‘she needs to get laid’. I think she was 15 at the time, which not only highlight the shit she gets as a disabled person, but also as a young woman.
I saw her Ted talk years ago, in which she talked beautifully about climate change and her condition, which not only described and articulated the problem in wonderfully simplistic terms, but also framed autism in a beautiful way, talking not only about the challenges she faced, but the benefits and advantages seeing the world in a different way brought her.
I suppose I feel instinctively quite protective of Greta (not that she needs my protection) as she is a fellow climate activist, and gets a lot of unfair disablist (is that a word?) and misogynistic abuse. Being very young, she has a lot more skin in the game than most of the older people she is fighting against, and I think she is targeted because she represents the demographic with the most to lose and who had until now, been quite easy to control/ignore.
Fair enough. Not my most thoughtful post ever, I admit. I just read the article posted and noticed how Bennet was issuing public threats instead of solving it (because I am sure the organisers would solve this quickly as it is obviously embarrassing and a clear error in organisation) without greater fuss. The woman deserved an official apology. She got one. And that should be the end of it. I just instinctively sneer at Bennet’s tendency to play victim in public and feed people’s emotions and prejudices towards the UN as an organisation. Why ? because I have prejudices too, we all have them, and I am prejudiced against the Israeli Ultra Right borderline fascist wing, which Bennet and his Settler party is part of.
But in all honesty, you are correct. My post was not thoughtful when it comes to carrying the wheel chair etc. My apologies, it was silly.
all good. I’m sure there’s some embarassment on the organizing committee that they didn’t have this sorted out ahead of time, as I’d be shocked if her requirements were not forwarded ahead of time.
My wife works in a global leader in meetings and events. This kind of shit (unfortunately) happens far too often, as if someone’s physical liabilities are an inconvenience to those who have to accomodate it. It’s not their fault, and even if it was… it shouldn’t be a deterrent to anyone.
Press conference with Biden, apart from Biden like always rambling and sounding like he’s not all there …Q from WSJ…question about democrats chances…it’s ok… She definitely tying this question back to the climate crisis. Don’t worry, it’s coming…here it is…nope… Nothing about the climate. Discussing party politics at COP26.
let’s not kid ourselves here. nobody in big business wants to confront climate change except for those who can profit from it. and the politicians are hand-in-pocket deep with big business so they have ZERO incentive to make changes.
then there’s the everyday person who likes the idea of climate change but doesn’t necessarily want to be inconvenienced by it or have it cost them a lot of money, so there’s that issue to consider. I have no problem downsizing my vehicle, or buying an electric car as a commuter…but is that a viable solution when my home burns far more natural gas in heating and water than my vehicle?
This article is properly terrifying, but things need to be called for what they are. For too long, humanity has held it’s collective head in the sand. Time to wake up, or we’ll suffer. All of us, first the poor ones (some already are), then the rich ones too.
(I like the expression Private sufficiency, public luxury, that’s very good. )
so many decisions could/should be made with future generations in mind, instead of immediate gratification.
I think back to 18months ago when the world stopped, and how much immediate change occured in the world within a few short months. fish in the Venice canals, smog ceased over much of Asia and Europe, etc…
I said it at the time that Covid was (still is) a massive opportunity to make some real changes to the way we work, live life etc. from an environmental perspective. That’s pretty much been missed sadly.
There could have been a significant reduction in work based travel for example. But the instruction was to “get back to the office serfs”. Apparently we had to save some sandwich shops.
The point is that there’s no easy way to do this. Big changes are needed that will completely change businesses, the economy and everything. No one is willing to take the first step.
But I agree that Thunberg has an advantage in that she can, and does say what exactly needs to be said. I personally don’t care that she blunt about it. There’s no room for political spin in the conversation anymore.
This is what annoys me the most, along with the fact that some high streets were seeing revivals because of this. Two societal problems that could have been solved at one go.
There is always going to be economic dislocation resulting from such changes, but as per usual, society has missed the boat on the opportunity to make these changes…
Maybe my experience is an outlier but in the legal profession covid has accelerated a lot of firms rather hypothetical plans to bring in greater flexibility in terms of remote working. The Courts were forced into massively accelerating the provision of remote hearings.
The vast majority of this progression will not be wasted. Remote hearings are set to continue even after the pandemic, zoom meetings have become much more common, working from home is far more regular and even encouraged. My firm has pretty much set up a complete workstation for me at home.
People are realising the advantages from these arrangements, both for business and for employees, and not just in terms of carbon footprint. Productivity, work-life balance, morale, overheads, flexi-time, client servicing, etc.
That’s great to hear! There’s not often actual good news that I get to hear regarding this whole crisis. My partner (non-legal office-based professional) has already seen several people leave the company because of a lack of flexibility around remote working (they want people in offices minimum 2 days a week).
That’s exactly how it should be I think and good to hear. Zoom / Teams meetings work there’s no need for people to travel vast distances to speak round a table for an hour anymore. The ability to share screens and information during these on line meetings is far more valuable IMO.
Sadly we were told to get back to the office this week on a 3 day rota. That’s against current Welsh Government advice (I’ll withhold my thoughts on that issue) and we’re there, sat in various rooms to keep socially distanced with the windows wide open and the heating on full blast and on occasion even having a coat on. Backward is not the word. I now also have to drive 30 miles each way. Thankfully I’m leaving for somewhere more local and I’m proud to say the shorter commute and even the option to cycle has been a small part of that decision, or I should say one reason that was put in the advantage box when I was thinking it through.
From a personal level the problem I’ve had with home working has been not being able to switch off. There’s various reasons for that some personal, others the workload and job demands (targets). That has and continues to be very tough mentally for me. I’d argue it’s having a physical impact as well,
From what I’ve read, a “virtual commute” helps, in that you could take a walk or a cycle after work, which helps to ease the transition. You do need to actually decide to stop working before that though, so won’t necessarily work for the workload and the job demands bit…
Interesting idea. Shame clocks have gone back and it’s darker now. Plus the weather has been utterly awful these last 3 weeks.
A weird issue and I dont know if others can relate to it is in the evening trying to settle the little one etc. he’ll watch some Paw Patrol or whatever. They will watch the same episode over and over again and I cant do it anymore, so the laptop comes back out and I’ll carry on. So wrong on so many levels but it’s been another reason for changing jobs. A proper shake up to the work life balance.
My routine is as follows and I should add that I work from home ~99% of the itme:
Start at 745-800
The odd (2-3) 5-10 minute break here and there till 330
Get food going and then at about 400, I go to the pub for 1 pint where I finish off some admin
Around 450-455 I pick up the kids from afterschool club
Come home finish cooking and get the kids set up for the wind down (i.e. food, homework, about 1 h of screen time)
700 we all go up and at change/brush/shower/etc
By 800 they are - supposed - to be in their rooms and read or play till 900 and then lights off…
The bit about breaking the day at the end (with a pint and then cooking) helps me to disconnect but once they are up and (supposedly) in bed, I usually have my laptop and am twiddling around with something from work whilst watch TV… but I don’t mind that. Obviously this doesn’t always go to plan especially when either me or the missus are travelling, when its a bit of a see as you go, but in general that routine (mostly) works for me. The cooking and the pint bit I did even when I was mostly going back and forth to site - thankfully my commute was only about 20 min each way.
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