Victor Davis Hanson // National Review
An ancient habit of Western elites is a certain selectivity in condemnation.
Sometimes Westerners apply critical standards to the West that they would never apply to other nations.
My colleague at the Hoover Institution, historian Niall Ferguson, has pointed out that Swedish green-teen celebrity Greta Thunberg might be more effective in her advocacy for reducing carbon emissions by redirecting her animus. Instead of hectoring Europeans and Americans, who have recently achieved the planet’s most dramatic drops in the use of fossil fuels, Thunberg might instead turn her attention to China and India to offer her “how dare you” complaints to get their leaders to curb carbon dioxide emissions.
Whether the world continues to spew dangerous levels of carbon dioxide will depend largely on policies in China and India. After all, these two countries account for over a third of the global population and continue to grow their coal-based industries.
In the late 1950s, many elites in the United States bought the Soviet Union’s line that the march of global Communism would “bury” the West. Then, as Soviet power eroded in the 1980s, Japan Inc. and its ascendant model of state-sponsored industry became the preferred alternative to Western-style democratic capitalism.
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I wish I could take a class from you at Cal State. Unfortunately I am too old and would be financially unable. Please keep up your good work; you have filled the hole since Charles Krauthammer died. Listening to you logical presentations is always appreciated.
Dear Mr. Hanson, Greetings. The question that no one seems to want to ask of young Miss Thunberg are what are her bona fides? What has she done in her life that lends credence to her finger wagging admonishments? What disciplines in climatology or meteorology has she mastered? It seems that no one dare ask this, lest they be looked upon with disfavor.
Greta Thunberg is pitiful. Her parents have allowed her to make herself look foolish in front of the world. 30 years from now she will have to live down that her name becomes a 'joke'. I don't see how parents can allow their children to be exploited that way.
Why should we listen to Greta? She is a child who has been indoctrinated by some adults. So she is really a parrot. She might be classified as an "abused" child. When she speaks about her independent investigation, then we can judge her value as a spokesperson.