Greta Thunberg: Are We Running Out Of Time To Save Our Planet?

No. Propaganda. How we need to clean up plastic and other debri that affect plankton. But are we at imminent risk. No. Educate yourself and pick your battles.

I have a contrarian view when it comes to 'Climate Change'... and the involvement of youth activists regarding the same. Personally, if hard, peer-reviewed, scientific evidence supports, without any doubts whatsoever, that human processes are indeed leading to harmful, reversible effects... I'm in support of responsible, practical, and sound means of combating it. I worked for ten years in the catalytic emissions controls industry (gas turbine power generation), and would say that we've made definitive and impactful change adopting new "clean" natural gas combustion systems, and post-combustion controls. I was personally involved with hundreds of such installations, across the nation, where the levels of CO, VOCs, and NOx were being reduced to the sub 1 ppmvdc range...effectively cleaner than the ambient conditions on those with lean-NOx trap technology installed. Throughout it all, I was appalled at just how little the public sector, legislators, and many activists actually knew about these advances...or how few were even aware of their existence.

However, there are real issues with "renewable sources", and ideas (and accompanying ideologies) which far from presenting solutions... offer only greater potential problems. Worst still, the decisions and potential legislation associated, rarely come without embedded political or social aims that are at best, unsustainable, at worst, possibly destructive. Unless humanity were to DRASTICALLY abandon our average energy consumption, reverse the socio-economic clock a few centuries or more, and acknowledge a technology gap we're possibly generations from closing... schemes such as the so-called, "Green New Deal" are little more than rhetorical schemes designed to create a cultural litmus test.

When it comes to youth, and their voice in all of this, I'll admit that I admire their proactive attitude, but I don't think any are equipped...either in terms of experience, or education, to lead the effort. What child wouldn't, when constantly faced with the "certainty" of ecological "doom", want to be heard? What compassionate adult wouldn't want to re-assure them? Such sentiments don't offer any clear path forward; at least not one that doesn't spell disaster for millions in the form of stagnated growth, forced austerity, and uncertain gains if one could even be implemented.

The answer, in my opinion, is to "de-politicize" the issue, and work cooperatively with both public and private sector entities to take the next steps forwards... rather than backwards.