You read the title correctly. Greta Thunberg hates poor people. To explain why, first let me explain the current state of industrialized society. Greta herself said, “We have industrialized life on earth,” (Thunberg). Over the past couple of hundreds of years, nations went through the Industrial Revolution, and innovation rose to a level never before seen. With this, came increased materials usage and greenhouse gas emissions. While the Industrial Revolution increased the well-being of people, it harmed the environment.
These facts lead to a simple solution to environmentalists; stop innovating so that the environment is not harmed. I’m not sure if they would rather we had never gone through the industrial revolution in the first place, but I would guess that Greta would not want us to go through another with the same outcome. The problem with this line of thinking is that not everyone went through the industrial revolution. There are still 3rd world countries. Not everyone has gone through their industrial revolution, yet. As society advances, it is clear that at some point, everyone will go through their industrial revolution in the same way that China went through theirs more recently than the United States. If climate change is such a pressing issue, shouldn’t we prevent 3rd world countries from industrializing? It only makes sense that we cannot allow them to pollute the way that we did for the sake of the environment. This is the line of thinking that environmentalists like Greta must have. So, perhaps saying she hates poor people is too extreme, but my point stands that dealing with future industrial revolutions is complicated.
Greta gets a lot of online hate for her activism. I admire Greta for her work at such a young age. She is not always right, but she tries her best, and that is more than most people. One area where she is completely right is in how to handle environmental inequality. She says two things that ring true. First, inequality is a symptom of how we treat nature. Second, “Those with the most power have the most responsibility,” (Thunberg). Let’s focus on the second point first. It does make sense that those who benefited already from harming the environment should be responsible for fixing the problem they caused. Additionally, the extra resources make the developed countries more capable of solving the problem. Henry Shue argues that equity, instead of equality, should be used because of the unequal environmental situation we are in (Shue). We can’t ignore history and expect undeveloped countries to take the burden of our mistakes.
Greta’s first point aligns with this idea as well. Her stance aligns with ecofeminism. Karren Warren, an ecofeminist, claims that any attempt to fight feminism or environmental inequality must address both (Warren). This is because of the way that people view nature. Society, especially developed society, sees nature as something we can dominate. This is the same way we view each other. Men think they can dominate women. Races think they can enslave other races. Nations think they can take resources through war from other nations by domination. The idea of ecofeminism is that we should stop trying to dominate everything around us. This is important because as a developed country, we cannot demand that an undeveloped country not industrialize. They are autonomous, and we have no power over them. Even if we could morally ask them to refrain from industrializing, we cannot demand it.
In conclusion, developed countries have the responsibility of fixing climate change because we caused it and benefited from it. From an equity perspective, we shouldn’t ask undeveloped countries to not try to get the benefits we receive every day. We definitely cannot force them to stay a 3rd world country in the name of climate change because we do not dominate them. Recognize the privilege that you have, and understand that your privilege comes with a responsibility.
Henry Shue, Global Environment and International Inequality, International Affairs, Volume 75, Issue 3, July 1999, Pages 531–545, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.00092
UNDESA DISD. (May 22, 2021). #ForNature by Greta Thunberg. [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdSJTvvWNzk
Warren, Karen J. (1990). The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism. Environmental Ethics 12 (2):125-146.