Conservatives rightly believe that we shouldn’t take climate science lessons from European teenagers with no qualifications, such as left-wing climate change activist Greta Thunberg. It’s only liberals who believe in bowing to the supposed wisdom of teenagers, hiding behind youth as a shield, and outsourcing intellectualism to empty spokesmen.
Just kidding!
Apparently, some conservative climate change skeptics have no real issue with these cheap tactics — at least, not when it’s a teenager willing to parrot their message on climate change.
Enter the Heartland Institute, a free market think tank that promotes smart, conservative policy on a variety of issues, but sadly pushes absolute nonsense when it comes to climate change rather than offer nonalarmist, free market solutions to address the issue. (Which do exist!)
Some amount of pushback against left-wing alarmism is warranted, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s claim that the world will end if we don’t fix the climate within 12 years. But Heartland flat-out denies that carbon emissions pose a threat to the environment, instead simply asserting without evidence that extra carbon is a net benefit to the environment. Now, to top it all off, the group is touting, unironically, a teenage figurehead of its own, embracing the Left’s silly tactics to try and spread its anti-science nonsense.
A lot of hullabaloo about newest #climate communicator for Heartland. Her story of joining us in her own words. -> YouTube Personality Naomi Seibt joins The Heartland Institute https://t.co/GBUVuKRnyo via @YouTube
— Heartland Institute (@HeartlandInst) February 14, 2020
Meet the anti-Greta, a young YouTuber campaigning against “climate alarmism” https://t.co/R03zXGx6jr
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) February 24, 2020
Naomi Seibt, a 19-year-old German climate change skeptic who made waves on YouTube, has now been picked up by Heartland as a symbol for its climate change skeptic movement. She’s a YouTuber with about 50,000 subscribers, and the Heartland Institute is already promoting her across its platforms and at its conferences. Just look at this video it posted, one of many touting the young skeptic as an alternative teen icon: “Naomi Seibt vs. Greta Thunberg: Whom Should We Trust?”
Here’s an idea: Maybe we shouldn’t “trust” either teenage activist when it comes to climate change. We could look to scientists, experts, or, at the very least, adults for guidance on important issues where some amount of learning and life experience are involved.
Radical, right?!
This is another example of political activists touting an unserious, unqualified teenager to promote their ideology. It’s wrong when the Left does it, whether it’s using Thunberg as a messenger for a peculiarly alarmist, doomsday climate change cult with socialist undertones, or gun control advocates using school shooting survivors for their political advantage. But it’s just as wrong, and arguably worse, as they really ought to know better, when conservative groups prop up their own teenage idols.
It’s also embarrassing because Seibt is simply not a serious person.
“Are manmade CO2 emissions having that much impact on the climate? I think that’s ridiculous to believe,” she told the Washington Post. “To the media, I have a few last words: How dare you?” Seibt added, clearly trolling and referencing a viral comment Thunberg once made.
Groups such as Heartland are free to question the science of climate change. But if they want to avoid looking like massive hypocrites, let alone convince anyone, they ought to present arguments and evidence, not hide behind teenage YouTube trolls looking for five minutes in the spotlight.
