I’ve been observing the Greta Thunberg phenomenon for some time and what seems clear to me is that here is a girl who is being exploited. She is being exploited by her parents and those who want to turn environmentalism into some form of secular religion.

Miss Thunberg’s performance at the United Nations, heavy on emotion but little on hard scientific fact, quite frankly disgusted me. I was not disgusted by Miss Thunberg herself, to my mind she is a victim here, but by those who have used her for their own ends and to influence other young people to become hysterical about climate alarmism. The effect of Miss Thunberg’s exploitation is the mostly Western phenomenon has been to propel lots of brainwashed children out on to the streets, sometimes with the connivance of politically motivated children.

To see these groups of mostly young girls at demonstrations crying uncontrollably about the so called ‘climate emergency’ reminded me greatly of some of the other instances of mass hysteria that we’ve seen in the past, especially among the young. Change the script and we could just as easily be seeing the hysteria of Beatlemania or over some other popular media figure. In some ways the Greta hysteria is reminiscent of the sort of temporary mass mind loss by those not yet fully adult. In particular the Greta phenomenon is very much like the case of the incident in Blackburn Lancashire in 1965 when many girls at a school complained of a mystery illness that was in fact little more than mindless panic. In the Blackburn case, fear of the disease Polio, which was present in the town at the time and several genuine cases of fainting, triggered other younger girls to suffer dizziness and breathing difficulties among other symptoms such as teeth chattering.

What we have in the person of Greta Thunberg is a young woman with an enormous number of mental health challenges who is being used like the exhibit in a Victorian freak show to gather support for the cult of climate alarmism. I find that what has been done, with the connivance of her parents, to Miss Thunberg to be morally troubling to say the least. Sadly I think that in ten or fifteen years time, when her time in the spotlight is over, the contrived ‘Pippi Longstocking’ look no longer appeals then Miss Thunberg will be a personal casualty of her current exploitation. With less hysterical people looking at the possibility that, like other predicted enviro-catastrophe of the past such as a new Ice Age and mass starvation, such as were made by some scientists in the 1970’s.If today’s climate hysteria is revealed to be just that, Greta Thunberg may mentally collapse to a point where she cannot recover.

The Greta Thunberg phenomenon is one that I firmly blame on the parents. Like the pushy stage mother in Noel Coward’s song ‘Don’t Put Your Daughter On The Stage Mrs Worthington’, Greta Thunberg’s parents have gone along with their daughters bizarre beliefs that she could ‘see’ CO2 and that the world is going to end in humanity’s self-immolation, rather than calming her down and challenging her views in an age and ability appropriate way. Like the ambitious and pushy parent who wants to see their child’s name in lights, Greta Thunberg’s parents have pushed their daughter into a limelight that she is unsuited for and which she may not be able to cope with. Miss Thunberg is not a savvy, politically aware 16 year old, examples of which do exist, she is a mentally damaged young woman who should be being helped and not mercilessly being exploited for others political ends. I lay the blame for the disgusting spectacle of this vulnerable young woman being used by those who have no desire other than for power over others, firmly and squarely on her parents.