{"id":2449165,"date":"2019-09-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-26T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=313478"},"modified":"2019-09-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-26T06:00:00","slug":"aspen-princess-its-the-kids-world-were-just-destroying-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-princess-its-the-kids-world-were-just-destroying-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen Princess: It\u2019s the kids\u2019 world, we\u2019re just destroying it"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chances are you\u2019ve probably seen Greta Thunberg\u2019s impassioned speech at the U.N. or heard about the youth-led climate strikes going on around the country. Or perhaps your own child was one of the 4 million worldwide who participated in the climate change rally locally last Friday in Aspen. Maybe your kid was one of many who wore white and posed in formation to create a giant human snowflake for a photo that was captured by a drone camera \u2014 a nice touch that somehow captures that Aspen \u201cmind, body, spirit\u201d ethos in a really beautiful and hopeful way.<\/p>\n

I saw a post on social media that said it best: \u201cYou know there is something wrong with this world when the children are acting like adults and the adults are acting like children.\u201d<\/p>\n

What is it about this young girl that has struck a chord with people all over the world? She\u2019s become iconic with her long braids, little yellow rain slicker, and stern expression. She\u2019s captured our attention with her intensity, her intelligence and her commitment to action. She\u2019s warmed our hearts with her Asperger\u2019s diagnosis that somehow makes her every smile \u2014 that slight, crooked lift of one corner of her lips and an occasional sparkle in her eye like a small gift to us all.<\/p>\n

On top of her mission to save the planet and to call out world leaders in their negligence and inability to act, she\u2019s also setting an example for anyone who is different to own it and make it their strength. She says Asperger\u2019s is her \u201csuperpower,\u201d because of her ability to have and maintain acute focus. She has read the extensive reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and she has what has been described as an unflinching manner, and though she has displayed intense emotion with her emphatic plea, she has also shown a lack of emotion in some of the interviews I\u2019ve watched that are consistent with the symptoms of her \u201cdiagnosis,\u201d as she refers to it. It\u2019s common for people with Asperger\u2019s to have all-absorbing interests, which is clearly the case here. What\u2019s striking is her ability to speak with an unbridled honesty and frankness that has been so powerful and clearly very effective. It\u2019s fearless, raw and frank. Maybe that\u2019s why people are not only listening to her, but also hearing her.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not surprising, (though it is extremely encouraging) to witness the younger generation speaking out against a crisis that is simple enough for a child to understand: nothing is being done in the face of a global crisis where the damage and consequences are irreversible and potentially fatal. They\u2019re the ones who are going to be left with the mess that we created for them.<\/p>\n

In a recent interview on \u201cThe Daily Show,\u201d Trevor Noah asked Greta about her about her impressions of America and New York City and she said, \u201cHere, people take science as a matter of opinion, but in my country it is regarded as fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

I guess what stuns me is that it\u2019s come to this. For a child to speak with such honesty and simplicity that millions of people, especially other young people, can hear her message. It\u2019s a movement that, with the help of social media, has gained swift and startling momentum. I hope it continues to grow.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t help but wonder why it\u2019s Greta\u2019s voice, this singular and unlikely child who said she felt invisible for the first 16 years of her life, that rings so true and loud. I\u2019m not sure that it matters. I only hope the response can generate some action. The question is, how?<\/p>\n

For years I\u2019ve been saying that we no longer live in a democracy but a capitalist economy where corporate interests control legislation. They do it through powerful lobbies, they do it through outrageous campaign donations, and they do it through incumbent members of Congress who, without any kind of term limitations, have their lifelong seat bought and paid for by special interests. Until there is some kind of campaign reform, until there are term limitations, until we get big business out of politics, we\u2019ll never have a functioning government that represents the people, never mind the planet.<\/p>\n

I hear you, Greta. I\u2019m going to try harder. I\u2019m going to care more. I\u2019m going to start by trying to eliminate as much plastic and one-use products from my house as I can, because now that I think about it, things like Ziplock bags and paper towels are straight up crazy. I\u2019m going to start composting. I\u2019m going to continue to eat a mostly plant-based diet, and even though I do still eat meat I\u2019m going to think twice about it, especially since we have a freezer full of elk and venison from Ryan\u2019s annual fall hunt.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to work with the Community Office for Resource Efficiency and Green Line Architects who are on the cutting edge of green building during our remodel to do everything we can to make our old house more energy efficient. I\u2019m going to buy green products like the house cleaning system I just ordered that uses glass bottles and concentrated tablets so all you have to do is add water.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to support companies that are committed to environmental conservation because ultimately, I think our only hope is if capitalism catches up enough to make saving the planet profitable and lucrative business. Can renewable energy eventually trump all this waste, no pun intended? Then just maybe, our system can work.<\/p>\n

Here in Basalt, fifth-grader Oliver Fox-Rubin is organizing a Climate Change Rally for Friday. Thanks, Oliver. I\u2019m so glad Levi will have kids like you in our community to look up to. Thank you, Greta for being so smart and so brave.<\/p>\n

The planet is in trouble \u2014 but hopefully, thankfully, the kids are all right.<\/p>\n

The Princess loves her MINI Cooper Countryman SE hybrid. Email your love to alisonmargo@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chances are you\u2019ve probably seen Greta Thunberg\u2019s impassioned speech at the U.N. or heard about the youth-led climate strikes going on around the country. Or perhaps your own child was one of the 4 million worldwide who participated in the climate change rally locally last Friday in Aspen. Maybe your kid was one of many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2449165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-27 08:24:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2449165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2449165\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2449165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2449165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2449165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}