Greta Thunberg Takes Vaccine Stance Against Climate Conference, Deals 'Significant Blow' to UK Government

It seems climate activist Greta Thunberg may be heading down a path pioneered by previous pundits, taking attention received over a particular issue and parlaying it into a portfolio of publicly prominent political positions.

Or maybe she’s just concerned about COVID-19.

Either way, here’s some big news: The teen has no plans to attend the upcoming United Nations climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland.

In a piece published Friday, she made as much clear to BBC News.

The conference, of course, will gather world leaders to address the concept of — as Elvis experienced in the 70’s — our temperature risin’.

But Greta’s got a hunk of burnin’ intercontinental love.

Hence:

The 18-year-old Swedish climate campaigner is concerned about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on attendance at COP26.

She believes the summit should be postponed.

She says the UK government, which is hosting the summit, should wait until global vaccination rates have risen.

Thunberg really wants those vaccines–

“This needs to happen in the right way. Of course, the best thing to do would be to get everyone vaccinated as soon as possible so that everyone could take part on the same terms.”

Apparently, the activist has a quite a lot of clout.

Despite rising to prominence less than two years ago as a severely distraught 16-year-old…

"How dare you?"

It's been a year since teen climate activist @GretaThunberg made this impassioned plea to world leaders at a UN climate summit. pic.twitter.com/12eQ5wh1YK

— AJ+ (@ajplus) September 23, 2020

…she carries an incredible amount of weight:

Ms. Thunberg’s decision is likely to be a significant blow for the UK government.

BBC notes she’s “attended every major climate conference since her first protest outside the Swedish parliament” — though that was only “two and a half years ago.”

COP26 — which has already been delayed once — may see as many as 30,000 in-person attendees.

That’s a whole lot of pollution-promoting travel.

But the world has to be saved from the world, so the world will come together to save it.

And in that effort at the last COP shindig, Greta was a headlining speaker.

As recalled by BBC, “[COP25] ended with many unresolved issues, but an agreement was made about cutting carbon dioxide — a gas that causes global warming. Each nation agreed to devise a plan to cut their carbon emissions by the next conference in Glasgow.”

So what’s the goal of #26?

This:

[It] will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The symposium’s set to be the largest summit the UK’s ever hosted.

Yet, without hot-item Greta, the global warming meet-up will come out a bit cold:

Greta Thunberg would not play a formal role at the conference, but her decision not to attend is a significant symbolic moment for the conference.

Nonetheless, she told BBC the summit isn’t the only way to save the planet:

“To be frank, the changes need to come from people demanding climate action,” she said.

“Yes, these COP meetings are crucial and they are incredibly important. But we can have as many of these meetings and conferences as we want but as long as we are not really treating the climate crisis as a crisis, we won’t see any real changes coming from them.”

Additionally, she’s clobbering coal:

She also criticised the UK for holding a climate conference when the opening of a new coal mine is being considered.

“It really shows the true face of the so-called net zero emissions by 2050,” she added.

Buncha malarkey:

“If you can commit yourself to something like that while at the same time that includes the possibility of opening new coal mines, and so on, it really doesn’t mean that much.”

So there ya go.

Might the conference be again rescheduled?

BBC says Yes, and a final decision should be coming soon.

Whether the conference gets a new date and whether the adolescent then attends, I’d bet the world hasn’t heard the last of the great Greta Thunberg.

In climate circles, she’s a superstar.

I’ll just say it: The girl’s the environmental Elvis.