14 January 2023, North Rhine-Westphalia, Erkelenz: Climate activist Greta Thunberg arrives for an ... [+]
I’m always a little surprised when the trolls emerge from their cave and start making ridiculous comments on Twitter. The latest example? Climate change activist Greta Thunberg released a new book recently and the Twitter elite have (somewhat predictably) jumped into action.
Their main complaint?
It wasn’t about the fact that the book is a compilation of essays written by other people, even though Thunberg’s name is on the cover. I’m not sure if she hand-selected the authors over the 84 chapters in the book, but the Amazon description says she did. The essayists include people like Margaret Atwood and Robin Wall Kimmerer, an author and professor.
Also, it’s not the cover, which shows what climate change would look like if a graphic designer was involved. The words appear to go from cold to hot across the page.
Instead, many of the comments have to do with…trees.
That’s right, the main complaint is that the book is printed on actual paper and wasn’t distributed digitally. Here’s her book announcement and the replies:
Other commenters mention how shipping the book will require airplanes and trucks to deliver copies to actual physical bookstores. Oh the humanity! “Wouldn’t a PDF have been better for the planet?” said one reply. “My head hurts thinking about all the trees that were killed to print these,” said another.
The funniest comment so far is this one:
A commenter said the book will one day be used as an energy source. That reply has about 1,000 likes but has been viewed over 125,000 times.
Another asked if the book was written in crayon. Ouch.
For the last few years, Thunberg has been the target of constant criticism, some of it meant as a personal attack. I was quite surprised the Twitter mob couldn’t come up with anything else to say about the book other than criticizing the environmental impact.
And, let’s be honest here. As a book author myself, I know even a large print run of one book won’t make much of an impact on climate change or the environment. Digital editions also use the power grid when we run all of our devices.
When it comes to social media, we are all experts on every topic. At least, that’s what these public forums make us believe. Thunberg’s detractors see a printed book and immediately complain that it impacts forestry and offer a suggestion about making a digital-only version. One book isn’t going to make much of a difference, and I’m sure Thunberg could make the case that the messages relayed in the book and the resulting personal convictions and changes far outweigh any negative impact from the print run (which was likely quite high).
Also, for all the commenters out there on her feed — there’s an easy solution. Buy the electronic book, or wait until The Climate Book appears at your local library.
