Baby boomer slams 'selfish' children taking part in climate protest, asks them to turn off their ACs, TVs and mobile phones instead
As hundreds of thousands of school children inspired by Greta Thunberg's call to action concerning climate change took to the streets to demand that politicians enact policies that will sideline coal and other fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy, one letter from a baby boomer questioned their "virtue-signaling" and asked them to "grow up."
The letter, which first went viral on social media last year, has clocked over 200,000 shares and is making the rounds again as more than 300,000 protesters in 110 towns and cities across Australia skipped school to take part in 'Global Strike 4 Climate,' a global movement to demand action on climate change.
Addressed to "all the school kids going on 'strike' for Climate Change," the inflammatory letter read, "You are the first generation who have required air-conditioning in every classroom. You want TV in every room and your classes are all computerized. You spend all day and night on electronic devices. More than ever, you don't walk or ride bikes to school but arrive in caravans of private cars that choke local roads and worsen rush hour traffic."
"Furthermore, the people driving your protests are the same people who insist on artificially inflating the population growth through immigration, which increases the need for energy, manufacturing, and transport," it continues. "The more people we have, the more forest and bushland we clear and more of the environment is destroyed."
The writer goes on to offer a solution, where he asks the kids to "tell your teachers to switch off the air-con," "walk or ride to school," "switch off your devices and read a book," "make a sandwich instead of buying manufactured fast food."
"No, none of this will happen because you are selfish, badly educated, virtue-signaling little 'princesses', inspired by the adults around you who crave a feeling of having a 'noble cause' while they indulge themselves in Western luxury and unprecedented quality of life," he adds. "Wake up, grow up and learn to research facts and think for yourself and not blindly accept the words and thoughts of others."
Unsurprisingly, many didn't take too kindly to the derisory and condescending tone of the post. "Typical baby boomer post with no idea about the modern world and how anything works," one user hit back. "Your generation decided coal is the future. Your generation continually votes in a government who do nothing about climate issues, renewables, and pollution. Your generation ruined the economy. Your generation has ruined the planet. Ours is trying to save it."