When an anxiety-filled 16-year-old child is held up as a de facto message board for the climate change ruse by the adults in her life, image is everything.

This being a lesson that even a teenager can quickly learn, as seen on Saturday when Greta Thunberg tweeted an image online of her sitting among the baggage on a train in Germany like a ragamuffin — a tweet that came with or without direction from her public relations team.

Of course, Greta probably never expected the railway company to push back on what looked to be a brilliant narrative, tactfully reminding the left’s child heroine that she and her entourage had first class accommodations.

“Traveling on overcrowded trains through Germany,” Greta tweeted. “And I’m finally on my way home!”

Traveling on overcrowded trains through Germany. And I’m finally on my way home! pic.twitter.com/ssfLCPsR8o — Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 14, 2019

The rail company Deutsche Bahn released a statement saying that they “continue working hard on getting more trains, connections and seats,” according to the New York Post.

Image conscious themselves, the company pointed out that the train Greta took was running 100 percent on eco-friendly electricity, as they thanked her for supporting their battle against climate change.

But followed up on that message by dropping a bomb.

“It would have been even nicer if you had also reported how friendly and competent you were looked after by our team at your seat in first class,” the company said.

Deutsche Bahn said that Greta had a seat in first class between Kassel and Hamburg and that other members of her team were already sitting in first class from Frankfurt onwards, the Post reported.

Greta responded to the ensuing controversy with another tweet to essentially double down on having to sit on the floor, all the while saying that she was not complaining.

“Our train from Basel was taken out of traffic,” she tweeted. “So we sat on the floor on 2 different trains. After Göttingen I got a seat. This is no problem of course and I never said it was. Overcrowded trains is a great sign because it means the demand for train travel is high!”

Our train from Basel was taken out of traffic. So we sat on the floor on 2 different trains. After Göttingen I got a seat.This is no problem of course and I never said it was. Overcrowded trains is a great sign because it means the demand for train travel is high! — Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) December 15, 2019

Social media wasn’t too kind to Greta over the dust up, but it’s not really the teenager being mocked so much as it is the hypocrisy of the left that exploits children to push a radical agenda, doing absurd things like naming her Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, as was done last week.

Here’s a sampling of some of the responses from Twitter:

OMG even German Rail companies are now dunking on the fraud that is @GretaThunberg! ? pic.twitter.com/aAQjJJNWAt — Raheem Kassam (@RaheemKassam) December 15, 2019

The word insufferable comes to mind. — pezzanovante (@donnciccio) December 15, 2019

She certainly had a lot of luggage for an environmentalist. Her carbon footprint is rather large. — D A Landers (@MahutiMom) December 16, 2019

Ssssssh sitting on the floor makes her look sweet and good and her public relations team need to make more people love her. — Robin ‘Patches’ Ellwood (@visitme5) December 15, 2019

Nice atempt at damage control, busted again. Your handlers must manage the details better. — TheCryptoSniper (@TheCryptoSniper) December 16, 2019