16-year-old Greta Thunberg is currently on a two-week transatlantic sailing voyage aboard a carbon-neutral, zero-emissions, 60-foot racing yacht. The Swedish teen is travelling from Plymouth, England to New York in order to attend the United Nations Climate Action Summit.

Earlier this summer, she announced her desire to attend both this summit and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Santiago, Chile this December, because these two summits will be, as she put it, “pretty much where our future will be decided.” At the same time, she noted the difficulty in attending, since she’s so committed to her activism that she doesn’t fly. So the invitation to sail was a big deal.

Good news!

I’ll be joining the UN Climate Action Summit in New York, COP25 in Santiago and other events along the way.

I’ve been offered a ride on the 60ft racing boat Malizia II. We’ll be sailing across the Atlantic Ocean from the UK to NYC in mid August.#UniteBehindTheScience pic.twitter.com/9OH6mOEDce — Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) July 29, 2019

Thunberg is doing something truly incredible in this voyage, though it’s not her only accomplishment. She’s spoken to foreign government officials on the issue of climate change. She also recently sparked a school walkout among students worldwide in protest of governmental inaction on the issue. And on top of all of that, she’s been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year. So why do so many grown men seem to see her as a direct threat?

Here’s a Fox News contributor and former member of Donald Trump’s transition team calling her a “teenage puppet” and a “bedwetter.”

When you’ve resorted to a teenage puppet for your public policy argument… you’ve lost. Climate bedwetters… the world laughs at this Greta charade. https://t.co/wqdw39KZJp — Steve Milloy (@JunkScience) August 10, 2019

Here’s a French politician–who recently called Thunberg a “prophetess in shorts”–calling on his colleagues to boycott Thunberg’s recent speech to French lawmakers.

🌍J’appelle mes collègues députés à boycotter @GretaThunberg à l’Assemblée nationale. Pour lutter intelligemment contre le réchauffement climatique, nous n’avons pas besoin de gourous apocalyptiques, mais de progrès scientifique & de courage politique.https://t.co/Qs4Lna2dXE — 🇫🇷 Guillaume Larrivé (@GLarrive) July 20, 2019

Here’s a right-wing pundit blue-check nobody going for the reliable old chestnuts of “shrill” (because woman) and “infantile” (because young).

Yes, Greta. We hear but we’re not remotely interested in what you say. We also hear the shrill chorus of your infantile acolytes and laugh at them. pic.twitter.com/QDcOeqZA1a — David Vance (@DVATW) August 16, 2019

And then there’s Arron Banks, the co-founder/bankroller of the Leave.eu (aka Brexit) movement, publicly making jokes about her death.

Freak yachting accidents do happen in August … https://t.co/6CPePHYLtu — Arron Banks (@Arron_banks) August 14, 2019

Banks has since done a big public “it was just a joke” eyeroll, as if there was confusion over whether he was seriously hoping for a teenager’s death or was just a giant asshole.

In his defense of his “joke,” Banks accuses Thunberg of “being used,” although he doesn’t specify by whom. Which pretty much encapsulates so much of the criticism of her and others in her position. As a young woman, she is deemed too “shrill” to be listened to, too young to be taken seriously, but formidable and old enough to have both jokes about her death and serious calls for boycotts lobbed her way.

Of course, none of these men have any bearing over what Thunberg actually stands for, what she plans to say or do at the UN summit, and what her future as a likely Nobel Peace Prize winner holds. They’re just flies buzzing around her greatness.

(image: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)

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