The pro-hopefulness position is a departure from what Ms. Thunberg said in Davos:
Adults keep saying we owe it to the young people, to give them hope. But I don’t want your hope. I don’t want you to be hopeful. I want you to panic. I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. I want you to act. I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.
That is a terrifying quote. And it’s spot-on.
Still, despite the shift towards optimism, she isn’t letting anyone escape through the hope-hatch. Hope is good, but it’s not sufficient - you can’t be hopeful and idle at the same time in a climate emergency. And she speaks to this in this meeting with AOC: “hope is not something that you have. Hope is something that you create, with your actions.”
