Shallow Doom

Greta Thunberg joins climate protest outside JP Morgan

It follows a protest on Tuesday in Park Lane where oil executives had gathered for the Energy Intelligence Forum.

Ms Thunberg, 20, was arrested at that demonstration and charged with a public order offence. A further 26 people were charged.


An aspect of this story and many similar is that the demonstrators do not need to know much about the global climate. They have to learn some simple phrases, but the rest is performance. It’s shallow because it doesn’t need to be anything else.

Climate catastrophe language is positively reinforced socially, especially within certain pressure groups and major media corporations. The language and the performance are socially rewarding, even if challenged by police and the law, because invited challenge is part of the performance. Even unlawful activity may be positively reinforced by supporters and sections of the media - that's what matters.

When protesters protest and shout their catastrophe language, it is most unlikely that they feel the imminence of climate disaster. Theirs is not that kind of behaviour, it is a shallow social performance which is rewarded strongly enough to perpetuate it.

It’s all very shallow, but we are shallow as part of our adaptability. If we observe the protesters and listen to what they say, their behaviour is clearly controlled by social rewards, not the global climate. Shallow virtue is what it's all about.