Patrick Christys: Greta Thunberg's protests are about smashing capitalism not just climate change

Greta Thunberg, who Trump famously once described as a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future, is set to lead a 100,000 person march through the streets of Glasgow.

This actually usually happens twice a year anyway when Rangers play Glasgow, but there’ll probably be less Buckfast involved in this one. In case you think this is a bit weird, it’s because it is.

The world’s most famous climate activist is essentially protesting against the world’s largest ever climate conference. Thunberg let it slip on the Andrew Marr show that she wasn’t officially invited to COP, and I can’t help but wonder if we’re now seeing a bit of a teenage strop. She was filmed singing – You can shove your climate conference up your…bottom….I remember when I had my first beer too.

It all just seems a little bit self-defeating – some real tangible things have already been agreed at COP, for example more than 100 world leaders have promised to end and reverse deforestation by 2030, more than 40 countries have pledged to quit coal, In a separate commitment, 20 countries, including the US, pledged to end public financing for "unabated" fossil fuel projects abroad by the end of 2022.

On top of that we’ve got the massive hike in domestic taxes that we’re all going to be lumbered with as our government continues it’s completely futile surge towards Net Zero, despite the fact that in order for the world to achieve that, China would have to agree to it, and they absolutely haven’t.

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to think that maybe China doesn’t really care about the environment. Greta did meet up with one powerful, esteemed world leader though – an historic figure who towers above other Presidents and Prime Ministers, and who strikes fear into the very heart of the likes of Vladimir Putin….Nicola Sturgeon.

Yes the small bolshy, shouty political activist…met Greta Thunberg. Hopefully Greta asked her about the fact that, for years and years, Sturgeon’s independence campaign was based around unlimited oil and gas extraction.

Urging others to join, Greta wrote: "On Friday Nov 5 I'll join the climate strike in Glasgow, during #COP26 Climate justice also means social justice and that we leave no one behind. So we invite everyone, especially the workers striking in Glasgow, to join us. See you there!"

Firstly, the striking workers are bin men. So I very much doubt that a Glaswegian refuse collector is going to pull himself out of bed and go and hug a tree with Thunberg at a rally that, ironically, is just going to create more mess for them to clean up in the long-run.

I don’t think it’s really all about the climate to be honest, is it? It’s about smashing the capitalist system, implementing, at best, radical socialism, at worst…anarchy.

If you don’t believe me, Greta told the European Commission that in order to fight climate change we need to change our political and economic systems.

If you, for want of a better phrase, drill down into what Extinction Rebellion and Co actually think, fundamentally it’s capitalism that’s the problem and not CO2. Presumably this march today starts in the afternoon, because none of them will be awake at this time in the morning will they.

I’d be keen to take a measurement of noxious gas levels above Glasgow before and after the march and see whether or not it’s gone up.

I’ll come back to this point – the world’s most famous climate activist is protesting the world’s largest ever climate summit, where real, significant progress has actually been made towards her goal.

The fact is, she’ll never be happy and she won’t think there’s been enough progress until we’re all wearing loin cloths and living in caves, using moss as a memory foam mattress.