Sweden’s Greta Thunberg has become the face of environmental activists warning of the threat of global warming, but she now has a rival.
The 19-year-old German, Naomi Seibt, who some are referring to as the “anti-Greta”, has become an influential icon among those questioning climate change.
“Naomi Seibt vs. Greta Thunberg: Whom should we trust?” asks the conservative Heartland Institute think tank, which is considered one of the most influential groups in the United States rejecting climate change theories.
Naomi is a member of the institute and even spoke at the “Climate Realism” conference organized by the think tank in Madrid.
According to the think tank, Thunberg’s apocalyptic visions of the irreversible damage caused by ignoring climate change provoke panic while Naomi “advocates proper scientific discourse” and wants people to “free themselves from the indoctrination of climate alarmists.”
Naomi has experienced growing admiration from conservatives, including a number of media outlets like Breitbart, which describes the German teen as “courageous, independent thinking, intelligent girl whom every parent would be proud of” and who has become “the target of the hatred of the leftists around the world” because of her opinions.
However, Naomi has also appeared on mainstream media programs. The reporters of conservative show “Outsiders” on Sky News Australia characterized her as “an incredibly brave girl” who has “lots of fans here in Australia.”
Naomi strongly opposes climate alarmism, which she believes prevails in the mainstream media.
“These days, climate change science really isn’t a science at all. These self-proclaimed scientists draw conclusions without testing the hypothesis, and build their assumptions on completely incoherent models, which is an insult to science itself,” said Naomi at the conference in Madrid, adding that the climate activism is, at its core, a “very inhuman ideology.”
Though the media and her supporters put her in contrast with Thunberg, Naomi doesn’t like the label of “anti-Greta”. She claims that this suggests that she is also an “indoctrinated puppet” for the other side.
She thinks her opponents came up with the label to have a simple degrading name for her.
“I am not this evil opposite of Greta. She might be a really nice girl, and I would love to talk to her someday,” she told news website Insider.
For the same reasons, she refuses to refer to herself as a denier of climate change.
“This is a grave insult, especially in Germany, as it is supposed to resemble the insulting denomination of the Holocaust denier,” she said in an interview with Sky News Australia, adding that she was often described as a “Nazi” and compared to far-right terrorists.
Naomi is set to make her American debut at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual gathering just outside Washington for right-leaning activists.
According to a Washington Post profile, Naomi’s political activism first began a few years ago when she began asking questions in her school about Germany’s liberal immigration policy.
“She said the backlash from teachers and other students hardened her skepticism about mainstream German thinking. More recently, she said that watching young people joining weekly ‘Fridays For Future’ protests inspired by Greta helped spur her opposition to climate change activism, according to the Post article.
