GRETA IS 19 NOW, and while she doesn’t get the headlines of an inane Donald Trump, when she speaks she has something about the world’s future that is worth listening to. On Earth Day April 22, the young Scandinavian climate activist spoke for the entire world once again when she claimed that the annual Earth Day event had “turned into an opportunity for people in power to post their ‘love’ for their planet while at the same time destroying it at maximum speed.”

Just as she spoke out against world governments aimed at personal enrichment (such as the one headed by Donald Trump), she continues to warn of the quickening destruction of the world today — at the expense of a “green” reality as championed by the likes of short-time President Joe Biden.

Let’s face it. Biden — only a little over a year in office sweeping out the smelly remains of a rotten Trump administration — has his hands pretty full fighting an inevitable war against Russian despot Vladimir Putin. A war in which much of the world has been recruited, but which is not being fought on American soil or directly deploying human American forces. Some other details, such as the domestic price of gasoline, are inconsequential by comparison.

Jill Colvin of Associated Press said on March 4: “Russia's brutal invasion of Ukraine is posing a serious test for Trump and his ‘America First’ doctrine at a moment when he is eyeing another presidential run and using this year's midterm elections to keep bending the GOP to his will. He's largely alone in his sustained praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin as ’smart,’ an assessment he reiterated last week during speeches to donors and conservative activists . . . The multinational partnerships that Trump repeatedly undermined, meanwhile, have allowed the West to quickly band together to hobble Russia's economy with coordinated sanctions. The NATO alliance, which Trump once dismissed as ‘obsolete’ is flexing its strength as a foil to Russia's aggression.”

Or also a Feb. 22 assessment by Catherine Garcia on Yahoo News: “Former President Donald Trump is giving Russian President Vladimir Putin two thumbs up for his decision to recognize two breakaway regions of Ukraine and send troops to the areas.

“While Putin's actions have received sharp criticism and sanctions from President Biden, Trump was full of praise for the Russian leader. During an interview on the conservative Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show, Trump said it was ‘wonderful,’ ‘so smart,’ and even ‘genius’ for Putin to ‘declare a big portion of the Ukraine ... as independent.’ He claimed Putin will now ‘go in’ and ‘be a peacekeeper.’ While Putin has said he's sending troops to the breakaway regions as part of a ’peacekeeping’ mission, Western leaders say he is merely making it easier for Russia to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine."

Indeed! Sajid Javid, a senior UK minister, said Jan. 22 that "the invasion of Ukraine has begun.” That followed Putin’s ordering soldiers into the separatist-held east of the country. And the whole of Ukraine fast became a mass of smoldering ruins, blood and mass graves.

In November a small percentage of Americans will go to the polls, largely those inspired by Trump’s pie in the sky,
and an increased cost of gasoline (of which Biden would rather lessen overall use in the first place) as the cost of a proxy war on foreign soil — and the self-serving forces of Trump may well pull out another second-hand victory in this supposed bastion of democracy.

Green politics is a political ideology that aims to foster an ecologically sustainable society often, but not always, rooted in environmentalism, nonviolence, social justice and grassroots democracy. Biden is making some progress in this area with moves to install renewable energy sources in place of fossil fuels — but intelligence remains a hard sell.

By the time Greta reaches my present age, it will be 2096. If humanity has survived wars, pestilence, disappearing resources and the combined effects of global warming and over-population, my oldest great-grandchild may have reached the age of 79 in this struggling world.

I see no justification for optimism. Out of either necessity and/or choice, too many people are caught up in their personal lives today and let tomorrow fend for itself. I truly feel that by the beginning of the next century these 2020s will be, at best, “the good old days.”

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports show the world is barreling toward stronger, more frequent disasters fueled by the climate crisis, with little time to reverse course.