A radio talk show host has attracted a backlash after he launched a personal attack on 17-year-old climate change activist Greta Thunberg and branded her a ‘doom goblin’.
talkRADIO host Kevin O’Sullivan accused the teenager of spreading ‘nonsense’ after she issued fresh warnings about climate change.
‘So Greta today, or yesterday, said we had ‘two years to save the planet’. No we haven’t,’ he said, mocking her accent at the same time.
Funny these fragile impotent little men getting all het up about a girl. I'd guess its because she shows them clearly what they are.
— CharlotteB (@Charlottemayb) August 21, 2020
Co-host Ash Gould and right-wing commentator Emily Carver broke out in the laughter and joined in the ridicule.
‘We should be under water now, that’s what I heard,’ Carver said while Gould drily quipped: ‘They say that every couple of years.’
Kevin sounds like the kind of guy that should call into Kevin's show.
— Paul J Wheatley (@DukeofGlamis) August 20, 2020
Carver said environmental issues had made up their way up the political agenda over the past few years which prompted O’Sullivan to call climate change ‘nonsense’ while labelling Extinction Rebellion a ‘death cult’ and Thunberg its ‘doom goblin’.
‘This is the thing about climate change and this goes for Extinction Rebellion and Greta Thunberg, too. It is the epicentre of world hypocrisy,’ he said.
O’Sullivan and Gould then began impersonating Thunberg’s accent and mocked her for claiming the issue of climate change had ‘taken away’ her childhood.
‘Well, I don’t care… Go to school. Be like a normal kid,’ O’Sullivan said.
Twitter users slammed the radio presenters’ comments.
Charlotte B wrote: ‘Funny these fragile impotent little men getting all hot up about a girl. I’d guess it’s because she shows them clearly what they are.’
@TheHelpfulTroll wrote: ‘She does go to school, @TVKev is just jealous that she’s better known than him & can actually listen to people rather than constantly butting in seeking attention.’
They went on to label O’Sullivan as that ‘git that constantly talks through a film at the cinema’.
‘Kevin sounds like the kind of guy that should call into Kevin’s show,’ Paul J Wheatley quipped.
@bynoe110 said: ‘Wow that was pathetic two grown men slagging off a young girl !!!!’
O’Sullivan replied, telling @bynoe110 to inform Thunberg to ‘shut up and stop lecturing us then!’