I’ll straight up say I think figureheads and public leaders can be huge for movement growth even though there are risks. When Greta was front and center of the climatre movement I felt momentum was huge and even she decided to step back I think the momentum stall was really noticable.
I liked having Will Mckaskill to look to as a leader and high profile example with his giving style.
I see Rutger Bregnan and the attention he is getting in the media.
It might not be a comfortable thing but I think movements can benefit greatly from figureheads, although obviously there are risks for them, and the movement if they fail/fall for whatever reason.
Is there any data to back up the environmental movement growing and stalling around those times? It may have got a lot of media attention but it seems like the real gains on climate change were made by people who have been working in clean tech for decades and politicians that were already lobbying for various policies in the 2000s/2010s.
I would say the whole climate movement received a huge boost through Greta leading youth protests and being super visible including
Climate getting higher on the voting agenda, pushing governments to make commitments
More funding for research and actually implementing that clean tech
Those lobbyists you talk of having more of a wind behind them
Of course I think we can only attribute a tiny percentage of climate gains in that period to her being a figurehead front and center, but I think things have become harder since without an obvious person to rally behind.
And yes this is super subjective, just my opinion and no, I doubt there’s any data to back that up unfortunately.
I’ll straight up say I think figureheads and public leaders can be huge for movement growth even though there are risks. When Greta was front and center of the climatre movement I felt momentum was huge and even she decided to step back I think the momentum stall was really noticable.
I liked having Will Mckaskill to look to as a leader and high profile example with his giving style.
I see Rutger Bregnan and the attention he is getting in the media.
It might not be a comfortable thing but I think movements can benefit greatly from figureheads, although obviously there are risks for them, and the movement if they fail/fall for whatever reason.
Is there any data to back up the environmental movement growing and stalling around those times? It may have got a lot of media attention but it seems like the real gains on climate change were made by people who have been working in clean tech for decades and politicians that were already lobbying for various policies in the 2000s/2010s.
I would say the whole climate movement received a huge boost through Greta leading youth protests and being super visible including
Climate getting higher on the voting agenda, pushing governments to make commitments
More funding for research and actually implementing that clean tech
Those lobbyists you talk of having more of a wind behind them
Of course I think we can only attribute a tiny percentage of climate gains in that period to her being a figurehead front and center, but I think things have become harder since without an obvious person to rally behind.
And yes this is super subjective, just my opinion and no, I doubt there’s any data to back that up unfortunately.