A controversial life-sized bronze sculpture of environmental activist Greta Thunberg has been unveiled by a university after being branded a “vanity project”.
The statue of the “inspirational” Swedish climate change protester has been created by the University of Winchester to reflect its values on “sustainability and social justice”.
But the Winchester University and College Union (UCU) posted a motion of censure on social media calling the sculpture a “vanity project” and stating the £24,000 cost should have been spent on preventing redundancies and cuts following a period of sustainability at the Hampshire university.
It added: “To be clear: our concerns are about the expenditure and transparency of decision making by the university, which have long been opaque, not the subject of the statue.”
April Fools
Ignoring that argument Greta Thunberg pulled off another perfect piece of trolling on Thursday, with a classic April Fools’ joke.
The teenage activist Tweeted that she had created a video on YouTube where she would detail some of the small things we could all do to stop the climate crisis.
“We are in this together, and everyone is needed. YOU get to decide what future you’ll live in. So please watch, share and start doing your part today,” alongside a generic stock image of climate.
I made a video where I talk about some small things we ALL can and should do to stop the climate crisis.
We are in this together, and everyone is needed. YOU get to decide what future you’ll live in.
So please watch, share and start doing your part today!https://t.co/KDtgZQcgA7 pic.twitter.com/nCNn9rGMZb— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) April 1, 2021
Predicting a stream of abuse from adults claiming to know better than her, she fooled a lot of people as the link actually sent you to Rick Astley’s 80’s classic ‘Never Gonna Give You Up’ music video.
Basically Thunberg ‘Rickrolled’ the entire internet.
Reactions
A lot of people didn’t bother to click on the link and just spouted off without checking what she had to say.
1.
I’d prefer to live in the future with a stable electric grid, low energy prices, warm house at winter and a lot of cheap meat.
— Mikhail Sibirsky (@MSibirsky) April 1, 2021
2.
the problem my little girl, is this … small things will not help a lot when we keep growing with 83 million per year. pic.twitter.com/BG2svDyNE2
— Erwin Boydens also on Parler @ErwinBoydens (@ErwinBoydens) April 1, 2021
3.
I just ripped a huge fart, which increased my carbon footprint tremendously! I’m so sorry about that, Greta!
— Rodney The Raccoon, PhD 🇺🇸 🍔 (@RodTheRaccoon) April 1, 2021
4.
So by watching sharing and tweeting! We all would do our part? Is that going to reduce global warming and climate change?
— shiva (@shivavytla) April 1, 2021
5.
Gerta, If the earth is heating up, why did I have to scrape snow off my car this morning?
— Pigeon Forge HOA 🇱🇷 (@PigeonForgeHOA) April 1, 2021
But those who took the time to click the link found it highly amusing.
1.
Greta Rick Rolled I Just Can’t 😂😂😂😂
— Alexandria Villaseñor (@AlexandriaV2005) April 1, 2021
2.
Greta, you Rick Rolled me and you’ve made my kids day. I was just watching him play with the Foo fighters the other day. So when I clicked I genuinely thought it kept going to one of my old searches 😂👌🏼@GretaThunberg you’re a legend. Never knew about Rick Rolling 🤭
— Fran Sherbourne (@fransherbourne) April 1, 2021
3.
Yes, and “Together Forever” in this fight.https://t.co/unAsrZPWiL
— Javen Qúram (@JavenQuram) April 1, 2021
Related: Reactions as Greta Thunberg shows killer sense of humour about ‘shrinking penis’ pollution concerns
The post Well played! Greta Thunberg’s April Fools’ prank is epic trolling appeared first on The London Economic.
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