TV Host Under Fire For Saying Climate Activist Greta Thunberg Deserves A 'Smacked Bottom'

A British broadcaster has come under fire for his blistering column, saying what 18-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg needed was a "smacked bottom."

Jeremy Clarkson, the 61-year-old journalist known for hosting motoring programs like Top Gear and The Grand Tour, was so incensed by Thunberg's criticism of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) summit in Glasgow, Scotland, and calling it a "failure."

So Clarkson, who was irritated by her negative assessment of COP26, laid into the young activist in a column for The Sunday Times, and described Thunberg as an "annoying bucket of ego."

"I simply don't get the Thunberg phenomenon," carped the broadcaster.

"She has no knowledge of how the world works, no manners and no letters after her name because instead of going to school, she's been busy sailing round the world so she can be mardy and abusive to grown-ups."

He added:

"What she needs is a smacked bottom."

Despite agreeing with her opinion of the COP26 being a waste of time, Clarkson faced social media backlash for his bizarre comment slamming Thunberg.

And many came to the young activist's defense.

On Friday, Thunberg joined other activists for the Fridays for Future climate strike to advocate for climate justice against the backdrop of the COP26 summit—which started on October 31 and runs through November 12.

Following Friday's protest, she spoke in front of demonstrators in Glasgow's George Square and accused the COP26 summit of being a "PR event where leaders are giving beautiful speeches and announcing fancy commitments and targets, while behind the curtains the governments of the global North countries are still refusing to take any drastic climate action."

She added:

"COP26 has been named the most exclusionary COP ever. This is no longer a climate conference."

"This is now a global North greenwash festival, a two-week long celebration of business as usual, and blah, blah, blah."