You have probably noticed global warming protester Greta Thunberg popping up a lot in your Facebook timeline.
The Swedish teen gained worldwide attention last year when she went on strike from school to protest the lack of action to tackle global warming.
In less than a year her small protest has grown into a global movement with millions of people, young and old, going on strike last Friday.
In response to this social media was littered with pictures, memes and posts full of fury at her protest.
Here are a few examples:
Even in Wales our politicians are jumping on the band wagon.
Assembly Member and notorious climate change denier Neil Hamilton was heavily criticised for a tweet he put out mocking the teenager.
So what is causing this hate? What is prompting so much energy and cash to be spent attacking a teenager girl with Asperger's syndrome who is trying to make the planet safer for future generations?
An investigation by the climate change website DeSmog suggests it is coming from a pressure group network with links to the fossil fuel industry and wealthy climate science deniers.
Attacks on Greta in Europe
The first documented attacks on Greta Thunberg originated in Europe with the tweet below by Arron Banks who bank rolls the Brexit Party.
In the tweet he "joked" about the teenager drowning while on a boat.
Many of the Brexit Party MEPs are vehement climate change deniers including Wales' Nathan Gill who was r ecently exposed by WalesOnline for lying during a by election about Welsh school.
These MEPs join similar populaist parties like the Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and the Alternative for Germany (AfD). National Rally members boycotted the Swedish teenagers visit to France and an investigation by Greenpeace found the AfD made rampant attacks against her on social media.
What evidence is there that the attacks against Greta Thunberg are co-ordinated?
Right this is going to get complicated.
Much of aggression and rhetoric against climate change in Europe is linked to a German organisation called the European Institute for Climate and Energy which has hosted many conferences for climate change deniers. They include in their motto: "The climate is not at risk, but our freedom!"
This European Institute for Climate and Energy have co-sponsored events with the Heartland Institue. The Heartland Institute is based in Chicago and is a "free market think tank" which has for decades been trying to discredit climate science. They have also receive significant funding from the oil giant ExxonMobil.
In a blog post in June this year they attacked Greta saying: "it is time for her to go back to school to learn what she doesn’t know and to unlearn so much of what she has been taught."
This is by no means an exception.
In 2012 the New York Times reported on leaked documents from the Heartland Institute which outlined plans to promote a curriculum that would cast doubt on the scientific finding that fossil fuel emissions endanger the long-term welfare of the environment".
Those same documents revealed that they would be working with the Koch family (owners one the US's largest oil companies) to achieve these ends.
Other links to the Koch family have also been attacking Greta Thunberg.
The family part-fund the website Spiked whose editor is Bredan O'Neill. This is the same editor Brendan O'Neill recently wrote a piece describing Greta where he said: "This poor young woman increasingly looks and sounds like a cult member. The monotone voice. The look of apocalyptic dread in her eyes. The explicit talk of the coming great ‘fire’ that will punish us for our eco-sins."
It is not just Spiked that like to put the boot in.
The right wing pro-Trump publication Breitbart recently published a piece where they described Greta's cause as "downright evil". Written by the former Daily Telegraph writer James Delingpole, it called her "the patron saint of the age of stupid".
Even Trump himself has been using Twitter to take shots at Thunberg.
In mocking post on Twitter he wrote: "She seems like a very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future. So nice to see!"
Greta responded by changing her Twitter bio to read: "A very happy young girl looking forward to a bright and wonderful future."
This map by DeSmog mapped the links between all the major groups attacking Greta Thunberg:
