Greta Thunberg’s run-in with police is good for the planet

Plus: SpotifAI. [Bloomberg]( Follow Us [Get the newsletter]( This is Bloomberg Opinion Today, a person, not a statistic of Bloomberg Opinion’s opinions. [Sign up here](. Today’s Agenda - [Climate change]( has a [PR problem](. - Should [Spotify]( be worried [about AI](? - Putin’s chef is [cooking up chaos](. - BlackRock is wrong about [the 60/40 portfolio](. Needed: More Greta, Less Existential Dread If you haven’t seen the image of Greta Thunberg being carried out by the German police during a coal-mine protest yet, let me do you the honor: Spotted: Greta testing out a new low-emission transportation vehicle. Photo by Federico Gambarini/picture alliance This photo has divided the internet. Some laud her for [getting detained](. Others point to her smirk (and her supposedly [chumming around]( with the cops) and argue it was a [photo op]( arranged by the [manipulative media](. But such debates miss the point. Regardless of whether you think Greta is a hero or a “[climate cult leader](” delivering an Oscar-worthy performance, her strategy worked: We all now know that Germany — supposedly a green-energy pioneer — is reviving the coal industry. The reality is that not many of us would have paid attention to [what’s unfolding in the small village of Luetzerath]( if it weren’t for Thunberg going viral. It’s an approach [other climate activists would be wise to replicate](, Lara Williams argues. Our social feeds are inundated with stories warning of the end of civilization if we don’t stop, say, using [plastic straws](. But people know straws are evil and don’t really care about what happens in the year [2085]( because that feels *so* far away. I don’t even know what I’m having for dinner tonight! Greta “is a person, not a statistic,” Lara writes, which is exactly what climate messaging needs. It’s just human nature that people would rather watch Kendall Jenner [struggle to cut a cucumber]( than read the 84,593rd news article written about “[the hell and horror of the climate crisis](.” Hope is a scarce resource in the field of climate science. But too much doom and gloom about the warming world can be dangerous, Mark Gongloff argues. For example, when [El Niño comes out of hibernation later this year](, temperatures could briefly surge past the 1.5C benchmark — a metric on which nearly 200 nations have hinged all their [climate goals](. This could convince people that limiting warming to 1.5C will be impossible in the long run. But it won’t be, unless we let fatalism win. Instead, this temporary-but-terrible spike could be a wake-up call to inspire much-needed changes. Fingers crossed the Kardashians will be [put on high alert](, too. Bonus Climate Chart: Europe hit the warm-weather jackpot this winter, much to Vladimir [Putin’s annoyance](. Although unseasonably high temperatures are helping the region [avoid the worst-case scenario in the natural-gas market](, spring-like weather on New Year’s Eve is nothing to cheer, Javier Blas writes. The energy war might be ending, but the climate crisis is just beginning: SpotifAI I am a tried-and-true Spotify girlie. But the streaming platform’s [same old song and dance]( of saying, “This is IT! This is the year that we will become profitable,” is getting stale: Consumers and A-list celebrities might be unbothered by Spotify’s inability to escape startup mode, but for shareholders and [starving artists](, the platform’s performance leaves much to be desired: Source: [@mollyomalleyx]( on Twitter Price hikes are an option, sure. But in an economy this weird? Who knows what that would do to demand. So the company is embarking on a new mission to create a [one-stop-shop for music, podcasts and audiobooks](. But Lionel Laurent warns that creating the Amazon of audio will do little to stop another threat from creeping onto the music scene: artificial intelligence. The [magic of ChatGPT]( is its ability to craft coherent sentences at a moment’s notice. Applying that to music would be a shock to the industry and its artists, Lionel argues. But before you go shorting Spotify stock, understand there’s a limit to AI’s success. [The only thing ChatGPT is winning is the imitation game](, Stephen Mihm writes. AI, in its current form, is incapable of writing new hooks. Everything it produces is regurgitated. [Nick Cave put it]( best when responding to a fan who asked ChatGPT to write a song in his style: “This song sucks. … Songs arise out of suffering, by which I mean they are predicated upon the complex, internal human struggle of creation and, well, as far as I know, algorithms don’t feel. Data doesn’t suffer.” Yevgeny’s Kitchen Nightmares Behind every creepy villain is an even creepier villain with zero credentials and a truly bizarre nickname. No? You haven’t heard that one? Well. Meet Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group Private Military Company and the apparent mastermind behind Putin’s rare successes in Ukraine. “Putin’s chef,” as he’s called, has no military rank. And yet he has cooked up what Leonid Bershidsky calls “[one of the main driving forces of the invasion](”: A [50,000-deep private military]( that recruits convicts in exchange for pardons. These aren’t the [tampon-in-wound]( units we’ve seen struggling in Ukraine. They’re effective and well-equipped, at a monthly cost of $100 million. Despite receiving this firehose of state money, Prigozhin isn’t always buddy-buddy with Putin. The two-time ex-convict isn’t afraid to call out the Defense Ministry for lying, nor does he bite his tongue when it comes to defending his troops on Telegram. That dynamic leaves Putin’s chef at risk of being burned, writes Leonid. [Read the whole thing](. Telltale Charts BlackRock is urging investors to [ditch 60/40 portfolios]( after a hellish year in which that ratio notched returns on par with those of the Great Depression. But this advice is short-sighted, Aaron Brown writes. [There’s still reason to have faith in the strategy](. The holiday hype train didn’t totally pull through in 2022, with [December retail sales]( falling below forecasts. Leticia Miranda and Jonathan Levin worry [the drop in seasonal spending is more than a blip](. Further Reading Removing our financial system’s bed rails [would be a major mistake](. — Bloomberg’s editorial board The debt ceiling is [a no good, very bad thing](. Abolish it already. — Bill Dudley Japan’s confidence in Kuroda is dwindling, and [the market could pay the price](. — Daniel Moss and Gearoid Reidy The UK government is fighting [a culture war it didn’t create](. — Therese Raphael [Firing a professor for “Islamophobia”]( is an egregious example of Islamophobia. — Hussein Ibish [Bond traders are feeling conflicted]( about the economic vibes. — Robert Burgess Chinese luxury shoppers need to add some [Burberry and Cartier]( to their cart. — Andrea Felsted ICYMI Guess [how many jobs]( Amazon and Microsoft are gutting. Brian Walshe’s [Google search history]( is truly something. Netflix announced all of its [new movies for 2023](. Did George Santos [steal money]( from a disabled vet’s dying dog? The [New Jersey deli guy]( got [arrested in Thailand](. Kickers Everything at Walgreens is suddenly [locked behind plastic](. Taking cake to the office is [as bad as secondhand smoke](. (h/t Christine Vanden Byllaardt) Normalize wearing skirts with [built-in wine cupholders](. Area dad gets overwhelmed by [the family group chat](. (h/t Mark Gongloff) Notes:  Please send cake and feedback to Jessica Karl at jkarl9@bloomberg.net. [Sign up here]( and follow us on [Instagram](, [TikTok](, [Twitter]( and [Facebook](. Like getting this newsletter? [Subscribe to Bloomberg.com]( for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights. Before it’s here, it’s on the Bloomberg Terminal. Find out more about how the Terminal delivers information and analysis that financial professionals can’t find anywhere else. [Learn more](. You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Opinion Today newsletter. [Unsubscribe]( | [Bloomberg.com]( | [Contact Us]( [Ads Powered By Liveintent]( | [Ad Choices]( Bloomberg L.P. 731 Lexington, New York, NY, 10022