They are both young, energetic, and very vocal about the coming end of the world as we know it due to climate change. It’s no surprise, really, that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez embraced Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg as she arrived in New York.

Miss Thunberg sailed into lower Manhattan on a 60-foot zero carbon-emission yacht. She received a celebrity’s welcome, as the precocious poster child of radical environmental leftists. She didn’t fly to New York as regular people do, you see because flying makes too large of a carbon footprint. In Sweden, the “flygskam”, or “flight-shame” movement is the latest big thing.

Greta received a hero’s welcome Wednesday after she and her entourage sailed into lower Manhattan on a 60-foot zero-carbon yacht, opting to sail the Atlantic for two weeks rather than fly to avoid contributing to carbon emissions.

“It is insane that a 16-year-old would have to cross the Atlantic Ocean to make a stand,” she told the cheering crowd that greeted her at the marina. “The climate and ecological crisis is a global crisis, the biggest crisis that humanity has ever faced.”

The sixteen-year-old girl left Plymouth, England, on August 14 with her fellow passengers, including her father. The yacht is all tricked-out with solar panels and underwater turbines that produce electricity onboard. It’s not a fancy yacht, though, according to the teenager. There are no toilets or showers and they ate freeze-dried food.

I agree with her – it is insane that she chose to take the action she did. I also think it is insane that grown adults are looking to a 16-year-old girl as their environmental Yoda. She is clearly devoted to the subject of climate change and that’s fine but this is a time in her life for studying and learning, not lecturing anyone who will listen as though she is the top authority on the subject.

God love her, Greta is mentally ill. For whatever reason, she was exposed to the subject of climate change at the tender age of eight years of age and it broke her. She is obsessed with the subject and hasn’t recovered from her initial exposure to it. It sure looks like child abuse to exploit this teenager in the name of promoting a political agenda.

One reason for the attention is her compelling backstory. She first learned of climate change at school when she was 8. Three years later, she became depressed, stopped talking and stopped eating. She was diagnosed with Asperger’s, obsessive-compulsive disorder and selective mutism.

Thunberg is in New York to attend a protest in front of the United Nations Friday. She also plans to attend next month’s United Nations Climate Action Summit.

The media love her.

Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg has completed her sailboat trip across the Atlantic to attend a UN global warming conference.

Thunberg says she took the wind and solar-powered yacht because flying is bad for the environment. pic.twitter.com/qHfBLEprgU

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) August 29, 2019

WATCH: Teen activist Greta Thunberg arrives in New York Harbor after sailing across the Atlantic in a zero-emissions yacht https://t.co/EHRI9qsgb8 pic.twitter.com/ZtCG3f2QhY

— CBS News (@CBSNews) August 28, 2019

In June, AOC reached out to Greta and did a video conference with her. Asking why the teen isn’t just so depressed that she can’t get up off her couch while she waits for the inevitable apocalypse, Thunberg pointed out that she is suffering from depression over the subject but that is why she began her claim to fame – school strikes. She began a movement in Sweden that expanded into Europe that encourages students to skip school on Fridays in the name of protesting climate change. I call it good old fashioned playing hooky, but your mileage may vary. I wrote about this in March because her #FridaysForFuture campaign earned her a Nobel Peace Prize nomination. No, really. During that video chat, AOC promised her a “Queens welcome” when she made it to NYC.

Welcome, Greta! We are so proud of you!

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 29, 2019

As you can see in this photo, the yacht bears the logo of United Nations Climate Change – Global Climate Action.

Now we sail up the Hudson River to North Cove Marina. Thank you to all that greeted us on the water!! pic.twitter.com/uDl9WMdOL1

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 28, 2019

The U.N. sent out boats to greet her.

The @UN has sent out one boat for each of the 17 sustainable development goal to greet us! Thank you! pic.twitter.com/AU5ZSVj5vD

— Greta Thunberg (@GretaThunberg) August 28, 2019

What she isn’t talking about, though, is the fact that any benefits from her publicity-seeking stunt to use the yacht as transportation are negated by the fact that a two-man sailing crew had to be flown across the Atlantic to bring the yacht back to England.

A spokeswoman for Team Malizia said it’ll be necessary to fly the crew to the U.S. because the high-profile trip with the 16-year-old Swedish campaigner that left Plymouth on Wednesday was arranged at very short notice.

Holly Cova told The Associated Press by email Friday that “we only have one boat, so they cannot easily sail over to meet them.”

Cova said the team recognizes it’s “an imperfect solution” but believes offsetting the emissions by funding carbon-reducing projects elsewhere “is better than doing nothing.”

Oh. It was really just a feel-good gesture after all. We already knew that, though, didn’t we?