Former kickboxer, professional misogynist, and online entrepreneur Andrew Tate, 36, sent a boastfully hostile tweet to climate activist Greta Thunberg, 19, about her sports car collection. “Please provide your email address so I can send you a complete list of my car collection and their respective huge releases,” he wrote. He probably hoped to improve his status by making fun of his climate commitment. Instead, he burned the male to a crisp in nine words.

He was looking for attention; he got it. Cars are routinely displays of manliness and status for men, and the image accompanying his tweet of him gassing up one of his vehicles, along with his claims about its "huge emissions," had an unsolicited dick pic energy. Thunberg seemed aware of this when she replied: “yes, please enlighten me. email me at smalldickenergy@getalife.com.”

His response gained traction to quickly become one of the top 10 tweets of all time; It has received 3.5 million likes and over 650,000 direct shares as I write, and the exchange became the subject of countless news stories around the world, from India to Australia.

There is a direct association between machismo and the refusal to adequately recognize and respond to climate catastrophe. It is the result of versions of masculinity in which selfishness and indifference - individualism taken to its extremes - are defining characteristics, and therefore caring for and acting for the collective good is its antithesis.

“Men Resist Green Behavior as Unmanly” is the headline of a 2017 story about the phenomenon. Machismo and climate denial, as well as alliance with the fossil fuel industry, is a package deal for the right, from the "rolling coal" trucks whose plumes of dark smoke are meant to mock climate causes to the Republicans in the The US has long been opposed to almost all climate action (and is the main recipient of oil money).

Thunberg's takedown clearly upset Tate, who 10 hours later tweeted a pompous video in which he tried to reassert his masculinity and status by jabbering in a dressing gown, props with a cigar and a pizza box.

His Romanian brand pizza box in his video helped Romanian police find his location. If he hadn't harassed Thunberg, the news of his arrest and charges wouldn't have been big news. He was looking for attention; he got it.