Archive for the ‘Climate Change’ Category

Why Time Magazine Might Have Got it Wrong

December 13, 2019

 

I have some points to make about the decision to award Greta Thunberg as Time Person of the Year.

 

  1. I think it’s fantastic that a teenager won this prestigious award. It is vital that our youth have role models. There are too many teenagers who are totally unaware of the world around them and have few insights on big-picture issues. I hope Greta’s recognition makes it cool for young people to engage socially and politically.
  2. The slurs against Greta from Donald Trump and haters on social media is absolutely out of line. She is a teenager, and even though she has chosen to become a public face and celebrity figure, we should never, ever forget that she is a minor. Picking on kids is not acceptable.
  3. This doesn’t mean that her style of messaging can’t be criticised. I have long wondered whether scaring young children on climate change is the right approach. Already there have been reports in psychological journals detailing how the doom and gloom style of messaging is causing anxiety and depression in our young children.
  4. My main issue with Greta receiving the award is that, from what I’m told, she does not attend school. This troubles me. I must make it clear. I am not judging Greta personally for not attending school. I am not completely aware of her own personal circumstances, so it would be inappropriate for me to pass judgement. However, widely speaking, I am not in favour of giving prestigious awards to kids that don’t go to school.

In fact, I think the pro-education message is much stronger than the pro-climate message. The more we tackle school refusal and truancy the more likely we will be able to foster generations of kids who will have the tools to speak up about the climate and any other major issue affecting our world.

 

Michael Grossman is the author of the hilarious new children’s book, My Favourite Comedian. You can download a free ebook copy by clicking here or buy a copy by clicking on this link.

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Scaring Our Children About Climate Change is Poor Education

September 24, 2013

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This post is not about the legitimacy of climate change. I personally believe in climate change but require more evidence as to the extent of how our actions will cause ‘dangerous’ ramifications,

There is a campaign to teach children climate science following a certain ‘consensus’. Only trouble is, education doesn’t and should never operate using a consensus model. Education is about an exchange of ideas and the search for truth. It isn’t about hammering one line of thinking at the exclusion of others.

The worst byproduct of the ‘consensus technique’ of teaching children is that educators realise that many children won’t understand the science of it, so they have resorted to alarmism and outrageous prognostications instead. This not only scares children, but is phoney and grossly insensitive.

 

One of the most shameful aspects of the scare-mongering over “global warming” (sic) is the way that children are exploited and frightened.

Save the planet for the sake of our children and our grandchildren, goes the line. Over and over again. Children will be hardest hit, and so forth.

There is anecdotal evidence that young children are being seriously frightened by this event, an event that may in fact not be happening, may not have very serious consequences, and probably cannot be stopped.

A young child wrote to the website of UK magazine Country Living, saying she was scared because she had read a report that “global warming” (sic) would bring more and poisonous spiders to her garden.

A four year old boy had to receive psychological treatment because he had become irrationally and uncontrollably frightened into believing the end of the world was nigh and that he was about to die.

 

Surely instead of frightening kids with stories about dead polar bears and melting ice caps we can teach the positive aspects about looking after our environment, such as recycling and conserving electricity and water.  After all, positive behaviours are best brought about by positive messages.

 

Click on the link to read Our Children and the Disgusting Climate of Fear

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Our Children and the Disgusting Climate of Fear

March 6, 2012

I love my job but if the Government ever forces me to scare my students in the name of “science” I will plainly refuse. I would sooner lose my job than transfer the negatively geared, sensationalistic, propaganda, intended at frightening children into believing that the world is going to go to bits because of man-made global warming.

I am more than happy to help motivate my students to care for their environment and reduce their own carbon footprints – this is a positive message. However, the Government, United Nations and various scientific agencies have no interest in positive messages. Their game is to fill our young impressionable children with fear and dread. These people believe that a nightmare in the name of science makes the experience worthwhile.

Just watch this advertisement below. This is no underground commercial. This was played at the Copenhagen Climate Summit. It is absolutely appalling! It has as much scientific value as a mound of cow turd! How dare they use children like that. What manipulative cowards they are! Who needs to communicate truths when you can terrorise children?

Anthony Sharwood is right in his assessment of this advertisement and the message we our sending our impressionable young:

One of the worst things I’ve seen in ages was the Copenhagen Climate Summit opening film, where a small child has terrible, apocalyptic nightmares after learning about human-induced climate change.

He is also correct in offering a much more palatable alternative in teaching the challenges of conserving our environment.

My six year old daughter has been learning about Earth Hour at school. Want to know how to really inspire her and others like her to save the world? Get them to love it, not fear it. Allow them to develop their own sense of environmental responsibility, rather than indoctrinating them to feel part of a “problem”.

I’m not a perfect parent. If anyone has an IKEA-style parenthood manual complete with helpful Swedish pictograms, please loan it to me. But one piece of parenting I think I’ve gotten right is instilling a deep love of nature in both my kids.

Together, we’ve bushwalked, skied and swum in some of Australia’s most beautiful locations. We’ve thrown summer snowballs on a New Zealand volcano and caught (and then released) tadpoles in a clear, Blue Mountains stream.

At home, I teach my kids about clouds and the wind direction, and always Google the birds that alight on our backyard trees, so that we can observe their habits armed with a few facts. How many city kids do you know that tell the difference between a white cockatoo and a Corella?

One day, I hope my daughter becomes an environmental scientist or activist who helps save the world. More likely, she’ll live a regular life with a regular job, and that’ll be fine too. Either way, I’m sure she’ll choose to pursue a lifestyle of modest consumption and environmental light-stepping.

If ever called on to teach this subject in such a negative way I will flatly refuse. If they force an educational pack on me I will immediately throw it in the bin (recycle bin, of course).

One wonders why those investing time into spreading the message about our carbon footprint consistently put their foot in it.

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