COP24 Climate Alarm PR idea: Let's Try Anxious Children instead of Polar Bears or Hockey Sticks

Pic: KIARA WORTH/IISD/ENB

This picture on the left was used as the lead image in a BBC news item reporting on key results from the COP24 meeting in Poland this month.  It shows children roped-in to convey the latest 'only x time units left' climate alarm message.  One of a long list, some of which are recalled in a recent article on WUWT.

But back to the BBC.  Their author notes 'One of the most striking things about this conference of the parties was the presence of energised young people in far greater numbers than I have ever seen them at a COP before.', and goes on to conclude his piece with a photo and a quote from the troubled Swedish schoolgirl who has been presented as the leader of school 'strikes' to promote climate alarm.

What I take to be an official blog/site for COP24 is also big on children: check out this video on how they were used in the opening ceremony:

Indeed, there was a section of the conference explicitly for getting children involved in producing recommendations:

'This Friday, December 14th, during the Climate Change Conference

COP24 in Katowice, young Polish delegates will take part in a discussion

panel entitled “No climate for young generation…”, organized by UNICEF

Poland and The UNEP/GRID-Warsaw Centre.'

'Representatives of the young generation from different regions

of Poland will meet at the event of the Polish Presidency at the

COP24 to jointly debate issues related to climate change. 25

delegates, supported by experts, will discuss the most

 important challenges in selected areas ...'

'...At the end of the meeting young people will write recommendations

regarding urgent actions in the field of climate protection... '

The intellectual and/or moral poverty of climate alarm

campaigners has been easy to illustrate for years.  This
latest COP parade adds to the pile.  As more and more
adults are able to tackle, refute, and object to the specious
and hyperbolic claims of those seek to raise alarm over our
impact on climate variation, it makes sense for campaigners
to increase their already substantial attention on children -
not only to brainwash them for future use, but also to use
them now as levers on political power. 

How about a conference on how to help children cope with
and recover from the climate alarmism foisted upon them?

How about recommendations to help adults who have been
harmed by such alarm during their school years?

Let us not forget that the case for alarm over our impact on

climate is a frail and unsatisfactory one.  It may have a place
in academic discussions, but it does not have anything like
enough substance to be used for important decision-making.
Professor Nir Shaviv summarised this neatly the other day
in an address to the German parliament (emboldening by me):

'Three minutes is not a lot of time, so let me be brief. I’ll start 
with something that might shock you. There is no evidence 
that CO2 has a large effect on climate. 

'The two arguments  used by the IPCC to so called “prove” 
that humans are the main cause of global warming, and 
which implies that climate sensitivity is high, are that: 
a) 20th century warming is unprecedented, and 
b) there is nothing else to explain the warming.  
These arguments are faulty.'

Note added 19 Dec 2018. See the Shaviv link above for more

details of his position. I would also recommend the NIPCC reports 

as excellent sources of more information on rational rather than

ideological perspectives on climate variation.  The summary version

of their latest report is a good place to start.

Note added 20 Dec 2018.  The Global Warming Policy Foundation
(GWPF) has just published a note concerning some of the shoddiness
in the recent IPCC report.  Here are the concluding paragraphs:

'The SR1.5 report represents a very significant departure from
previous IPCC reports in the direction of increased alarm regarding
global warming, particularly as compared with the Fifth Assessment.

No rigorous justification for this departure has been provided.
In reality, since the Fifth Assessment considerable evidence has
accumulated suggesting that global warming is more of a long-term
threat than a planetary emergency.

This evidence consists mainly of observational results suggesting
lower climate sensitivity (i.e. less warming in response to any given
increase in greenhouse gas concentrations) and results indicating a
greater contribution from natural variability to explaining observed
global temperature trends.

The IPCC has not passed on this evidence to policymakers in its
SR1.5 report. The report has also not passed on to policymakers
some very important information published by climate modellers
since the last IPCC assessment report regarding the empirical tuning
of climate models to achieve desired results.

The failure of previous IPCC reports to document the models’ tuning
procedures has been described by these modellers as a ‘lack of
transparency’. The projections of future warming published by the
IPCC are completely dependent on the reliability of these models.
In view of these deficiencies, the SR1.5 report does not merit being
regarded by policymakers as a scientifically rigorous document.

There is much recent scientific evidence, not referred to in the report,
to support a more considered mitigation strategy than the extreme
measures proposed in the report. Meanwhile, the worthy goals discussed
in the report, such as sustainable development, poverty eradication
and reducing inequalities, should be pursued on their own merits
and not made dependent on unsettled climate science.'

The note was written by Prof J R Bates.

(' Professor J. Ray Bates is Adjunct Professor of Meteorology in the Meteorology

and Climate Centre at University College Dublin. He was formerly Professor of

Meteorology at the Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, and a Senior

Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Centre. In his early career he was

Head of Research at the Irish Meteorological Service.)