Relentlessly misleading the young: CO2 Scare campaigners send propaganda to parents during lockdown

Paul Homewood's blog 'Notalotofpeopleknowthat' has exposed some shocking materials sent to  a parent in England for use in homeschooling their children on Earth Day.  This may well be a glimpse into the kind of junk being fed to our children week after week when they attend their schools.  The lockdown has helped bring this out for adult review, and it does not look good.

Here is one of the Powerpoint slides provided in the materials:

'Global warming isn't good for our Earth'  Since when has that been true during the Holocene?  Warmer periods have generally been far preferable to cooler ones, and not just for people.  Most forms of life thrive in warmer rather than cooler conditions, and more warmth means more moisture can be carried in the air.  The gentle warming of the last 150 years or so has taken us out of the Little Ice Age, and closer to the more congenial temperatures of the Medieval Warm Period, and the Roman Climate Optimum.  Here is a 2018 post which provides some background on this:   https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2018/08/19/the-holocene-climate-optimum/

'It means that ice is starting to melt in the Antarctic and this could cause floods in other parts of the world.'   Just starting to melt is it?  What kind of a misleading impression does that sentence make on a 7-year old (the apparent target age group)?  Here is an overview reflecting some of the complexities of climate and ice accumulation in that continent:   http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/glaciers-and-climate/antarctic-ice-sheet-surface-mass-balance/ , and how it was warmer there in the Medieval Warm Period: https://notrickszone.com/2019/07/06/medieval-climate-anomaly-now-confirmed-in-southern-hemisphere-on-all-four-continents/.  And with examples of  'Unfortunately, the media would rather scare the public to promote a climate crisis, than honestly educate them about the causes of natural climate variability.':   https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/02/09/medias-horribly-dishonest-antarctica-propaganda/  [taken from this archive at WUWT]

The stuff on turtles and the so-called 'Fact' about developing countries are left as exercises for the reader to pursue.

Read the Blog Post for more details
See the blog post at:    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/04/27/climate-change-propaganda-for-7-year-olds/
for more extracts from the materials, a link to the entire Powerpoint presentation, and for these concluding words:

'The whole thing is nothing but pure propaganda. It most certainly is not factual, nor does it explain to kids the real implications of the policies proposed by the likes of Greta.

Indeed, the suggestions of “how we can help” are infantile and risk making children think think that is all they need to do.

They may be seven year olds, but they should be treated with more respect and honesty.

I don’t know who produced this presentation or if it is officially approved. If anyone has any more info, please let me know.'

Please get in touch (send a comment at his blog) with Paul if you have 'more info'.  Pushing 'nothing but pure propaganda' at young children is a disgraceful thing to do, and the more we know about where it is coming from the better.

Note added 30 April 2020
See the lively comments at the blogpost.  Commenter 'Joe Public' has tracked the distributor of the above material to a UK outfit called Twinkl.  This seems to be a very successful provider of materials for teachers around the world.  It was started at home by one couple in England in 2010 and has grown into a big business, with a subscription service for the materials, and a long list of sponsors or partners.  That's an impressive achievement.  But such a pity that the example above of their climate materials is so dire and damaging to young minds.  Here is a link to this 'Earth Day' propaganda:   https://www.twinkl.co.uk/resource/earth-day-differentiated-reading-comprehension-activity-t2-e-5247  Note that it comes under the heading of 'English Activities'.  As Andrew Montford and I noted some years ago, no area of the school curriculum seems safe from such political infiltration.

Re the Antarctic 'starting to melt', here is another recent post, from 3 days ago, with lots of useful info:
https://amgreatness.com/2020/04/27/no-antarctica-is-not-rapidly-melting/

Poor Old Scotland: compulsory climate propaganda for students is being mooted

Mandatory climate change classes plan for Scottish leaders

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18404742.mandatory-climate-change-classes-plan-scottish-leaders/  (hat-tip: https://www.samizdata.net/2020/04/the-return-of-the-test-acts/)

The joys of controlling everyone's behaviour during the virus lockdown has gone to their heads:

' The man behind the idea, RSGS chief executive Mike Robinson, said a number of business leaders have already committed to undertake the course along with the Scottish Government, with further discussions to ensure new university students and MSPs can take part well-underway.'

What is the 'idea'?  Well, nothing less than a mandatory course on climate panic propaganda for every university student who wishes to graduate, and for other people too:

'MSPs, busineess leaders and newly enrolled university students may be asked to take mandatory climate change studies if plans currently under consideration are adopted.

The studies would help arm them with facts and knowledge to make urgent changes to society as it emerges from COVID-19 lockdown. The Scottish Government has already committed to enrolling at least 100 senior officials to the Climate Solutions course.'

The RSGS is the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and its leader Mike Robinson seems to be a a kind of grown-up version of Greta Thurnberg.  Here he is in 2019:

'We will need to waste less, drive less, fly less, use renewable electricity and heat, use electric cars and trains, buy less tat, eat differently and repair and restore materials more than we do. We will need to remind ourselves of the value of community, society, environment, nature and place, and record more than just GDP. And we will urgently need to start building the future we want – properly creating houses, businesses, infrastructure that we need for a net zero carbon life, and not settling for the cheapest, least imaginative versions which are out of date before they are built and will look ridiculous in 10, 20, or 30 years’ time.  In short, we need to start treating this Climate Emergency like an emergency. And having these targets now in place is a welcome and significant first step.'

(source: https://www.rsgs.org/blog/taking-a-step-in-the-right-direction)

In other words, a radical who wants to wreck our society.  And based on what?  The flimsy conjecture that our CO2 emissions are doing what CO2 has never done before and dominating the climate system.  Not a plausible claim, and nor is it being supported by observations.  The climate system is behaving just as it might if our actions are of minor importance on the global scale.

It is some consolation that the comments below the Herald article are almost all hostile to the proposal.  So far.  The legions of the faithful will no doubt be being mobilised to change that.

It is also a consolation that genuine science research continues to undermine the case for such alarm over our emissions.  Readers are urged to check our these recent posts:

https://notrickszone.com/2020/04/27/new-northern-hemisphere-temperature-reconstructions-are-devoid-of-michael-mann-like-hockey-sticks/

https://notrickszone.com/2020/04/26/new-video-by-german-geologist-casts-doubt-over-exclusively-man-made-global-warming/

And on the third-rate advice that is so easily cobbled together on climate, and so easily refuted:

https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2020/04/24/four-twenty-sevens-error-strewn-report/

Sadly, it seems likely that the Scottish government will continue to support this shameful proposal to undermine what tertiary education should stand for, and furthermore that this kind of authoritarianism will in due course serve to make climate teaching in high schools even worse.  

Parents can not rely on schools to give a balanced perspective on climate variation, and to avoid needlessly scaring children and undermining their future.  Parents will have to look elsewhere.

Enlighten Your Kids About Earth Day: that virtual monument to panic and irrationality

Earth Day arrives again, with nothing to commend it, no good having come from it, and indeed a lot of harm instead.  Harm to children's minds and spirits.  Harm to developing countries having to suppress their development.  Harm to industrialised counties having to waste resources on the follies of 'renewables'.  Harm to all the better things that could have been done with all the conferences, resolutions, and bloated budgets of eco-this that and the other.

Josh sums it all up rather well:

Parents who want to enlighten their older children could start by giving them a copy of Josh's cartoon.  And that by itself could trigger lots of useful online research projects to dig deeper.  There are more specific ideas for such projects here.  And more background on the failure of Earth Day here.

One thing seems clear.  You cannot rely on schools to do this for you.  

Turn All Your Lights On for Earth Hour 2020 (or just ignore it)

The annual ritual of Earth Hour is upon us once again.  Turning off lights is indeed an informative gesture because that kind of darkness - avoidable, unnecessary, silly virtue-signalling - will be commonplace if the eco-extremists continue to exert so much influence on governments.

Anthony Watts, at WUWT has a stronger suggestion:

TURN ON ALL YOUR LIGHTS! At 8:30PM local time for an hour.

CELEBRATE LIGHT, HEALTH AND HAPPINESS!

And as always, a reminder that every hour in North Korea is “Earth Hour”.

I would add: also read or re-read the classic essay by Ross McKitrick:

https://climatelessons.blogspot.com/2013/03/i-abhor-earth-hour-abundant-cheap.html

Helping Children Cope with the CO2 Scare - a new resource

The articles I've seen on helping children cope with the CO2 Scaremongering are mostly along the lines of 'tell them they are not helpless, get them out on demonstrations, encourage them to walk to school and turn off lights'.  In other words, 'take the scare seriously, and fuss over it'.  I doubt that is going to help, and it may even make things worse for the young victims.  Better by far is to help them see that have been duped, and even well-intentioned adults have been duped.

This will take time, and lots of study and persistence.  Many parents and high-schoolers can dig deeper for themselves into alarming claims about climate, and those who do so can help those who have not done or cannot do such work on their own.

A new website has just started up and it could be a great resource for this:

Here is the link to it:  http://climaterealism.com/

As well as feature articles, there is a reference section currently with the following topics:

Allergies, Alpine glaciers, 

Carbon tax, Cleaner air, Climate change impacts,

Climate models, Climate record, Consensus, Coral Reefs, Crop nutrition, Crop production,

Disease/Virus,Drought,

Economic harm, Economics and policy, Emissions by country, Emissions Impact,Extreme cold, Extreme heat, Extreme Weather,

Floods,

Great Lakes, Green New Deal,Greenland ice melt,

Health impacts, Heavy Rainfall, Historical CO2 levels, Hottest Year,Hurricanes,

Insurance policy,

Jobs created,

Little Ice Age,

Meat and Agriculture,Medieval Warm Period, Migration, Mortality,

National security, Natural climate change,

Ocean currents, Oceanic conveyor belt,

Pine beetles, Polar bears, Polar ice caps,

Renewable Energy, Republican proposals,

Sea level, Snow, Snowpack, Social cost of carbon,

Solar impact, Species Impacts, Subsidies,

Terms of debate, Tipping points, Tornadoes,

U.S. temperatures, Underlying Science,

Vulnerable populations,

Water levels, Wildfires, Wine.

So that's plenty to be getting on with!

(Hat-tip: WUWT )

Note added 21 Mar 2020.  There's more!  An apparently sister-site called Climate at a Glance is also well worth a visit.  It has short summaries on a range of topics:     https://climateataglance.com/

'Climate At A Glance puts frequently argued climate issues into short, concise, summaries that provide the most important, accurate, powerful information. The summaries are designed to provide a library of solid yet simple rebuttals so that legislators, teachers, students, and laymen can easily refute the exaggerations of the so-called “climate crisis.”

Excellent!  Just what is needed.

(Hat-tip: NotALotOfPeopleKnowThat )