Paging David A, the polar bears are doing OK - talk of their decline was just cheap propaganda to scare kids about climate.

The idea that polar bears are disappearing has been widely used in order to win the attention of children and scare them about their own future by claiming the polar bears are already suffering badly from 'climate change' and so in due course will they.  Even the world-class narrator of nature documentaries, David Attenborough, has been taken in, and he really ought to know better.

An open-letter has been published, ostensibly to Attenborough, but actually it could apply to any teachers who have made use of the notion that polar bears have been suffering from the effects of global warming and that it is all due to humanity.  In fact, the polar bears have been doing fine, and of course the idea that humanity is driving the climate system is a far-fetched notion that more and more people can see is so unhinged from reality that they will question the morality, as well as the intellectual integrity, of anyone who pushes it.

The letter was published today in Quadrant Online.  It is from a Dr John Happs, who is described as a science educator.  He is also president of an interesting discussion group in Western Australia - the WA Skeptics.  They set out to encourage 'a responsible view of curious and unlikely claims (including medical claims) by providing regular meetings open to all'.

John Happs

His letter is quite a long one, with a great deal of well-referenced information in it to back up his conclusions:

 “There is no evidence that the planet is warming dangerously. Nor is there any evidence that Arctic ice and polar bears are about to vanish. There is ample evidence to show that polar bears are not under threat.  What is under threat is scientific integrity and the public’s access to accurate scientific information. The media must shoulder some of the responsibility for the misinformation and exaggeration that has been promoted about catastrophic anthropogenic global warming and a bleak future for polar bears.”

 

Examples of Exploitation of Polar Bears for Propaganda

I did a quick Google for 'polar bears and climate change for kids'.  Over 6 million hits, of which the following three were but some early examples:

(1) WWF: “The effects of climate change are already being felt by local wildlife and habitats in polar regions.

For example, polar bears and Emperor penguins, at the north and south pole respectively, are already declining in number as sea ice retreats for many months of the year.”

(2) Twiggle Magazine: “Children will learn that climate change is causing ice caps to melt and makes it harder for the polar bears to find food.”

 (3) An eco-activist produced this in 2006: 

Sad to say, it is the sort of nonsense that could all too readily be found in classrooms and school materials today.  

Teachers can tell their pupils that the polar bears are mostly doing OK, and far better now than a few decades ago. They can also tell them we're mostly doing OK as well, at least better than a few decades ago.  Global warming attributed to human intervention is not a threat to us, nor to the bears, nor to anything else.  If anything, we would all benefit from more global warming, not less. Somehow speculation about  largely beneficial and modest temperature rises in the 20th century has been used to demonise carbon dioxide and our industrial and agricultural progress.  So far, the rising carbon dioxide levels' only demonstrable effect on us has been to contribute to an appreciable rise in agricultural productivity on the one hand, and a hideous rise in irrational and destructive scaremongering and climate-linked policy-making on the other.  

Note added 16 April 2013: Relevant thoughts and links in this Spiked article: http://www.spiked-online.com/site/article/13462/ 

Kidding the Kids about Climate Consensus: quick, before they see that Climate Crock is more applicable

Source

While the scientific case for alarm over CO2 has never been a strong one, and is now is ruins thanks to observations contradicting crucial predictions from it, the zealots who found so much advantage in pushing it have not let up on recruiting the very young to bolster their cause.  The moral case for doing that has never been a strong one, and one day it too will lie in ruins as the zealotry becomes more and more exposed as shallow and pernicious opportunism.

From an article The Washington Examiner' (h/t Greenie Watch):

"New science curriculum standards for United States schools, expected to be unveiled this week, include an increased emphasis on man-made climate change from kindergarten through 12th grade. Climate change is already a part of many schools’ science curriculum, but the new guidelines significantly expand the topic and are expected to be adopted by 41 states.

The Next Generation Science Standards teach that “Human activities, such as the release of greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, are major factors in the current rise in Earth’s mean surface temperature (‘global warming’),” according to the Environmental and Energy Study Institute."

But, thank goodness, the journalist writing this, a Michal Conger, is no dupe like so many of her profession in this area.  She notes the recent reservations about including climate in UK curricula for under-14s, and goes on to write:

"What the Times fails to note is that man-made global warming is hardly a consensus theory among scientists. Several new studies show the earth hasn’t gotten any warmer in at least the last decade.

“It’s a shame that American school kids are being taught claims of certitude on an isse that continues to unravel before our eyes,” Marc Morano, communications director for Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow, told The Washington Examiner. 

The U.K. newspaper The Daily Telegraph, German magazine Der Spiegel, and The Economist have all recently acknowledged the evidence suggesting global warming isn’t the catastrophe climate change advocates want school children to think it is."

It seems these new curriculum standards are not compulsory, but they may well be adopted by dozens of States.  I wonder if some of the children themselves might deal with them, as per Ian Plimer's vision of highly-informed pupils asking difficult questions?  (posts about Plimer's book on this site are here, here, here and  here).  Then the teachers, that most docile of professions as far as the content of their work is concerned, might start asking questions themselves.  Such as, 'Why should we push propaganda in our classes that even the children can see through?', or even, 'I wonder what harm we are doing to the young by presenting them with this ill-founded, poisonous, and destructive world-view?'

Climate Teachers: can you find any of this junk science in your curricula?

Spotting climate materials that deserve to be binned is going to be a task for years to come given the amount of junk that can be found so easily.  

Here are three recent headlines from the JunkScience blog, along with some suggestions to help clear them up if you find them in your curricula.

(1) NOAA urges teachers to terrorize kids on climate: Dissolve a shell in acid to simulate ocean acidification by 2100

For getting started on a less emotive view of ocean pH see this piece and the links within it: http://joannenova.com.au/2012/01/scripps-blockbuster-ocean-acidification-happens-all-the-time-naturally/

(2) NOAA urges teachers to terrorize kids on climate: ‘Make an extinction polyhedron’ because climate changes causes ‘mass extinction events’

For teachers looking for materials to restore some semblance of scientific sense, here is a lead relating to species extinctions - it has a fairly large set of links for further study:

http://www.climatedepot.com/2011/03/04/Greenpeace-CoFounder-Slams-Species-Extinction-Scare-Study-as-proof-of-how-peerreview-process-has-become-corrupted-ndash-Study-greatly-underestimate-the-rate-new-species-can-evolve/

 (3) NOAA: ‘Climate literacy’ for kids includes knowing both the Mann and Marcott hokey sticks

The article notes “The IPCC has abandoned Mann’s. Marcott has debunked his own. Why is NOAA teaching this junk?”

The shoddy analyses that led to the Mann and the Marcott hockey-stick plots have been well publicised now.  It is heartening that whereas it took years to expose the former thanks to obfuscation and obstruction, the latter was undone in a matter of weeks.  

The three examples are from recent posts on Junk Science, written by Steve Milloy.  He is described there as ‘a recognized leader in the fight against junk science with more than 20 years of experience. He is the founder and publisher of JunkScience.com, and an environmental and public health consultant. Mr. Milloy is a biostatistician and securities lawyer who has also been a registered securities principal, investment fund manager, non-profit executive, and a print/web columnist on science and business issues.’

Well done, Steve Milloy.

Climate Teachers: have you seen any of this absurd assurance in your curricula?

The gap between reality and the glib assurances of those choosing to believe in a CO2-driven climate crisis is perhaps most apparent when they cannot resist making verifiable predictions. 

They told us the snows of Kilimanjaro were disappearing because of ‘global warming’, but they came back.  They told us the Himalayan glaciers would be gone by 2035, but there is no sign of that even beginning to happen.  They told us our winters in Europe would be warmer, that snow would be a thing of the past.  More recently, that awful centre of climate delusion, the UK Met Office, advised that this April was likely to be drier than usual.  It broke records for wetness.  Well the list of assured foolishness is long.  

Pierre Gosselin and a correspondent called Jimbo have started compiling a list of just the warmer winter follies.  Here are the first half dozen of a list which currently stands at 48 in total:

Failed winter climate predictions

(The first 33 concern mostly Germany and Central Europe)

1. “Due to global warming, the coming winters in the local regions will become milder.”
Stefan Rahmstorf, Potsdam Institute of Climate Impact Research, University of Potsdam, 8 Feb 2006

***

2. “Milder winters, drier summers: Climate study shows a need to adapt in Saxony Anhalt.
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Press Release, 10 Jan 2010.

****

3. “More heat waves, no snow in the winter“ … “Climate models… over 20 times more precise than the UN IPCC global models. In no other country do we have more precise calculations of climate consequences. They should form the basis for political planning. … Temperatures in the wintertime will rise the most … there will be less cold air coming to Central Europe from the east. …In the Alps winters will be 2°C warmer already between 2021 and 2050.”
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, 2 Sept 2008.

****

4. “The new Germany will be characterized by dry-hot summers and warm-wet winters.“
Wilhelm Gerstengarbe and Peter Werner, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), 2 March 2007

****

5. “Clear climate trends are seen from the computer simulations. Foremost the winter months will be warmer all over Germany. Depending of CO2 emissions, temperatures will rise by up to 4°C, in the Alps by up to 5°C.” Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, 7 Dec 2009.

****

6. “In summer under certain conditions the scientists reckon with a complete melting of the Arctic sea ice. For Europe we expect an increase in drier and warmer summers. Winters on the other hand will be warmer and wetter.”
Erich Roeckner, Max Planck Institute, 29 Sept 2005.

Readers not living in Europe might like to note we have had record-breaking levels of cold and of snow here this winter, and we have not exactly had shortages of snow in other recent ones.

Has anything like that level of assurance got into your climate curriculum.  If so, you might like to do some background checks on the sources, and some reality checks with recent data.  There are a lot of not very credible, and not very creditable, ‘authorities’ in this area.

Have any such forecasts got into your curriculum?  If so, rejoice.  You can use them as examples to undermine the credibility of the shoddy, shameful business of climate scaremongering in schools.  The Emperors of CO2 Catastrophe have no clothes.  None at all.  The sooner your pupils realise that, the better.

If you live in England, you might well use some of this to illustrate why curricula for children should not include 'climate change', nor 'sustainability', both being codewords for the placing of political and psychological pressures on the young first through scaremongering, and through them, on to their parents through moral blackmail.  You have until 16th April to respond to a UK government invitation to comment on new guidelines for under-14 curricula.  They look like a step in the right direction.

Note added later on 4th.  Someone has compiled a descriptive history of British winters from 1616 to 2011: http://www.netweather.tv/index.cgi?action=winter-history;sess= .  Paul Homewood presents evidence of recent winters being cooler than average: http://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/trend-to-colder-winters-continues-in-uk/

Note added 17th April, 2014  Pierre continues to track the foolishness by comparing it with reality.  See this post on record snow levels in the States: http://notrickszone.com/2014/04/16/bastardi-detroit-sets-all-time-record-snowy-winter-5-of-the-snowiest-winters-occurred-in-last-11-years/

Rotten to the Core, Rotten for the Curriculum

cartoonsbyjosh

Climate alarmism and groups like WWF seem to get a free pass into the classroom despite the rotten nature of their messages.

Some 'scientific' claims seem to get the same treatment despite the rotten nature of their foundations.

Pupils could do with some protection from them.

The proposal to exclude climate change and sustainability from explicit mention in curricula for under-14s in England is a step in that direction.

Readers in England - please consider commenting on this proposal.  This opportunity will only be open until 16th April: https://www.education.gov.uk/consultations/index.cfm?action=consultationDetails&consultationId=1881&external=no&

I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century.

The hatred that eco-fanatics feel towards humanity is captured in their Earth Hour tomorrow, no matter what window-dressing about solidarity with the world's poor is spun about it by such as Ban Ki-moon.

The title is the first sentence from Ross McKitrick's fine essay from 2009 spelling out just what a rotten thing Earth Hour is.  Here it is in full (original here)

Earth Hour: A Dissent

Ross McKitrick

In 2009 I was asked by a journalist for my thoughtson the importance of Earth Hour. Here

is my response. 

I abhor Earth Hour. Abundant, cheap electricity has been the greatest source of human liberation in the 20th century. Every material social advance in the 20th century depended on the proliferation of inexpensive and reliable electricity. Giving women the freedom to work outside the home depended on the availability of electrical appliances that free up time from domestic chores. Getting children out of menial labour and into schools depended on the same thing, as well as the ability to provide safe indoor lighting for reading.

Development and provision of modern health care without electricity is absolutely impossible. The expansion of our food supply, and the promotion of hygiene and nutrition, depended on being able to irrigate fields, cook and refrigerate foods, and have a steady indoor supply of hot water. Many of the world's poor suffer brutal environmental conditions in their own homes because of the necessity of cooking over indoor fires that burn twigs and dung. This causes local deforestation and the proliferation of smoke- and parasite-related lung diseases. Anyone who wants to see local conditions improve in the third world should realize the importance of access to cheap electricity from fossil-fuel based power generating stations. After all, that's how the west developed.

The whole mentality around Earth Hour demonizes electricity. I cannot do that, instead I celebrate it and all that it has provided for humanity. Earth Hour celebrates ignorance, poverty and backwardness. By repudiating the greatest engine of liberation it becomes an hour devoted to anti-humanism. It encourages the sanctimonious gesture of turning off trivial appliances for a trivial amount of time, in deference to some ill-defined abstraction called “the Earth,” all the while hypocritically retaining the real benefits of continuous, reliable electricity. People who see virtue in doing without electricity should shut off their fridge, stove, microwave, computer, water heater, lights, TV and all other appliances for a month, not an hour. And pop down to the cardiac unit at the hospital and shut the power off there too.

I don't want to go back to nature. Travel to a zone hit by earthquakes, floods and hurricanes to see what it’s like to go back to nature. For humans, living in "nature" meant a short life span marked by violence, disease and ignorance. People who work for the end of poverty and relief from disease are fighting against nature. I hope they leave their lights on. Here in Ontario, through the use of pollution control technology and advanced engineering, our air quality has dramatically improved since the 1960s, despite the expansion of industry and the power supply. If, after all this, we are going to take the view that the remaining air emissions outweigh all the benefits of electricity,and that we ought to be shamed into sitting in darkness for an hour, like naughty children who have been caught doing something bad, then we are setting up unspoiled nature as an absolute, transcendent ideal that obliterates all other ethical and humane obligations. No thanks. I like visiting nature but I don't want to live there, and I refuse to accept the idea that civilization with all its tradeoffs is something to be ashamed of.

Ross McKitrick

Professor of Economics

University of Guelph

Energy Hour (the hour before Earth Hour) was devised as a counter-demonstration and is being promoted here by the ICSC:  It is by a group that takes a sceptical view of alarmism as well as a positive view of humanity, and is therefore more  admirable as well as more soundly-based in science and observation.

Whether you mark Energy Hour as a genuine expression of concern for those already without it or those at risk of losing reliable affordable energy supplies in the near future, you might also want to consider keeping all your lights on during Earth Hour in order to mark the huge benefits we have gained from progress with energy supplies over the past few hundred years, and as a tiny gesture of defiance to the arrogance of those who would deny that to most and damage it for all.  

Human Achievement Hour has been proposed by the CEI in the States as a replacement for Earth Hour itself.  That adds a little more cachet to merely leaving your lights on and going about your ordinary routine which is what I tend to do.

Note added 23 March 2013: Even the climate buffoons of The Guardian and The Huffington Post are beginning to include criticisms in their puff-pieces for the vapid, malevolent and destructive stupidity of 'Earth Hour'. Meanwhile, downunder, Jo Nova is promoting 'Power Hour' with some grandly provocative suggestions:

'Things you can do at 8.30 on Saturday:

1. Turn on all the lights you can find (bonus points for incandescents from the stash.)
2. Put on the party lights, the patio light, the pool light, the mozzie zappers, unpack those Christmas decorations. Get out your torches. Switch the movement detector spotlights to continuous operation. (Involve the kids — they love to help).
3. Light your backyard with the landcruiser headlights! (Don’t flatten the battery, make sure you keep that engine running.)
4. Don’t forget those bar radiators — revel in that infra red! (Light the kitchen with the ones in the oven and grill.)
5. Eat Argentinian Lamb steak, Danish butter, Argentinian Cheese, Belgian Chocolate, and Californian Oranges.
6. Drink German Beer and or French Champagne. Drink toasts to coal miners, oil rig workers, and power station staff.

 In the hundred thousand years since homo sapiens came to be, people have fled bondage, wars, small-pox, dysentery, died from minor scratches, starved to death, been ravaged by lions, stricken by cholera, and survived ninety thousand year stretches of abysmal ice age.  We lived in the darkness for 99,900 years, cowering in corners, listening to drips, waiting for the sun.

There is only one type of Freedom – and all else is servitude, slavery or tyranny.

It’s your chance to show your commitment to fighting the forces of darkness.'

Corrupt Climate Curricula in Schools: a school teacher laments relaying greenie propaganda in the classroom.

A former teacher welcomes the proposed ‘downplaying’ of man-made global warming in school curricula in England, and  complains of having been ‘overburdened by the incessant green noise of our curriculum’.

I hesitated before proceeding with this post since it is based on an anonymous (but see below) comment on a newspaper site.  But the site provides a list of all comments published by this commenter.  They span some five years, and are thoughtful, temperate, and consistent with his claim to have been a teacher of geography.  His views on the teaching of this subject are in accord with my fears for it, and for others, and so I am going to reproduce his comment in full.  Here it is:

As a former teacher of geography I was overburdened towards the end by the incessant green noise of our curriculum. I would never argue that climate change should not be in included since it is an extremely interesting subject in its strictest form. However, the half truths that I was expected to teach to young minds by the underpinning of AGW to almost everything depressed me and most other older geographers. I'm afraid that the queen of subjects became a propaganda arm for greenies. I applaud Gove for downplaying AGW, but does he understand that the teaching of climate change itself is a bonus.

I hope that he and many other teachers and other experts in England will contribute their thoughts to the consultation being offered by the government on proposed changes to the curriculum for under-14s in England.  Links for doing this are provided on an earlier post.

Past posts here relating to the teaching of geography include these:

http://climatelessons.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/classroom-climate-conditioning-at-work.html

http://climatelessons.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/beginning-to-teach-on-climate-let-jo.html

http://climatelessons.blogspot.co.uk/2011/01/misleading-temperature-graph-guess-in.html

http://climatelessons.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/climate-corruption-causes-caustic.html

http://climatelessons.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/another-straw-in-wind-here-is-teacher.html

( the link immediately above includes this quotation from a Trefor Jones, who may well be ‘trefjon’:

‘During the latter years of my long career as a head of geography I became totally disillusioned with the nonsense that I was supposed to teach and examine. The students, staff members ( apart from the young and ambitious) privately shared the doubts, especially mathematics teachers who understood that you cannot predict a chaotic system. It came to a head when I ignored an opportunity to take a group of children to see "An Inconvenient Truth", and was promptly sent a copy of this eco-nonsense by courier directly to my classroom. Unfortunately, following a very nasty accident I have had to finish teaching. However, I do not miss the climate change elements of the course which had morphed over the past decade from geography to environmentally inaccurate propaganda. The Green lobby which has invaded so many of our national institutions are in my eyes nothing less than rather dangerous totalitarian fascists.’  - my emboldening)

http://climatelessons.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/tangled-web-they-weave-as-they-practise.html

http://climatelessons.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/eu-funds-climate-coaching-to-get-pupils.html