Children recall what they have been taught about climate change: mostly nonsense

Passing though a Scottish village earlier this week, I bought the local newsletter.  I was, and remain, dismayed to find the above piece in amongst more worthy and more cheerful stuff about museum visits and celebrating the royal wedding.  The uncorrected English errors in this, and other pupil reports, suggest that perhaps neither teacher nor editor checked the texts before publication.  But I understand that it is not fashionable to point out such errors these days, and so I am inclined to think that the pieces were reviewed at least for factual accuracy before being submitted.  If so, the climate change report shown above is evidence that this phase of the war on children's minds may well have been won by those using CO2-alarm to gain political and financial advantages for their various causes.  The children, and their teachers, are the immediate casualties, and they have my sympathies.  But this propaganda war is not over while we still have the freedom and determination to comment, ask questions, criticise, and point out errors and misleading advice.  A lot more of such activity is clearly required.

[Note: 'P7' stands for Primary 7 - the final year of primary school, when pupils are typically 11 years old]

Back to work here soon

There has been quite a gap in posting here, and as one commenter noted, that makes a blog a less interesting place to visit!  I cannot see managing daily posts myself, but I have some ideas to encourage others to take part here and will post these shortly.

My reflection on this blog's value so far, is that the main beneficiary has been me - it has been a lively way to get back into climate politics and science.  From the comments on the last post, and also from a few emails prompted by it, I know that at least some people have found value in exactly the ways I hope for this blog:

        # help them protect their own children from the worst of the Climate Alarm Industry's excesses, by getting some early warning of them
       # keeping an eye on policies and curricula in this area (and I hope the blog will also help those actively campaigning for reform or removal of some of them)
       # as a source of useful information, and reference



I think the topic of climate-alarm-based propaganda in schools, which may be increasingly disguised by talk of 'sustainability' - the AGW foundation being treated as a given - is too important to walk away from.  This blog does not have a large readership, but it does appear quite prominently in some Google or other searches on relevant topics and so I always have hope of some happy happenstance encounter by someone who can make good use of the content here. 

Thank you to all those who commented, or emailed me.  Your remarks are very encouraging, and I will be carrying on with the blog.

Climate Lessons Pausing for a Break: meantime, comments invited on this blog’s past and future.

When I get back early in May, it will be close to this blog’s first birthday, and I plan to review what use this blog has been to me or anyone else, and what it might do over a further year. 

For me, it has been one means of getting back to some familiarity with climate theories and observations, after a gap of more than thirty years, and perhaps more importantly, with climate politics and school curricula.  I remain more convinced than ever that there has been a deliberate and gross exaggeration of the role of rising CO2 levels on climate, and a grossly irresponsible and melodramatic promotion of this rather weak theory outside of the walls of universities and other places of research - the only places where it really belongs.  A new headache tablet would have been subjected to far more rigorous review, and yet have been capable of far less harm without it, than the overblown declarations of settled science concerning the impact of CO2 on the very complex climate system.  That it is has been accepted with such confidence by policy makers points to some profound weakness at least in our political if not in our psychological make up.  That it is being pushed on to children in our schools remains a great concern over the potential for harm to their spirits, their attitude to science and technology, and indeed to society itself.

But has the blog been of much use to others?  It seems to get 20 to 60 new unique visitors most days, with an all-time high of  607 on one day this year, and it is now achieving 4 to 5,000 pageviews each month.  Far fewer than some climate blogs get every day!  I had hopes that it could serve as a convenient repository of ideas, arguments, and links for others engaging in more direct calls or campaigns for reform of school curricula and of the kinds of people, organisations, and materials allowed in or near schools to promote their causes under the guise of ‘climate change’.  The widespread dissemination of ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ to schools in the UK remains, in my view, a sad disgrace.  It may be relatively rarely used nowadays (?), but I presume we remain vulnerable to more like it from the efforts of zealots for whom threatening the emotional wellbeing of children is not so much an obstacle as an objective in their drive for more political influence or power.

So, whether you are in the select band of frequent visitors which I hope exists, or you have just stumbled upon this place, please let me know what you think about it.  What kind of purpose might it serve for you, and what might be done differently to make it better for that purpose?