"Stop Mr. Climate Change"

University of Massachusetts Lowell

That’s a sign in one of the videos below.

This is what college churns out these days, at least in UMass Lowell, but I’ll give them points for not wasting state funding or seeking grant money. From their YouTube website:

This video was produced by students as part of the UMass Lowell course, “Climate Change: Science, Communication, and Solutions.” After spending most of the semester learning about climate change science, technological solutions, and policy, students participated in a three-day, NASA-sponsored workshop to create one-minute film shorts about climate change. They hope to bring needed attention to climate change in a creative and attention-grabbing way. Please note that students had no previous filmmaking experience, no actors, and no money to spend on this project! For more information about this project and the UMass Lowell Climate Change Initiative, please visit http://www.uml.edu/centers/climate-change

First the “trailer”, which is sort of a collection of scenes from all the videos:

Next up “Mystery Man” perhaps they were thinking of Gavin in the role he made famous?

And then there’s this one, the “climate change monster in the closet”. I thought that the addition of “my home melted” was a nice touch, it was very Rommian.

You can watch the whole series here:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL096C9CF4439BDB50

 

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Bob Diaz
June 12, 2011 9:50 pm

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Good grief, our tax dollars paid for that?

rbateman
June 12, 2011 9:51 pm

Gross. Anybody with half a brain knows the goldfish will die in a bath of Sprite or 7up. The fish were killed for no good reason. And what gardner would dump crap on his well-tended crops to prove a point?
The point I get is that if we don’t give them money, Mr. Climate will kill all the fish and crops.
Remember, only you can prevent Climate Fires (by giving us all your money).

Katherine
June 12, 2011 10:10 pm

a three-day, NASA-sponsored workshop to create one-minute film shorts about climate change
I supposed it’s a relief that only federal funding was wasted, not state funding.
Education FAIL.

DJ
June 12, 2011 10:12 pm

“..Please note that students had no previous filmmaking experience, no actors, and no money to spend on this project! ..”
And now that they’re done, they have filmmaking experience, acting experience, and no money…..but most important, they still know nothing about real climate science.

cyxss
June 12, 2011 10:24 pm

Is this what universities are now turning out, scary, very scary. That is the monster.

Michael
June 12, 2011 10:25 pm

You can’t stop climate change but you can super insulate home to save energy.
With this;
Starlite, the nuclear blast-defying plastic that could change the world
Two decades ago amateur scientist Maurice Ward invented a material that could resist the force of 75 Hiroshimas. So why haven’t we all heard about it?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/5158972/Starlite-the-nuclear-blast-defying-plastic-that-could-change-the-world.html
Or this;
Union Carbide’s Super Insullation

Warren
June 12, 2011 10:30 pm

Please note that students had no previous filmmaking experience, no actors, and no money to spend on this project!
and however many years spent in a classroom, or reading, or ostensibly learning, no intelligence, no reasoning or deductive ability
A whole generation of wasted school time foisting a brainwashed deluded mass of green/red luddites onto the developed world

June 12, 2011 10:34 pm

We could do with some Global Warming (or localized warming) here in Los Angeles. I’m running my heater all weekend trying to keep the place warm. Perhaps all the California CO2 has run away to Arizona or Texas or the Eastern Seaboard where they are having unusual heat. We all know that CO2 is what causes the earth to warm. IPCC told us so. [sarc off now]
‘Tis a strange physics where CO2 warms some cities but not all.

Andy G55
June 12, 2011 11:12 pm

Gees Mr Watts, you MUST be pulling our legs..
That could only have come from some Junior High students or younger.

pat
June 12, 2011 11:36 pm

Wonder how those fishes survived when the CO2 concentrations were 5 times what they are expected to be under the infallible models?
Are these European Literature Majors?

AusieDan
June 12, 2011 11:38 pm

Come on Anthony – you can’t fool me for an instant.
These are NOT real university students studing how the climate changes.
They are some of your reactionary right wing scum mates.
You have put them up to this lark to make fun of a serious university program.
Anthony- ANSWER me – tell me that this is not for real.
Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese
/sarc off (I think)

Stephen Wilde
June 12, 2011 11:43 pm

“In the not too distant future most coastal cities will be under water.”
A nice bit of accurate and responsible science ?
Imagine those guys in positions of power in a few years.

Richard111
June 12, 2011 11:43 pm

“Climate Change: Science, Communication, and Solutions.”
So! What ever the problems are, they have the solutions! Brilliant! They should be put in charge of the world because they can solve climate change with science and communications. Tell the IPCC they are redundundant as they can only provide unworkable policies.
/sarc (not really! What is the code for unmitigated disgust?)

Andy G55
June 13, 2011 12:04 am

Stephen, we don’t need to imagine, it is happening already.. eg Gore, Flannery, Garnaut etc etc

KenB
June 13, 2011 12:15 am

Grass roots propaganda, can any thinking student of history comprehend the NASA inspired agenda to sell the ability to destroy the democratic and economic future and from within? So sad, and taxpayer funded organization ?

UK Sceptic
June 13, 2011 12:26 am

Not just dumbed down but also dumbed out of their tiny minds…
These people are supposed to be the scientists of the future? Shakes head in disbelief.

June 13, 2011 1:11 am

Some of my ideas on climate change are not looked very favourably at Tamino’s.
I am also testing Gavin’s Real Climate too, result: blissfully ignored .

June 13, 2011 1:37 am

No, they aren’t wasting our money.
WORSE.
They are using our money against us!
Thanks
JK

June 13, 2011 2:24 am

Send them a link to this site, so they can see people’s responces.
They can learn.
Hopefully not the hard way, though I know from my own experience that TSOHK is a great teacher.
(TSOHK = The School Of Hard Knocks)

June 13, 2011 2:34 am

Don’t miss the fact that the guy in the last video is armed ….. with a hockey stick. 🙂

John Marshall
June 13, 2011 2:36 am

I am afraid that the American citizens are being ripped off with their tax dollars. Refuse to pay.
These so called ‘students’ have produced a load of c##p.

Robert of Ottawa
June 13, 2011 3:02 am

You can watch the whole series here:
Thanks but I think I will pass.

imarcus
June 13, 2011 3:04 am

UMASS in a MESS !!

June 13, 2011 3:29 am

I hope those goldfish got their 72 virgins. We would have the same result had the eager student dumped in a lot of non-acidified ocean water. Call the ASPCA, somebody.

Theo Goodwin
June 13, 2011 5:05 am

“Please note that students had no previous filmmaking experience, no actors, and no money to spend on this project!”
And no criticism from professors. No one needed to attend school to make these videos. No one was challenged to think in making these videos, except of course for the students who do not buy this garbage. They were challenged to think about their grade and keep their mouths shut. No better example of what is wrong with modern college education needed. So much of it is a fantasy of education that serves only the great god Political Correctness. You want to make a good video about climate change? Then find a half dozen students with different views on climate change, seat them at a conference table, and film the debate. Now that is education. Sadly, today it is unAmerican. It would offend PC sensibilities.

Chris D.
June 13, 2011 5:06 am

This rubbish doesn’t surprise me when I consider this:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/01/18/106949/study-many-college-students-not.html
“Many of the students graduated without knowing how to sift fact from opinion, make a clear written argument or objectively review conflicting reports of a situation or event, according to New York University sociologist Richard Arum, lead author of the study. The students, for example, couldn’t determine the cause of an increase in neighborhood crime or how best to respond without being swayed by emotional testimony and political spin.”

Andy G55
June 13, 2011 5:14 am

Maybe they meant it to be aimed at kindergarten level ?

Coach Springer
June 13, 2011 5:21 am

Was Gore the undocumented professor for this class? Unworthy of a high school sociology class and unworthy of any kind of science class.

Frank K.
June 13, 2011 5:31 am

This may be related…
NASA Announces 2010 Global Climate Change Education Awards
WASHINGTON — NASA has awarded $7.7 million in cooperative agreements to 17 organizations across the United States to enhance learning through the use of NASA’s Earth science resources. The selected organizations include colleges and universities, nonprofit groups, and a community college.
.
.
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The 17 proposals will fund organizations in Washington, D.C., and 13 states: California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon and Pennsylvania. Winning proposals were selected through a merit-based, peer-reviewed competition. The performance period is up to three years and awards range in value from $300,000 to $700,000.

John Mc
June 13, 2011 5:40 am

I think these people have been drinking to much soda pop or perhaps not drinking enough.
How much CO2 is used in making soda pop every year here in the USA? Some folks have said that they have seen figures as high as 1.5 million metric tonnes. This seems really high, but so does 148 billion 2 liter bottles of carbonated beverages per year here in the USA.
You could say that this does not add to global warming greenhouse gases, the CO2 is extracted from the atmosphere. We just need to drink more soda to clear the earth’s atmosphere of this greenhouse gas.
Now, if we could just get the beverage companies to market their products to these young fools, saying that by drinking more soda pop, you can help save the earth. My idea could be a real windfall for the beverage companies. Perhaps they would send me a free two liter bottle of me favorite soda ever month for coming up with the marketing idea.
My 12 year old granddaughter knows more about science than these people will ever learn in their life time.

An Inquirer
June 13, 2011 5:50 am

I do believe that U.S. tax rates need to be raised, but after seeing this — we are not ready to raise rates yet; we must reduce / eliminate such waste and politically-motivated expenditures.

Todd
June 13, 2011 6:01 am

Color me surprised…
Climate Change Initiative Faculty Members
Vanessa Gray
Political Science
David Lustick
Graduate School of Education
Eric Nelson
Philosophy
Thomas Shea
Biological Sciences
Who could have thought Poli Sci types would have been responsible for “science” such as this?

Latitude
June 13, 2011 6:10 am

This is college??

klem
June 13, 2011 6:16 am

I don’t blame these students one bit, I remember what it was like in undergrad science. These students got the grades they were targeting for producing these emotion based propaganda films.
I wonder what would have happened had a student produced a skeptic climate film? An “F” that’s what would have happened.

juanita
June 13, 2011 7:03 am

My 20 year old son has told me for a couple of years now, his teachers are “crazy”, they “rant”, etc. His English teacher spent two semesters detailing her battle with Baldwin Construction (they were mining gravel near her home). His social studies professor put the class in groups and then sat and let them spend the entire semester on these really childish presentations, only discussing the textbook immediately before a test. My son says he’s had enough, he’s not going to enroll for the fall semester. I’ve had enough of paying for it, frankly. I went to college, I know what goes on in there. I felt like I was escaping the looney bin when I got out, I still don’t like walking on campus, gives me the heebie geebies.
Meanwhile, my 15 year old and I are homeschooling. We wanted to see the other side of the climate argument, so we checked out an online copy of the textbook used by Mark Stemen in his geography classes – it was so bad, my kid wouldn’t read it beyond the first chapter. It opens up telling the student they don’t know anything, anything they thought they knew had been placed into their heads by their parents, etc. Very demeaning – just like any mind control ritual. And, Stemen gets to pick and choose who is allowed in his class, so he doesn’t get any pokey question askers.
I’m really depressed about the state of higher education – it’s like extortion – do what we say or you won’t ever get a decent job.

June 13, 2011 7:22 am

I just graduated from Umass-Lowell with a degree in Atmospheric Science/Meteorology. Our department is not responsible for this junk. In fact, I was the president of our American Meteorology Society student chapter this past year and I was never approached about participating (I would have declined). I don’t want to speak for anybody but myself but the fact is the majority of us believe in climate variability. I spent most of last year trying to convince others of natural oscillations such as the PDO, AMO etc. Don’t get me wrong, I know the majority of the department are believers in AGW. However please don’t think all of the student’s there are moonbats too. I kept my mouth shut for most of my time at Lowell because it wasn’t my place to argue with the faculty while I was an undergrad. I saw these posters around campus and wished they would have an open and honest debate about it with meteorology majors but thats just not going to happen. My friends and I sat in on one of these climate change discussions and we had to leave, it was that bad.
My 2011 Atlantic hurricane season forecast is at my website if anyone is interested, I was able to present it at the student research symposium. Big concern for the North Carolina, south Florida, and Texas coastlines…we do have a damn good atmospheric science program at lowell and I’m certainly proud of my degree, but I dislike the liberal lean of the university and this is further proof of that.
REPLY: Zack, thank you for clarifying the issue about Umass, and thank you for having the courage to speak your mind. I know I speak for most everyone at WUWT in saying that we are encouraged by your views on climate variability and we wish you success in your career. – Anthony Watts

June 13, 2011 7:23 am

heres my webpage…
http://cmasswx.blogspot.com/

June 13, 2011 7:37 am

It’s fun to see that the students do not have a single thing right—all claims and worries are straight IPCC claptrap and lies. They should now demand a refund, unless these videos were for a fictional film-making course.
Of course, their knowledge agrees completely with the observation that they do not have a single piece of defensible science on which to base these claims.
By the time Gore released his science fiction thriller, global warming was already history. He missed the window of opportunity completely.

Bob Diaz
June 13, 2011 7:52 am

Notice in the second video, at around 0:50, the student says, “In the not too distant future, most coastal cities will be under water.” At the current rate, that should take about 10,000 years.
I assume that getting your facts correct was not a key point in making these videos.

Don Keiller
June 13, 2011 9:00 am

So this is what passes for “science” at UMass?
I’m so glad I graduated from a real University.

2kevin
June 13, 2011 9:13 am

I wonder if the monster in the closet was a reference to Gavin. I don’t think he’s a monster but the kid had a hockey stick. Will Gavin come out of the closet?

jae
June 13, 2011 9:39 am

Those productions are simply so damn stupid that they are funny! My third-grade granddaughter could do much better!

June 13, 2011 10:00 am

Hey Don I’ll put my degree from Umass up with yours any day of the week. Don’t judge the whole university based off of these videos.

Editor
June 13, 2011 11:29 am

The reader who mentioned Richard Arum’s work has the best read on this. Kids (but not mine) grow up without ever being taught how to think critically. The education system just leaves this bit out. No more logic, no more debating (except as rhetoric), no problem analysis and solving. They simply don’t have the mental skills to determine the difference between opinions and facts – they end up thinking that facts are just made up depending on the bias of the source — so they chose the source they like the best. It never occurs to them to do any fact-checking. Anyone who thinks that climate science has an exclusive on absurdities being passed off as ‘science’ should do a quick review of the health and nutrition field — where looniness is apparently its own reward.

grayman
June 13, 2011 11:55 am

EPIC FAIL IN THE VIDEOS, ZackG congrats on your degree. I said it a few years ago here. There is no better climate scientist than a Meterologist, that is what they learn!

klem
June 13, 2011 12:32 pm

“Anyone who thinks that climate science has an exclusive on absurdities being passed off as ‘science’ should do a quick review of the health and nutrition field — ”
I agree with that comment. Only a few years ago it was discovered that the coveted “8 glasses of water a day” mantra was simply made-up by someone several decades ago, and over that time no one actually investigated its validity. Over 60 years no ever questioned it. Nothing could be found in the literature, ever. Whole industries have been built around the 8 glasses a day thing and health/nutritionists have been mindlessly repeating the claim all along.

June 13, 2011 1:42 pm

What next at the University of Massachusetts? A student re-make of Der ewige Jude to gain a full understanding of (and complete buy-in with) National Socialist German Workers’ Party policies regarding “the immutable racial personality traits that…characterize the Jew as a wandering cultural parasite“?
Hm. Are these students also getting their daily Two Minutes’ Hate?
Everybody knows, of course, that Emmanuel Goldstein is the driving force behind the “denier” movement, and the very personification of “Mr. Climate Change.”

Bruce Cobb
June 13, 2011 1:54 pm

They are pitiful propaganda attempts, using various appeals to emotion, albeit in a playful, childish way. Notice the “bloopers video”. They have a hard time keeping a straight face a lot of the time. Even they must know how bad they are.

GSW
June 13, 2011 3:47 pm

Uhh, I don’t think these guys are science graduates, at least their understanding of chemistry is kind of limited;
At one point the guy says “how would *you* like to swim in a bath of acid”; if that is what they have been taught, it is really quite scary. It is more correct to talk about the sea becoming less ‘basic’ (less bleach like), CO2 makes it more ‘neutral’.
Have to admit though, “baths of acid” sounds better than “more neutral” – if you want to scare the crap out of your 7yr old sister – or typical US politician.

dB
June 14, 2011 6:51 am

You all have your heads in the sand.
It’s not like they just spend most of a quarter learning about climate change science. These students spent most of the SEMESTER learning about climate change science.

Grumpy Old Man UK
June 14, 2011 12:43 pm

It would appear that the warmists have given up trying to convince the adult population and are concentrating their last desparing efforts on attempting to indoctrinate the under-12’s. I’m cool with that -after all there’s no pressure, is there?

John Q. Galt
June 14, 2011 2:44 pm

OMGWTF THOSE PEOPLE ARE POURING DIHYDROGEN MONOXIDE IN THE FISH BOWL!!1!

Sarah
June 15, 2011 8:00 am

You posters are for the most part a useless group of non-thinkers. You’re never going to understand anything unless you actually pay attention. Stop moping about and whining. I dare you to look into the real science, possibly from those federal agencies with all the equipment and raw data. Think outside your tiny, hopeless boxes; you might learn something.

June 15, 2011 8:15 am

Sarah just posted the most content-free snivel of the week.☺