Posted by Dee Norris
Teach children the path to follow, and even when they are old, they will not stray from it. (Proverbs 22:6)
Childhood indoctrination. It’s a dirty word. Hitler did it. Stalin did it. It can never happen here in the free world, now can it? Of course not.
In the past few days, I have had a couple of disturbing conversations about AGW with the younger generation, including my own daughter. Particularly striking is the one I had with the 12-year old daughter of a friend.
(Warning: The following transcript may incite anger in libertarians and parents).
Dee: So, do you believe in Global Warming?
Melissa: Oh, yes!
Dee: Oh? Do you think that people are responsible?
Melissa: Uh huh. They put all that junk in the air and it has to be causing the world to get warmer.
Dee: Is that so? That junk is called carbon dioxide and of all the carbon dioxide that is going into the air, how much of it do you think that people are adding?
Melissa: I dunno… Maybe 75 percent?
Dee: 75%? What if I told you it was less than 5% and the rest was all natural?
Melissa: Well how about all the polar bears that are drowning? The ice cap is melting.
Dee: Ummmm… How many polar bears have drowned?
Melissa: I dunno, but they’re going extinct.
Dee: Oh, really? Polar bear population had doubled in the last few of decades.
Melissa: You are making me mad.
Dee: Why is that?
Melissa: Cause you are.
Dee: OK, so where did you learn that the polar bears are dying?
Melissa: A movie they showed at the school.
Well, gentle readers, I knew to which movie she was referring: Al Gore’s Oscar winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. In fact, I was there that day when the school’s earth science class sponsored a public showing and did my best to correct some of the more glaring errors made by Mr. Gore, but it seems that I failed in my task.
To this day, the indoctrination continues to warp the opinions of children too young to understand the science or politics behind AGW and who only care about the cute, cuddly polar bears having to swim 50 or more miles between melting ice flows just to stay alive.
Recently, the American Institute for Public Service, a national foundation that honors community service, recognized Cool the Earth for the efforts to educate the youth of the San Francisco Bay Area about the dangers of Global Warming. The founder of Cool the Earth, Carleen Cullen had this to say:
“What I love about working with young people is their absolute optimism,” said Cullen. “You tell them, ‘Hey, we’ve got this little problem over here with our friend, the polar bear, and with humans as well,’ and they’re not overwhelmed by it; they’re not skeptical or cynical. They just ask, ‘What can I do to fix it?’ “
Read the entire article at the SF Chronicle here: Carleen Cullen fights global warming or see it for yourself at Cool the Earth.
P.S. I haven’t given up hope for Melissa – she is a bright kid. I am planning on making a special middle school-level presentation to help her understand both sides of the debate so she can make up her own mind. Who knows, perhaps I can shame the school into letting a skeptic have equal time.
Update: I spoke with Melissa tonight (Sept 10) and she is quite excited that an essay about her is so popular that Google ranked it in the top 10 out of 1.2 million hits for ‘Inconvenient Youth’. This seems to have spurred her into digging into the facts behind AGW to see the truth for herself.
On the other hand, in that same search, I found a video posted just this week which was also entitled “An Inconvenient Youth” and is of an 8-year old boy with a message for politicians to stop global warming. I am very sure he didn’t just come up with this on his own. Judge for yourself:
An Inconvenient Youth from Colin McCullough on Vimeo.
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Some people think I am daffy to even worry about the similarities between the use of childhood indoctrination and the likes of Hitler and Stalin, but this article shows that local councils in the UK are using children to spy on their family and neighbors for eco-violations.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2689996/Children-aged-eight-enlisted-as-council-snoopers.html
Dee: “What I was doing was challenging her received notions about CO2 (that a lot ‘maybe 75%’ of the atmospheric CO2 concentration is anthropogenic).”
No problem with challenging childish errors. It can lead to fruitful conversations. But you attempted to correct the child with a view that is at variance with mainstream climate science. So who’s indoctrinating who?
My reaction in similar circumstances is to encourage the child to consult the relevant authority in whatever subject. Effectively, in the case of science, that means consulting the mainstream scientific view, and the mainstream view today is that man-made climate change is happening.
“…childhood indoctrination is permissible under the right circumstances.”
We’re on the same page there, but of course people will strongly differ in their interpretation of “the right circumstances”.
“There are a lot of wannabes, people who think they know what is right for everyone else on the planet.”
Yes. Two of them are currently vying for the world’s top job. Other people write op-eds to move the masses.
“Do we as a society take the risk that if some extreme green demagogue begins a rise to power that he (or she) will find a ready-made pool of indoctrinated eco-warriors…”
I think you’re being alarmist and not a little paranoid. But if you’re concerned about pools of indoctrinated kids, you need to include Sunday School and the Boy Scouts, which have masses of youth imbibing adult doctrines.
Brendan:
5% annual anthropogenic CO2 contribution is supported in mainstream science. Furthermore, had I the opportunity, I would have more fully explained the big picture from all points of view but she closed down the discussion. Are you suggesting that I should have forced her to listen?
At the risk of repeating myself, you are seeing two bats tugging at each other when the inkblot is really just a butterfly. Citing a fact is not indoctrination.
Had I coupled the fact with a warning that reducing anthropogenic CO2 would cause a global cooling cycle which would eventually cause the return of the glaciers and a real ice age, you would be justified in your accusations.
It is not the pool of indoctrinated kids I worry about, it is the pool adult rainbow warriors who were indoctrinated as children that worries me. They join Greenpeace, Earth First, Animal Liberation Front, etc…
First it is vandalism, then it is kristallnacht. True Believers are always a danger waiting for a leader.
Dee: “Citing a fact is not indoctrination.”
You know what they say about statistics, Dee. The relevant point about AGW is the year-on-year accumulation of man-made CO2 in the atmosphere. Since only about half of man-made emissions are reabsorbed, the total value of man-made CO2 in the atmosphere has accumulated to the point where it is now around 30 per cent of the total.
That is why scientists are concerned. The annual contribution is an important fact, but only within the wider context of the total amount accumulated. In that sense, choosing to highlight only the 5 per cent figure is a misleading cherry-pick.
“They join Greenpeace, Earth First, Animal Liberation Front, etc…
First it is vandalism, then it is kristallnacht. True Believers are always a danger waiting for a leader.”
Kristillnacht was state-sponsored terrorism which occurred within a nationalist framework. To justify a link between the Kingsnorth vandalism and kristallnacht you would need to show that the British government thinks it has something to gain from instigating a nationwide orgy of violence against its energy industries.
Brenden:
As I pointed out, she didn’t allow me to continue to present other CO2 related facts. Being that you continue to press me on this, I conclude that you believe I should have forced them upon her. As I disagree with that sort of behavior with children (I would call it indoctrination), I think this part of the conversation has run its course.
Greenpeace has done worse actions than Kingsnorth and here in the US, EarthFirst and The Animal Liberation Front have destroyed 100s of thousands of dollars in private property making the Kingsnorth Six look like boys shooting spit balls in Sunday School.
Do you mean to tell me you believe if these sorts of groups came into power, their criminal behavior would suddenly stop? In a way it would stop, of course. It would become legalized behavior. Exactly as I implied with the reference from vandalism to kristallnacht.
Dee: “As I pointed out, she didn’t allow me to continue…I think this part of the conversation has run its course.”
Looks like you and Melissa have something in common.
“Do you mean to tell me you believe if these sorts of groups came into power, their criminal behavior would suddenly stop?”
I can’t say, but government office-holders are sworn to uphold the law. I don’t condone law-breaking in the pursuit of ‘higher’ ends, especially if it is violent, but this stunt appears to be of the milder sort. (The play on ‘Gordon’ is amusing for those who know their Thomas the Tank Engine.)
And one of the iconic events of the founding of your system of government was a major act of vandalism.
[…] September 19, 2008 at 7:18 pm (Uncategorized) Here’s a frustrating post: An Inconvenient Youth […]