I wouldn’t have believed this if I hadn’t read it for myself. This is an actual study and press release from the University of York. I’m surprised they didn’t issue this press release IN ALL UPPER CASE. Those darn whippersnappers.
New rules of engagement for older people and climate change
A new study by researchers in the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) at the University of York calls for better engagement of older people on climate change issues.
The report, prepared in partnership with the Community Service Volunteers’ Retired and Senior Volunteer Programme (RSVP), urges the scrapping of stereotypes which suggest that older people are incapable of engagement, passive or disinterested in climate change.
Instead, the research team recommends new approaches to engage older people, which promote direct interaction and the use of trusted agents that are sensitive to the personal circumstances older people face. The report sets out a ten-point plan to engage older people more effectively on climate change issues and greener living.
Recent evidence from the older age sector highlight the inadequacies of current methods of information provision and community engagement on climate change
The report claims that a combination of climate change and an ageing population will have wide ranging socio-economic and environmental impacts. It acknowledges that older people may be physically, financially and emotionally less able to cope with the effects of climate-related weather events.
Lead author Dr Gary Haq, a human ecologist at SEI, said: “The engagement and participation of older people in climate change issues are important as older people can be seen as potential contributors to, and casualties of, climate change as well as potential campaigners to tackle the problem.”
‘Baby boomers’ (aged 50-64) currently have the highest carbon footprint in the UK compared with other age groups. They represent the first generation of the consumer society entering old age. As they will move to older groups they will replace low carbon footprint habits and values with relatively high consumption.
Dr Haq said: “Recent evidence from the older age sector highlight the inadequacies of current methods of information provision and community engagement on climate change. It is critical to implementing policies to tackle climate change and to address the needs of an ageing population.”
Dave Brown, co-author and member of RSVP, said: “While older people are concerned about climate change, they do not feel they will be directly affected. Nor do they feel they can personally take action to stop it. The older generation represent a missing voice and a missed opportunity.”
Notes to editors:
- The Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) is a global science policy research institute headquartered in Stockholm and with its UK office based in the Environment Department at the University of York. Its mission is to bridge the gap between science and policy to achieve change for a sustainable future.
- More about the University of York’s Environment Department can be found on www.york.ac.uk/environment/
- According to the Government’s Actuary Department, by 2050 people aged over 50 will represent 30 per cent of the UK population compared to 2006.
- SEI’s updated calculations show that baby boomers (aged 50-64) have one of the highest carbon footprints (13.5 tonnes/CO2) in the UK compared other age groups Seniors (aged 65-70) have a carbon footprint of 12. 5 tonnes/CO2 while Elders (aged 70+) have a footprint of equal to the UK average of 12 tonnes.
- As the ‘baby boomers’ move into the older groups they will replace low carbon footprint habits and values with relatively high consumption habits. This “replacement effect” is crucially important and identifies the need for a much clearer targeted effort on climate change and consumption aimed at this demographic group.
- The ten-point plan for engagement of older people in climate change issues:
-
- Abandon old stereotypes
- Get to know your target audience
- Use trusted brands
- Use peer to peer communication
- Use positive messages
- Use the right “frames”
- Show real life examples
- Develop an inclusive dialogue
- Maximise participation
- Ensure the setting is right for change
- The full report can be found on the SEI web site: www.sei-international.org
They have a major communication problem with seniors, the fact that they lived and remember weather as it was not as the IPCC would like it to have been…
Do not under-estimate the likes of Gary Haq. Clearly many here are attuned to and easily recognize the propaganda and lies that emanate from watermelons like Gary Haq. However, many older citizens may not be as aware. Their life circumstances makes them more easily manipulated. For example, guess who is targeted by all those offers of valuable prizes for a few bucks that come through the mail from Nigeria, Canada, US, etc. I know my Dad was conned by these things to the tune of thousands of pounds and he had been pretty astute in his day.
In the US, AARP has a lot of political clout because it appears to protect the rights of the elderly. It is now largely an arm of the Democrats and has willingly embraced programs which will dramatically reduce the freedom of choice for its members.
Sure it is condescending – but so is all watermelon inspired propaganda. It does not lessen its potential for influencing the political process.
Ric Werme says: “. . . why are these people in York, anyway? Did they get run out of Sweden?”
Dude; the Stockholm Environment is not the environment produced by Sweden, it’s the environment that produces the syndrome of the same name.
Dr Gary Haq is a human ecologist, not a “social” ecologist. And just what that is becomes clear if you read his offal paper.
Dave Brown, co-author and member of RSVP, said: “While older people are concerned about climate change, they do not feel they will be directly affected. Nor do they feel they can personally take action to stop it. The older generation represent a missing voice and a missed opportunity.” (emphasis mine)
The geezer gang doesn’t “feel” they can stop climate change. They have the horse sense to know that they can’t stop the climate from changing. Their voice isn’t missing. It’s being ignored.
What outrageous hubris!
Speaking as a “boomer” occupying the younger end of the spectrum I am not so far gone in my dotage that I haven’t observed winters have become increasingly harsh over the last few years. Many boomers at the higher end of the spectrum are very vulnerable financially and tend to die from hypothermia if they can’t afford to heat their homes – an increasing problem thanks to skyrocketing bills courtesy of “green” taxes spurred on by mealy-mouthed warmist academics and grasping, political morons.
I believe I speak for many when I suggest that Dr Haq and the SEI can stuff their rules of engagement up their collective backsides and then go and [self snip] themselves. Sideways!
Every “Save The …” scam out there targets seniors. What’s one more?
But, but, … This is full of non-sequiturs. Where to start? A couple of letters have correctly pointed out that the (slightly) greater carbon wasters 50-64 do so because they are able. That they are physically, financially, and emotionally unable to deal with such issues (in the prime of their financial and intellectual abilities) is obviously false. That those entering this age group will become ill-behaved is not demonstrated. Concentrate on the young people who are more gullible to crusading hypothetical social issues. ….etc., etc., ……for 10 pages more. Better still, do something useful.
Those who haven’t should follow the link to the U. of York environmental graduate program. Equally valid diplomas should be available in Cracker-Jack boxes.
The muse inspired Ogden Nash:
“In the pie-eyed world of prunes and prisms,
It’s I for You and euphemisms.
Hence the phrase I would eagerly jettison:
‘Senior Citizen’.
…..”
Sorry, no URL at hand for the rest of it.
Nothing new here – its another young lot trying to teach granny how to suck eggs.
Their ageist attitude shows clearly that they regard everybody with a bus pass as someone who hasn’t got more than two brain cells left, and needs to be told firmly, loudly (old people can’t hear so well, dear …) and clearly that they simply must believe what they’re told.
What they forget is that our generation have actually been there, right after WWII, and that there is nothing they can teach us about ‘reducing’ our carbon footprint.
I guess that ours was so much smaller, over our lifetime, than theirs will ever be – and that they’d be lost if they’d have to live even for a week in a cottage with no electricity, telephone, TV, cell phone, computer and car. Oh – and I bet none of them would know how to light a fire, either an open one or in a stove.
If Dr Haq asks nicely, I might even be so kind and teach him …
Sounds like the greenshirts will be opening up re-education camps soon. And they get
governmentour money to do this to us?Stephen Wilde says:
August 26, 2010 at 9:44 am (Edit)
It’s known as ‘frightening the vulnerable’.
Get them on side via a good dose of fearmongering and that’s another section of the public to manipulate in support of the struggle for power.
I don’t usually get political but it’s straight out of the Marxist Handbook.
Quite a lot of the baby boomers parents would have remembered voting the tories out at the earliest opportunity after the second world war.
The answer? Soylent Green! Reduce the population, reduce human carbon emissions, reduce health industry spending, increase food security! The AGW Alarmists agenda is now clear!
The older generation?
They are slowly being replaced by a more wasteful younger generation.
I remember spending hours removing nails from boards and straightening them for reuse.
The shop is filled with boxes of sorted screws, nuts, bolts, washers, which have been ‘salvaged’ from items over the years.
I remember my father teaching me how to carefully disassemble old structures or furnishings so the wood could be re-used.
I will have to admit that electronics has changed. Some new stuff cannot out perform the old, but it is more efficient. In the shop is a vacuum tube tester. It sees little use these days. However, the oscilloscope, meters, sweep generator, etc have periodic use. Taking the time to troubleshoot and repair a circuit board is a skill that needs to be preserved and passed on.
My mother’s toaster (metal not plastic) has been in use for over 50 years. She found a like model at a carport sale recently and bought it in case hers ever needed an element or spring replaced.
My favorite electric hand drill was passed down to me from my father. It is, like the toaster, about 50 years old. The brushes and bearings have been replaced a couple of times.
Shopping trips are a planned route reducing travel. Quantities are purchased, trips to the store are limited.
One does not cook “a” casserole. Two are cooked making more efficient use of the oven. Left-overs are frequent.
Mother’s bedroom set and her living room furniture are both about 60 years old. Buy good solid quality and keep it. Her dining table was over 50 years old when she and my father bought them… and that was over 60 years ago.
She makes frequent use of the automatic clothes dryer. Clothes, once washed, are hung out on a clothesline and the sun automatically dries them.
The older generation has seen times when things were as warm (or warmer) in the summer. They have seen cooler summers. They have seen warmer winters, they have seen cold winters. They have experienced times of drought and time of substantial rains.
They have conserved, preserved, and wasted little as possible. The younger generation is going to teach them something?
They have also seen their share of flim-flam men, snake-oil salesmen, and shell games. They will identify them in a heartbeat. They will not be deceived by changing the sales pitch. They also remember old codgers sitting around a barrel playing checkers. The conversation oft about what the next winter or summer would be like, what changes in the years rain or snow would they see. Danged if the projections, as modeled by the checked board code, were not quite accurate.
To them GISS would be applied to: “That is GISS a pile of trash.”
Amazing projection once again.
No.11 Give them the unadulterated facts – let them decide the truth.
Either you EFFECTIVELY get rid of these imbeciles or they will destroy the world. This is why sometimes the reason of force is needed, instead of the force of reason: They are dangerous people who, if kept alive, will destroy civilization. As you get rid of a tumor which menaces your life you gotto get rid of these idiots.
Ddn’t the Stockholm Institute invent Stockholm Syndrome?
Don’t panic!
(but do grab your towel)
Maybe retroactive birth control is needed to put these young [snip] where they belong.
There is the fact that many seniors tend to be glued to the TV, where they have been brainwashed for decades. Same for the newspapers. In my experience, they tend to believe what’s fed to them as being truthful and the whole story.
These people are indeed subject to initiatives like Haq’s.
Do your friends a favor – make sure they have web access, and suggest WUWT and Instapundit. Tell them there are no commercial breaks!
The rest will follow, if their minds are receptive to balanced discussion.
I like climate change. I think I’ll keep it.
Ugh it makes me feel sick. Leave people alone,[snip]
I was intrigued by Gary’s shyness about his academic background – so I went looking:
Gary Haq’s Education
Open University
Continuing Professional Development , Psychology , 2007 — 2008
Open University
Dip. Econ. , Economics , 2000 — 2002
Lancaster University
PhD , Geography (Transport & Environment) , 1991 — 1995
University of College Wales, Aberystwyth
MSc , Environmental Impact Assessment , 1990 — 1991
Participated in a five month exchange programme at the Interfaculty Department for Environmental Sciences, University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands) as part of the MSc course.
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
MSc , Environmental Impact Assessment , 1990 — 1991
The University of Huddersfield
BSc (Hons) , Human Ecology , 1986 — 1990
Readers in the UK will be able to provide more insight into the academic standing of these programs. In my day, Huddersfield did not have a University and today its 10 year average ranking is 90th out of 119 of British Universities. http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/pdfs/univ07ten.pdf
In fairness University of Wales at Aberystwyth is ranked 47.
University of Lancaster is harder to rank because of the specialty area.
Bottom line: Dr. Gary Haq is another example of a catastrophic over expansion of the British University system. It has created jobs for those who are essentially parasites – perhaps one of the few topics in human ecology worth examining.
“The engagement and participation of older people in climate change issues are important as older people can be seen as potential contributors to, AND CASUALTIES OF, climate change as well as potential campaigners to tackle the problem.”
So old people can’t handle one extra degree of heat? Can somebody explain why they like to move to Florida then?
There was a time I felt guilty – briefly – for my carbon footprint but “findings” like this make me want to expand my footprint mightily. But I won’t, because there are good reasons other than AGW for cutting resource consumption – neverthe less, 8 long haul flights this year, for good reasons, and thanks to the blogosphere I don’t feel guilty about the CO2 as such.
Only 63, but still find I know more science than most youngsters, many of whom can’t think properly, or do the ball park estimates that show what cr*p is peddled (such as there being enough renewable power to meet current needs)