Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t CFACT – According to a new study, children are so upset by climate change they don’t enjoy contact with nature. The study authors advocate more research into helping children cope with climate change and environmental degradation.
The abstract of the study;
Childhood nature connection and constructive hope: A review of research on connecting with nature and coping with environmental loss
Louise Chawla
First published: 05 August 2020Within a generation, children’s lives have largely moved indoors, with the loss of free‐ranging exploration of the nearby natural world, even as research indicates that direct experiences of nature in childhood contribute to care for nature across the life span.
In response, many conservation organizations advocate connecting children with nature, and there has been rising interest in measuring young people’s connectedness with nature, understanding how it relates to their well‐being and stewardship behaviour and creating programs to increase connection.
This article reviews the literature on these topics, covering both quantitative and qualitative studies. It notes that this research emphasizes positive experiences and emotions, even as global environmental changes and biodiversity loss accelerate.
Young people’s emotions of worry, frustration and sadness as they learn about environmental degradation also express their understanding that they are connected to the biosphere. Therefore this review includes research on how young people cope with information about large‐scale environmental problems, and it identifies practices to sustain hope.
The review concludes by suggesting how research on connection with nature and coping with environmental change can benefit from integration.
Read more: https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/pan3.10128
Here’s a radical idea; how about society eases off abusing children by filling their minds with miserable scientifically unsound predictions of imminent climate catastrophe, so they can just enjoy being kids?
Ten years from now, and climate is pretty much the same as it always has been. What to do: Move the goalposts….
“Young people’s emotions of worry, frustration and sadness as they learn about environmental degradation”
This just confirms what we already knew, that the brainwashing of children about climate change has been a success. The short version of CAGW has been force-fed to kids by almost every primary school teacher in the western world. They also offer redemption by way of eliminating fossil fuels by 2030, or 2050, or whatever the current deadline is.
In other words, kids are being groomed to accept the lives of hardship and austerity that they will face when cheap energy is a thing of the past. Because they will be saving the planet.
“as they learn about environmental degradation ”
If they are really worried about the degradation of the natural environment….
they should put an immediate stop to the building of wind turbines
A few phrases from my own childhood:
Children! Go out and help your dad with the harvest!
Children! Put your boots on, we’re going for our evening walk!
Children! Pick up the rubbish you just through on the ground!
Children! Are you ready for your week-end scout trip?
Don’t try this today, instead you say:
Children! Remember your smart phones and don’t scare the last living polar bears with it!
Children! Be careful what skeptics tell you on FB and similar educational forums!
Children! Listen to angry words of Greta Thunberg and learn to see the evil CO2!
Children! Time you tell us what your parents and grand parents did wrong all along!
Children! Learn not your ABC, but the official Catastrophic Climate Change Policy!
Within a generation, children’s lives have largely moved indoors
But it has nothing to do with climate or weather.
Today such children will spend most of their time indoors, often with adults rather than with siblings or friends, be supervised more closely, be driven everywhere rather than walk or cycle, take part in many more organised activities and, probably for several hours every day, engage with a screen of some kind. All this is done with the best of intentions. Parents want to protect their offspring from traffic, crime and other hazards in what they see as a more dangerous world, and to give them every opportunity to flourish.
https://www.economist.com/special-report/2019/01/03/why-childrens-lives-have-changed-radically-in-just-a-few-decades
I’m surprised that no alarmist report has been published, as yet, on the northward migration of the candiru due to global warming. Just think how much parents would be willing to pay the government so that “little Johnny” can go for a lake swim with his scout troop.
This is the real tragedy of climate change. It’s that our relationship with nature is now based on fear and
the perceived evil of human existence rather than respect and an appreciation of natural world.
in a way, I miss agenda 21. Fear is unsustainable.
School teachers are to blame, not the weather.
Homeschool!!!
Kids where the last defenders of nazism, denouncing their parents to gulags, perfect killing machines in Cambodia or Africa. They know how to prime them. This is a generational struggle to win the minds of the young again. The snowflake generation thatnever knew any pain. This is their Achilles heel. Once their forced into the real world their will crumble and become the defenders of their possessions (capitalism) like their flower power parent generation.
It easy for a young child to be stressed by nature, the problem is today’s children do not know nature wants to kill you. It has nothing to do with climate change it been that way forever. We now have methods to protect us from nature most of the time except in the most extreme events. That was not true a a hundred years ago. When one had to use and outhouse you we rather familiar with extreme weather, 20 below on did not spend much time sitting and reading a Sears catalog in candle light, ditto for a thunder storm, in a blizzard you followed the rope or died. Summer time the mosquitoes and flies tried to carry you away. The problem with today children they have no idea what weather and mother natures stress is really is.
Good point. Early humans were tapped by glaciers in Beringia (present day northeastern Russia) during the last ice age. They survived winter temperatures as low as -100 degrees F. They’d laugh at our “problems.”
Someone should tell these poor brainwashed kids actual air pollutants have been slashed 60~98% (depending on pollutant) just since 1980:
https://www.epa.gov/air-trends/air-quality-national-summary
Kids should actually be crying about the destructive re-education propaganda that’s being inflicted on them from their insane teachers, media, Internet and culture…
“The study authors advocate more research into helping children cope with climate change and environmental degradation.” How about admitting the whole thing is a hoax and drop the scare tactics!! That will solve it quickly.
Totally agree John!
I enjoy these days, my time on Quora, fielding questions on the Climate. Often this means just putting right misconceptions built into the questions and at other times playing a form of “Agony Uncle” in trying to allay the mental stress invoked in the their minds.
Then I get into trouble with those severely infected with theCAGW virus and get many an ad-hominem comment. etc. To me the psychology of this is interesting, watching these people often unable to cope with inconvenient observations etc.
I also learn a great deal particularly when called to task on some errors in my pontifications.
There are a lot of very intelligent people out there also; willing to impart some of their experiences.
It keeps me out of mischief, or so I think👍🤔
My grandaughter’s best friend(they live in Spokane, WA) is having anxiety attacks, seeing a psychologist for counselling(I think) and generally is extremely upset by what she has learned about “climate change” in school.
We met directly last year in St. Paul, MN for a few days. At the time she was working on a school project trying to recruit fellow students for a climate action group(sponsored by some sordid national organization) with little success. We talked several times about it. She hasn’t gotten any useful education in math or other sciences, other than propaganda about “climate change” and global warming. We talked about the accurate climate record. I showed her the graph, with 1936 still being the highest temperature in the USA ever. She really didn’t believe it was 26°F then compared to the average temperature of 11.49°F in 2019.(also a “hottest” year).
She also had extreme trouble understanding that the temperature today influences the temperature(and the weather) for the next day or two. That influence means that an average temperature is really a meaningless number when used in comparisons because it doesn’t come from random numbers. By definition a statistical average is only valid for truly random numbers.
My son recently told be she still is extremely upset about climate change. I hope and pray she can get over it.
I’m hearing more of these very sad stories Philo. Even my own adult son said to me recently that he was struggling to deal with the fact that his daughter’s wouldn’t grow up to enjoy the world that he lived in. Of course the thought that went through my head was no of course not it will be covered with solar panels and wind turbines. I can have discussions with just about anyone, but he’s made it clear that he has his own opinions. Of course I know that’s all that they are, opinions. I’ll push the boundaries with anyone else, but I won’t push my son away.
People need to educate themselves, and others. It’s not an easy thing to do but we have to be prepared to speak out about the things we know. A good starting point is, “did you know that…it’s quite compelling, I’ll send you a link”. Or words to that affect. Don’t overwhelm them with information, be selective about what you send them, try to choose authentic material. Some material has other embedded links which is a way of giving them alot of information in one email. After a suitable amount of time, ask them what they thought of the link. If they liked it then suggest that they share it.
We have to do something, the MSM will not put the truth out there and social media is in small bytes and is so full of spite it’s difficult to have a conversation. That’s why I’m not on it. Even when you send links you may find that people don’t want to talk about it. That’s why you need to choose the right material. And be prepared, you might get the silent treatment from some for a while.
It goes without saying that there is no place for insults, from either side. Others are only ignorant because they don’t know. I remember that place well. On that note be open to learn from others too, we’re always ignorant of something.
That sounded a bit like the scientific method. Know your subject well then present it. Sounds a bit simplistic. At least a lot of people sending out knowledge by email gets it out there on some level. Scientists don’t get to present their well studied information any more.
Maybe if we can get the message out that there’s alot that they aren’t be told, we can get some real scientists back into paying jobs with integrity. We have to start somewhere.
I for one am open to suggestions. I said no insults.