Essay by Eric Worrall
Vox contributor Kelsey Piper describing her realisation that climate anxiety is a far worse threat to the welfare of kids than climate change.
Stop telling kids that climate change will destroy their world
Some “climate anxiety” is the product of telling kids — falsely — that they have no future.
By Kelsey Piper Jun 8, 2022, 8:10am EDT
My 5-year-old daughter is now old enough to read a lot of books and magazines aimed at children, and it’s given me a whole new perspective on the discourse wars over how we talk about climate change, conservation, and the future of the planet.
As I’ve written about before, climate change is going to be bad, and it will hold back humanity from thriving as much as we should this century. It will likely cause mass migration and displacement and extinctions of many species.
What it won’t do, however, is make the Earth unlivable, or even mean that our children live in a world poorer than the one we grew up in. As many climate scientists have been telling us, the world is a better place to live in — especially for people in lower-income countries — than it has ever been, and climate change isn’t going to make it as bad as it was even in 1950.
“I unequivocally reject, scientifically and personally, the notion that children are somehow doomed to an unhappy life,” Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at Columbia, told Ezra Klein in his column this week about overcoming climate despair.
…
“There might not be a world to live in when she grows up. What use is school without a future?” one page describes Thunberg as thinking. Even as a setup for Thunberg’s rise as an activist, I’m not thrilled about that message. Some kids might hear that and be inspired to speak before the United Nations, but most kids are going to hear that and be scared and disempowered.
That pessimistic message seems to be sinking in for the young. A 2021 study funded by the campaign and research group Avaaz polled 10,000 people between 16 and 25, and found that over half thought that humanity was “doomed” because of climate change.
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Read more: https://www.vox.com/23158406/climate-change-tell-kids-wont-destroy-world
There’s something twisted and cruel about people who seem to go out of their way to tell kids that they are all doomed.
Think about all the stories of people sheltering from the blitz in WW2, or other horrible circumstances. Parents in the shelters didn’t tell their kids all the ways they were about to die, they tried to shield their kids from the horror, read stories to them, anything to distract them, give them a moment’s peace and even joy, while the continuous muffled blast sounds penetrated their shelters, as the NAZI bombs rained on London.
But many climate activists seem to want to do the opposite. What do they get out of it? Do they get a kick, when they watch the little faces of children in their care crumple in fear and despair, under the weight of their doom laden pessimism?
Even if climate scare stories were true, which they clearly are not, people with an ounce of compassion just wouldn’t inflict such cruelty on children.
A new breed of human is being created in the descending West, Homo-alarmus-apocaliptiker.
This poor creature has lost it’s ability to reason, and barely has a thought of it’s own.
Young generations are brainwashed into believing in it.The most frightening of all it is that the brain genetic cognitive setup is being gradually altered.
Brainwashing is a powerful thing but so is everyday life. What hasn’t changed the genetic cognitive setup and when isn’t it being altered? Fortunately, human technique will not bring about ontological change in humans caused by brainwashing otherwise we would have ceased to human long ago. The ethics are more compelling. I have read numerous top notch pundits from the early 20th century who made the same complaint, hypermodernity, the marketing and propaganda of modernity, consumerism with it’s emphasis on technology and it’s corelates in psychology are making people dumber and dumber. So obviously, we have become dumb are becoming dumber and will continue to become dumber. The big question ethically is why do we tolerate it? People love drama…. the drama of being accused and condemned, to find reconciliation in obedience, us against them… the enlightened against the sullied masses, the smart against the dumb and endlessness so on. Fear will move people to self-righteous initiative and division for a while but eventually people just don’t care anymore and that is what makes them really dumb. We saw this happen with the vast majority of the antiwar movement. draft,..fear…. antiwar movement, then back to normal yuppiedumb.
Traditional zoological classification nomenclature prefers that certain Latinized suffixes be employed, so off the top of my head we might consider perhaps something along the lines of Warmisticus Jackassii.
The Great Generation children it was:-family, community, poverty, extreme frugality, handwork, self reliance and interdependence, and hunger. Boomers-threat of nuclear holocaust and the experience of terror and powerless while ducking and covering.. Today for kids. it is accusation and condemnation and call to obedience every where they go and they are going non-stop on their phones and the propaganda is ubiquitous.
My guess is the long term impact with be righteous anger turned outward.
So, Kelsey Piper says “…climate change is going to be bad…” but it will be OK if you don’t tell your children about it? This is a new level of delusional for me. I need a drink.
“As I’ve written about before, climate change is going to be bad, and it will hold back humanity from thriving as much as we should this century.”
Kelsey Piper; Just show me data that shows climate change is worse now than it was 100, 150, 200, years ago . You can’t, because it isn’t!
But…But…the CONSENSUS!
(We don’t need no stinkin’ data!)
We can show 40 years worth of failed, hysterical “predictions” (LIES)!!
Yes, I have a hard time reading past such drivel as well.
It is impossible to take seriously anyone who makes such utterances, particularly when they do so without qualification, supporting evidence, or even the merest hint of reservation or skepticism.
Everything is better than ever, by her own words, and yet it is somehow a foregone conclusion, chiseled in stone, future history already written, than everything will soon be very bad?
She refers specifically to 1950 as a climate reference point. and avers that things are in no danger of getting that bad.
But what exactly was going on in 1950 that was in any way some sort of awful terrible not good reference point?
For all we know, she is one of the ones who believes not a word of the climate liars’ lying lies, but understands the need to pay lip service to alarmist narratives lest she be summarily cancelled and henceforth studiously ignored.
Or she may be brainwashed by dogmatic rhetoric that has been drilled into her at every opportunity and occasion, and yet have some trace levels of critical thinking ability lingering inside her all-but-useless executive mental functions.
Perhaps she is even in some initial stage of regaining her sanity, as crowd-madness groupthink lessens it’s stranglehold over her mind.
Things must have started getting REALLY GOOD after 1950, because shortly after, when I was born and grew up, life was wonderful here in the good ole USA, even with “duck and cover”. Don’t understand all that 1950 bad stuff. Seemed that my older friends were just as happy, as were our parents. What was not to like?
That’s not all our children are being taught in school. Add CRT, Capitalism is bad and Socialism is good, Defund the Police, Abortion is good, Religion is bad, gender identification is a must and should be kept secret from you misunderstanding parents. And we’re allowing them to continue with all these non school related indoctrination.
You mean street policing is bad, but secret police kind of Cheka, Stasi, KGB, FSB, MSS-PRC, MSS-DPRK etc were or are good.
No self respecting dictatorship can do or even survive without one.
And country heads who are fine with impoverishing their citizens and exposing them to starvation and freezing to death to save their great grandchildren from possible warmer weather!!! Imagine the horror of UK being a degree or two warmer. Maybe even getting as warm as Toronto.
Child abuse. Statutory child abuse. And climate Munchausens by Proxy. Sick individuals … sick in the head … who need institutionalization
The USA has been taken over by a cult.
Actually the entire human race is threatened by the deadly Climate Nutter Cult.
I have little sympathy for this woman’s plight with the fears of children when she says stupid stuff like this: “As I’ve written about before, climate change is going to be bad, and it will hold back humanity from thriving as much as we should this century. It will likely cause mass migration and displacement and extinctions of many species.”
The statement is made with precious little evidence of exactly how it’s going to be “bad,” or just exactly how humanity will be “held back.” Models and failed predictions are not evidence. If anything gets “bad,” it will be because the warmistas insist upon destroying the world economy with their net zero fantasies.
Net Zero is a Stalinist fantasy – spiked (spiked-online.com)
good article over at SP!KED
Well, I expect there will be an uptick in extinctions. Not due to climate – due to climatistas.
Bird chopping turbines. Bird roasting thermosolar plants. Palm oil plantations and previously undisturbed environments plowed up for corn.
We’ll probably never know just how many species are wiped out in Mainland China.
Humanity will be held back alright, due to climate alarmism.
I can’t see the likes of the BBC, the Guardian and the Independent letting up on their deluge of climate doom
“Punishing heatwave expected across the US south-west this weekend”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/10/us-weather-latest-temperature-weekend-south-west
Punishing?
It comes with a whip and you have to call it mistress.
Whip me, beat me, make me write bad checks.
FYI, you forgot…”tie me up”…LOL
I use the shorter version because of it’s better cadence.
Do they mean like summer? I’m mowing while they cower.
Yes punishing! The far left want to punish the peasants for having luxuries like air con so they want the weather to punish the peasants, and raise energy prices and have black outs. The left used to be the champion of the poor but not any more!
It is normal for Texas, just a few weeks early. But British news sites call 25C a heat wave.
Locally in Texas, a quick check of NWS stats show this heat is above average for my location for these dates, but no records were broken here.
Here is a list of the top 23 high temperatures in Tucson AZ.
https://www.wrh.noaa.gov/twc/climate/tus.php
I was visiting there in June 1975 or ’76. I recall it being as hot as these records, but where the temperatures were from, I don’t know.
Most people are not surprised to experience greater than 110°F in Tucson in June.
I have been living in Tucson since 1978 and June is the hottest month with most days over 100 for highs, that is why it is called the Desert Southwest. Thanks for the numbers. For us it is what it is , hot and dry. You either love it or leave. I love it.
Take your meds and do your climate scare homework. I don’t want to punish you by taking away your gender defining drugs or THCs.
Start learning Chinese…….
Mandarin or Hindi.
The worst are those who let themselves be deluded into not having children of their own. Then seeing children must really hurt. Can you imagine the angst when they realise that they have been fooled by a bunch of charlatans?
No, I must disagree. It’s just Darwin at work. Personally I think we’d all be better off if that type doesn’t procreate :<)
not when its the “trusted” teachers and govt that tell kids the lies.
thats outright abuse and I was one of the lied to kids back in the 70s and these lying bastards ruined my life. I saw no future in bothering for higher ed or having kids so now live in poverty, and have no family support etc
Oz, I’m so sorry to hear how public ed impacted your life.
Fast forward to now. It is a witch’s brew of falsehoods and suppression of dissenting voices. Throw in poor, fatherless home life, violent gaming and rampant porn reaching kids. One should be heartbroken but not surprised when the occasional teen grabs a weapon and carries out a horrific mass killing.
I would agree if and only if the stupider and/or uglier someone is, the less likely they are to procreate.
But unfortunately, that is not the case.
They are so insulated from reality that few will ever get the chance to realize that they have not only been tricked (aka duped) into discipleship but have also been co-opted into Da’wah and jihad.
What should be feared is western society after it has been denied sufficient fossil fuels. If there’s not to be any investment in new wells, what will happen when current producing wells are played out? It will make the 1970’s oil embargo look like child’s play.
Add to that reduced production of natural gas now that most electricity is produced by natural gas, in addition to the other uses natural gas has. No gas means no electricity, and all those standby generators powered by natural gas won’t work either.
Now that’s an anxiety producing scenario I can believe in.
Prices will be so high that fuel sellers can self finance.
The greens have about the same track record of predicting events as certain religious groups. Jesus did not come back in 1974, and there were no mass famines the same year.
Well the other major religion used to burn people at the stake – we survived that as well.
What the kids should be hearing about is the whole climate agenda is a false flag. The bad guy socialists/marxists should be demonized for what they have done. It’s not too late to turn this around. It starts at home people. Educate your kids to what is really going on.
Well, some of us did!
They still do. A Twilight faith (e.g. conflation of logical domains). A nominally “secular” ethical (i.e. relativistic) religion (i.e. behavioral protocol). Mortal gods and goddesses to guide you. A wicked solution. Take a knee, beg, good girl. Let us bray.
This is an atheistic “religion” we are being blessed with. I suggest it’s easy to demonize Religion because there’s no “civilization” that atheism ever established until quite recently, so we have no significant history to compare what atheistic (materialism only) societies are capable of … until the French revolution. And such societies now have an extremely bad track record (starting with that revolution) when it comes to killing people and propagandizing people into doing horrible things to each other.
Myths and models are first-order forcings of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Social Contagion (CASP)
Contagion doesn’t start with a C. Fail.
Yes it does, Fail
(or did you mean a “P”?)
I was making a play on words, or a pun, or whatever you call it. Using a fail to point at a fail. Didn’t work.
Or I didn’t get it
Regardless of the merit of warmunist claims, there is never any excuse for frightening children or even young adults. The world has always had challenges – from wars to riots to storms to personal catastrophes. But I don’t ever recall anyone instructing young people to forgo all hope for their future.
I grew up in the 50s and 60s, when nuclear Armageddon was a very real threat, not just a hypothesized fear. Then the Vietnam War happened, which created more immediate concerns for the near future of a whole generation of young people. Some serious shit there. Yet I can’t think of anyone but maybe some crackpot dooms dayers frightening children with any of those very real risks, let alone the made up bullshit and counterfactual scaremongering of warmunism.
Have they no shame?
Thank you Duane for what you’ve stated so clearly: I completely agree with you, “…there is never any excuse for frightening children or even young adults.”
It’s child abuse. That it’s happening in the classroom is a crime.
Yep the warmists are terrible people.
They have a goal and people are just in the way.
I was a teacher’s aide in the mid 70’s in an inner-city public school. This was a lesson in a 7th and 8th grade remedial reading workbook, the best I remember it:
“There are two things I like about my little brother Billy and two things I don’t like.
The two things I like are that he’s easy to please and he’s fun to play with.
The two things I don’t like are that he screams and cries a lot and he breaks everything I let him play with. Just yesterday he broke my favorite model airplane.
Questions:
What are the two things he likes?
What are the two things he doesn’t like?”
That lesson stuck with me. The scrabbling of the eggs was going on long before common core.
(There were other disturbing things in that workbook and other textbooks. In that workbook every time, and I mean EVERY TIME, a father was mentioned he was in a tee shirt in front of the TV drinking a beer.)
PARENTS!
Whether public or private school, pay attention to what someone else is teaching your kids!
You don’t need a degree to spot this kind of (fill in the blank).
Test your Kool Aid or watch the other climate camp handlers drink it first.
“As I’ve written about before, climate change is going to be bad, and it will hold back humanity from thriving as much as we should this century.”
And this is the whole point of the exercise.
She believes it because this is what she was taught at a younger age. She carried her fears into adulthood with her. She clearly states “in the future”. But then writes as if it is happening now. She does not see the obvious contradiction in her view of the subject.
It says a lot, they are unable to convince adults so they descend to attacking children’s emotions and trust. Small children look for approval and guidance not only from their family but importantly from adults outside the family. It’s a part of growing up and these low life intellectually starved have no problem adversely influencing children behind the parents backs.
To defeat this global warming scare nonsense, just tell the kids you are taking them on a skiing holiday. They’ll put two and two together, especially when you tell them that the global warming alarm bell has been going off for 35 years.
The United Nations Environment Programme was established on 5th June 1972
So it’s 50 years with no discernable change in the weather but a lot of hot air from climate worriers
What a pile of Crap this piece of-schitt is! Climate changed has been debunked 500 times in the last 40 years!
sugar poisoning
Channeling Mosher now, are we?
From the article: “As I’ve written about before, climate change is going to be bad, and it will hold back humanity from thriving as much as we should this century. It will likely cause mass migration and displacement and extinctions of many species.”
Well, there’s no evidence for CO2 causing anything bad. This is pure speculation on the part of the author. Alarmists are so sure of themselves. I wonder if she realizes she doesn’t have a leg to stand on when it comes to human-caused climate change? I don’t imagine she does.
There are too many people like this. The climate change propaganda is very effective on some people.
“Unprecedented!”
Your daily dose that “is”.
Yellowstone National Park closes its entrances due to rockslides, flooding from ‘unprecedented’ rain – ABC News (go.com)
Revengealready? It’s the old Board of Geographic Names, apparently never did any serious geographic studies. Let’s hide our history, no matter how much trouble it might cause.
https://nypost.com/2022/06/11/yellowstones-mount-doane-renamed-to-first-peoples-mountain-for-being-offensive/
Since to offend is indefensible, why stop there?
“Yellow”stone?
They need to rename the park. It might offend cowards or those of Asian decent or those with jaundice.
And what about The Grand Tetons?
That might offend girls or a certain trans-swimmer whose “tetons” are not so grand.
And what about those of that offended with all this renaming-so-as-not-to-offend mania?
Then there is the Quaker Oats company rebranding “Aunt Jemima” syrup to “Pearl Milling Company” due to perceived racial stereotyping, yet they keep their own religious stereotyping company name and symbol. Talk about blind.
Cleveland Indians —> Cleveland Guardians
Washington Redskins —> Washington Commanders
The end game, Soviet style solution is for everyone to wear drab grey and be named Tom, Dick or Harry, living drab lives in cookie-cutter tenements and owning nothing.
Being respectful of others is a virtue, but perpetual offense takes all of the color, humor and vitality out of life.
Uncle Ben’s is now Bens, with the picture gone. Land-o-Lakes removed the native woman drawn by the native artist.
The result is a whitewashing of our grocery shelves – all the people of color have been removed. (Notice “Little Debbie” is still around?)
It does create a bizarre, likely unanticipated result. Every iconic black, Indian or ethnic minority symbol disappears, leaving only brands that picture white people.
Pflash, I’m not so sure it’s unintended.
No. We’ll return to the generic brands fad of the ’80s.
You’d go into a store and buy a 6-pack of beer. The cans were white with just the word “Beer” on them. The same for laundry detergent, soap, shampoo, etc. No brand names. Just a white container with a “generic” description of what was inside (and, of course, required safety info and directions for use.)
So, this twat waffle is spewing the same lies as the other unattractive twat waffles are spewing only she is, very slightly, more attractive than the other twat waffles? Is that about the summation of this lie spewing horseshit? Inquiring minds and whatnot.
Was it really necessary to bring her appearance into this?
Focus on her words and her spewing horseshit.
Are we not better than this?
Our Canadian town is being forecasted for 38C high on Sunday. OMG I’m going to have to go and hide in the basement else I might melt. I’d better rush over and tell my grandchildren they’d better hide as well and watch their disappointed faces. /sarc
Well unlike the picture the kiddies will just have to get anxious and cold in the dark compliments of the disgusting doomsters-
Sydney suburbs plunged into darkness after millions were told to conserve power to avoid blackouts (msn.com)
Good news on “climate change”! Gates and Fauci have arranged for the Death of 5 Billion idiots via “vaccines”… The world will be empty in 2 years just like they have been planning for decades…
There will be some human life left in Spain, as over 2000 of them (including the head of a pharma company) have paid large sums of money to have themselves added to the immunization register or jabbed with saline solution instead of the safe-and-effective covid jab..
https://www.broadsheet.ie/2022/05/27/no-way-jose/
These days, stupid is a conscious choice. Sadly, as a position chosen, they infer a virtue, so no one can reason them out of it. Which in itself wouldn’t be so bad. We’ve lived with stupidity for millennium. It’s that this new improved, virtuous stupid, has everyone who should know better, and putting a stop to its transmission and acceptance, cowering in their offices. None of the elected government, including the various agency heads, have the intestinal fortitude to put a stop to the nonsense that is the unthinking mob run-a-muck.
Apocalyptic religious cults only have fear, that is their stock in trade.
I stopped reading where she said climate change was going to be bad. Based on what? Fatally-flawed computer models? BS … total BS.
And yeah … STOP mentally and emotionally abusing children with your tales of horror. STOP brainwashing children … stop ‘grooming’ them for your climate hysteria
This author is so wrong. CO2 will help humanity and the biosphere to thrive. Burn more fossil fuels.
Have they turned the corner?.
Alas, it will only be a short spasm before the cognitive dissonance kicks in.
“What do they get out of it?” They, especially teachers, sacrifice children, without conscience, as guinea pigs to push their “climate change” scheme to the adults.
I think people are:
I read the vox article. The writer is dumb as dirt.
Dirt is useful.
Problem is, all these advanced degrees are awarded in Calathumpian gender studies.
i suspect they DO get their jollies from scared kiddies and low IQ gullibles being willing to believe follow and fund their idealistic unicorn fart ideas.
the utterly smug look on a$$holes like Gore ,n mannikinman says it all
It is because the adults themselves are scared and too lazy to figure things out themselves. Children see their parents and emulate them. Parenting has ceased to be about raising well adjusted, resilient individuals who can grow, contribute and make the world a better place. It is now about “me, me, me” and it is all somebody else’s fault and somebody else’s job to fix.
Global Warming is NOT caused by carbon dioxide and the earth’s climate has been steady within boundaries in whch juman being can always live comfortably. Causing anxiety to children ahould be treated as a crime just as much as is beating a child. It is actually worse as the child worries for months or years. Please see https://www.climatebynicol.com . .
I saw this published on social media; the author was rather viciously attacked for daring to even suggest this.
The radical environmentalist meta-message to the current rising generation is, “you are the problem”….and you will be a bigger problem if you don’t align yourself with the salvation of your planet. This meta-message insidiously implies an accusation and a threat. It is this condemnation and a call to obedience that is one of the potent threats to peace and liberty in our age. What is the authority and power behind this…. scientific theory or at it’s core is it the same lame Hegelian dialectical philosophy that caused so much trouble in the 20th century? Is man engaged in a determined dialectic with our innocent planet for which the current trajectory will lead to inevitable destruction? Radical environmentalism says there is dialectical trajectory of the enlightened who will save innocence for the Enlighted. By comparison, Marxism sounds less heinous, ” power to the working class”. Radical environmentalism sounds eugenically attached to the enlightened who enmesh themselves with the innocence of Mother Earth by their obedience to the grand dialectic of evil humans destroying the planet.
I am not sure anyone assessed the psychological damage caused by the threat of nuclear holocaust or the impact of all the duck and covers we did in school during the 1950’s and 1960’s? Boomers may have been overwhelmed by existential angst, struggles with individual mastery and superiority and other narcissistic concerns but we did not reveal in dystopia or the use of it as means to manipulate and control people. Boomers were the generation that brought hope to the world that our generation might find a way to instigate sustained peace and liberty. (the truth is no matter how hard we try peace and liberty will always be threatened and at times fail). The current push by the radical environmentalists and all those who are leveraging the movement for profit, is one of the potent threats to our peace and liberty. We need to seek to be excellent stewards of planet but should reject the condemnation and calls to obedience knowing that the grand dialectical trajectory is a hysterical figment of human imagination.
I am all for a transition away from hydrocarbon fuel via new tech solutions that work. I am in favor of a safer, cleaner, less toxic environment but I am not in favor of being condemned and threated by ideologues and their carpetbaggers. I am also in favor of another baby boom…bring it on.
…As I’ve written about before, climate change is going to be bad, … Dear Kelsey, you are aware that all these predictions of dire results from “climate change” come from models, not any emperical evidence whatsoever? All the geological records seem to indicate that the Earth flourished quite nicely during times of warmer climate. Claims of extreme weather due to warming are an inversion of the facts. Extreme weather is caused by temperature differentials, not generalized warming.
However, their home may be burned down by lithium batteries. The real eco-terrorists.
Vancouver Fire warns of lithium ion batteries dangers after deadly weekend blaze (citynews.ca)
Kids have it tough these days, in terms of exposure to harmful content. Climate change doom and gloom is a big part of it. Common sense says that it will impact their anxiety levels and lead to depression, however a new clinical study demonstrated a link between Social Media and Anxiety.
Here’s a summary of the findings.
https://marketwise.co.uk/2022/05/social-media-and-anxiety/