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.
…
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.
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/