Manipulating Kids, It’s Child’s Play for Climateers

On your calendar, mark tomorrow — Friday, March 25 — as Climate Stupidity Day. There’s Earth Hour Schools Day, sponsored by lobbyists Cool Australia and WWF, and yet another looming School Strike for Climate manipulated by adults from the Youth Climate Coalition.[1] [2]

At the moment the world is on the brink of global hot war over Ukraine, and Europe is frantically back-pedalling from its Russian-backed switch to green energy. But down in Australia the green crusade rolls on, with schoolkids – pre-schoolers too – marshalled to the front line.

It’s all so insane I hardly know where to start. For example, the ex-Just Jeans and other Rich-Listers who bankroll Cool Australia are accessing preschool and schoolkids literally by the million, i.e.[3]

♦ 3,200,000 million students per year

♦ 182,000 members (teachers, early learning educators and parents)

♦ 2,100,000 lessons taught annually

♦ 52% of Australian teachers

Cool knows it is on a winner. It says 45 per cent of teachers are teaching outside their field of expertise, and 76 per cent find their workload unmanageable. So Cool’s free, downloadable lessons keyed to the curricula are like manna to teachers.

Teachers and kids are to turn off the lights for an hour tomorrow (Friday). Switching off electric appliances is also recommended, though I imagine freezers, intruder alarms and smartphones are reluctantly excluded. I doubt that kids in Mariupol will empathise, given that Russians knocked out electricity there altogether.

As for tomorrow’s School Strike for Climate, it actually straddles “Four Days for Future”. For example, the weekend program for kids in Naarm (alias Melbourne) includes a few Saturday workshops. Sunday’s none-too-arduous activities include “resting” and planning stunts for Monday’s strike.[4]

The nonsense all dates back three years to disturbed teen Greta ‘How dare you!’ Thunberg. The actual school-strike aims need only to be stated to reveal their absurdity:

We are striking to send a clear message to the Environment Minister and the whole Federal Government, that we want climate action now, and we will not stop fighting until we see the action that is needed to achieve climate justice… all [of us] telling our governments that now is the time to act and put people before profit! [5]

The kids have been taught the gross untruth that our fossil fuel industry is massively subsidised and want an end to that.[6] In the real world it’s renewables that are getting the subsidies,  $7 billion on 2019 figures. More broadly, the school-wagging kids demand

1/ Net Zero by 2030 which means no new coal, oil or gas projects.

2/ 100% renewable energy generation and exports by 2030

3/ Fund a Just Transition and Job Creation for all Fossil Fuel Workers and their communities.

The last point is a classic, as the former power workers now cooling their heels in Victoria’s coal-rich LaTrobe Valley would tell the bureaucrats and politicians who haven’t been notably successful in finding them those much-vaunted well-paying green jobs they were promised with their last pay packets.

The missing ingredient in school climate teaching is their ‘science’, which ignores the genuine variety demonstrating that

1/ There has been no global warming for the past seven years and three months.

2/ Weather disasters globally have not increased and global warming has saved a net 500,000 lives in England and Wales alone in the past 20 years (deaths from reduced cold minus deaths from increased heat).

3/ CO2 is boosting crop yields enough to more than cater for population growth.

The previous kids’ school strike was last October. As the Sydney Morning Herald helpfully recorded,

Australia’s education unions have thrown their support behind Friday’s strike. ‘Students and young people are counting on us. Australia must take an ambitious pledge to the Glasgow COP26 Summit and work towards a safe, fair and prosperous future for young Australians,’ the joint statement from the Australian Education Union, Independent Education Union and National Tertiary Education Union said.

AEU Federal President Correna Haythorpe, October 14, 2021 —

We know students are counting on us to support their democratic right to express their views and take direct action on the impacts of climate change and to put pressure on the Morrison government.

The strikers’ backroom adults are promoting a current election emphasis, e.g. here’s an alleged schoolkid email by an “Owen” – pronouns “he/they” – from Gadigal/Bidjigal/Warrang alias Sydney:

Our Election Actions are a range of diverse climate actions that local groups across the country will be hosting such as climate forums, artistic expressions of climate protest, activities which help students register to vote, fossil fool fiestas and much more! We will be sending a clear message to voters as this election, we are asking people to stand up to our politicians and #VoteForOurFutures.

The teachers’ unions are feeding their 300,000 supporters with climate propaganda from Education International, which has supplied them with a “Teach for Climate Action” toolkit. And behind Education International’s propaganda is the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals with their green-left-socialist assumptions and agenda. At a pre-Glasgow Asia-Pacific “Mobilising Educators” conference last year, Education International general secretary David Edwards told so-called educators that

climate education must be grounded in scientific facts. But [I love the ‘but’] it must also centre on climate justice, which entails understanding the economic, social, cultural, historical and political causes and implications of global temperature rises.

He demanded that his adherents prioritise climate education such that “every student leaves school climate literate.” Typical propaganda in EI’s teaching kit includes (my emphases)

What can teachers do?

♦ Focus less on the inevitability of disasters, as worsened by climate change. Instead, delve into their economic, political and cultural dimensions…

A massive falsehood is involved in that claim. The climate-related death risk from weather disasters — floods, cyclone, droughts etc — has fallen more than 99 per cent during the past century’s mild warming of about 1degC.

♦ Carry out socio-affective or empathetic exercises. Encourage students to share their fears, hopes and anxieties, especially in post-disaster environments. Unpack stories of historical disasters. Explore and envision the futures students want in the face of climate change.

No wonder so many Australian kids are coming down with climate-teaching-inflicted anxiety issues.

As for Earth Hour, it’s been limping along since 2007 when it was launched as an initiative by WWF and co-sponsored (no kidding) by the green-leftist Fairfax newspapers. A few ethical Fairfax journalists mutinied at being told to bung on the favorable news coverage. This recent claim of Earth Hour is particularly spectacular: “1 in 3 Australians took part in Earth Hour last year. Let’s make this year bigger and better.” I suppose, by next year, Earth Hour will claim that ‘1 in 2 Australians took part in Earth Hour last [i.e. this] year.’

Nothing surprises me about Earth Hour claims, e.g. climate change causes “Fires, floods, drought and pandemics”. Never let a crisis go to waste, even a notional one! Earth Hour’s tossed-in claim that outbreaks of nasty viruses are due to the prevalence of SUVs and reliable baseload power gets that leaky Wuhan virus laboratory nicely off the hook, which was perhaps to be expected.

Cool’s website lists a running total of pre-schools and schools that have signed up for Earth Hour. Climate consciousness is scheduled at Little Adventurers, Penrith; Little Scribblers, Peakhurst NSW; Creative Kids Pre-School, Mornington, Vic; Tiny Town Children’s Centre (location unstated); Only Early Learning Centre, Baulkham Hills, NSW; Guardian Child Care and Education (at least one of the eastern states’ chain); Fit Kidz, Warrawee, NSW; Harold Wheen Preschool, St Clair, NSW; Angel Tots Early Learning Centre, Salamander Bay, NSW; Bluebird, Croydon, Vic, and Tiggers Place Early Learning Centre, Waterford West, Qld.

The identifiable primary schools listed are   St Johns Grammar Junior School; Auburn South; Mount View, Glen Waverley Vic; Bonython ACT; Nakara (Darwin); Dromana (Vic); St Justin’s Primary; St Finbars Primary; Holy Family Catholic Primary; Wonthaggi North, Vic;  Corpus Christi Primary; Ardross Primary; Allanson Primary; St Patricks Catholic Primary; Carnegie Primary; Mill Park Heights Primary; St Peter Julian Eymard Primary; and Delaney Creek Primary. All schools and pre-schools listed on March 23 total only 66. Doubtless many schools and pre-schools will take part without actually signing on.

I checked 90 per cent of the pre-school and primary websites for overt climate propaganda and didn’t find any — presumably the adult educators will use free-range explanations for why lights are needlessly switching off.[7]

Cool and Earth Hour want “early learning” (pre-school) classes to download some of their 60 pre-digested climate lessons. Schools are supposed to sign up to “Switch Off” and watch climate propaganda films like Damon Gameau’s ridiculous future fantasy 2040 and his new sort-of-doco Regenerating Australia. I say “sort of” because it’s set in 2029 and looks back at a decade “that saw Australia transition to a fairer, cleaner, more regenerative economy that values Australia’s greatest assets – First Nations’ wisdom, our unique natural environment and our sense of community.” It doesn’t just star failed weather prophet Tim Flannery but also ABC stalwart/alumnus Kerry O’Brien. Year 9 and 10 kids have been competing to make 60-second climate propaganda films for Cool, “shot in the style of a news program.”

You guessed it! These kids’ film must also be set in the future, where CO2 emissions are defeated (and unicorns dance in the meadows). “The video is to be set in 2030, and must explore a solution to one or more impact (sic) of climate change. Students must also explore how this solution benefits people and nature in their local community.”

The winners actually get to meet Damon Gameau in person “and an industry expert from WWF-Australia!” Appropriately, entries close this April Fools Day.

Yet another futurism can be found in an Earth Hour English Year 9/10 lesson:

Quick summary: Working in pairs students are asked to investigate how news stories about climate change were reported 10 years ago compared to the present day. They then imagine the news about climate change 10 years in the future based upon the actions they can take for climate change today … Students then determine an action they could do now to fight climate change, and what news this might create 10 years in the future. They then create a news piece around this story, presented to audiences from the future.

I feel sorry for the kids. Any story from the regular media of 2012 would be saying, “We have only ten years to save the planet”, and any story from today’s ABC or Nine and its former Fairfax mastheads will also be saying, “We have only ten years to save the planet”. Same-same for news stories in 2032, I predict.

WWF and Cool have worked up an officially accredited professional development course on climate change. Teachers are not merely using lobbyists’ propaganda, lobbyists are officially training them.

This course will help inspire your students to feel optimistic about their future by investigating how animals adapt to climate change.[8] You’ll discover how to teach curriculum-aligned lessons using WWF-Australia’s Earth Hour. You’ll build your confidence to teach about climate change in geography and science by learning:

 ♦ How others teach about climate change in their curriculum.

 ♦ How to explore climate change by focusing on animals.

 ♦ The basics of climate science such as weather, global warming and climate change.

 ♦ How to teach about climate change and care for students’ mental health.

Despite the crowded curriculum and literacy challenges, Cool, WWF and Earth Hour have been wasting kids’ school time this week with their propaganda film festival. Schools that have signed up for Earth Hour access six “incredible documentaries” on climate and alleged biodiversity horrors. Here’s one of the films – perfect for brainwashing impressionable kiddies towards Extinction Rebellion:

Wild Things – a lens on the frontline of environmental activism

Filmmaker Sally Ingleton spent a year with environmental activists across Australia – at rallies, sitting in rainforests, standing up to bulldozers – and the result is 2020’s feature-length doco about the current generation of ecowarriors. It’s a snapshot of a time when young people are fighting to be heard against a backdrop of drought, fire and floods.

Never let it be said that Cool Australia doesn’t encourage class debate on the (dodgy) science of climate change. Here’s a pseudo-debate template for the classroom:

Are we doing enough to address Climate Change?

Agree:

♦ Govt has a carbon tax

♦ Govt have (sic) electricity saving schemes

♦ Investing money in alternative energy sources

♦ Lots of environmental organisations about (sic)

Disagree:

 ♦ Don’t trust the media [Hear hear! Except they probably mean to attack the media from the Left]

 ♦ Fossil fuel companies still using coal [Huh?]

 ♦ Important for our economy (export import food)

 ♦ Too many cattle farms — need alternative food sources. [Such anti-farmer propaganda is rife in schools].

Another class pseudo-debate is about how to get rid of coal fired electricity – Queensland coal electorates please take note:

The potential solutions to reducing coal fired power stations are:

1/ Have a carbon tax that allows alternative energy to compete with coal fired power stations and use the money from the tax to give everyone a tax reduction.

2/ Have a carbon tax that allows alternative energy to compete with coal fired power stations and use the money from the tax to build solar farms, energy research, invest in energy efficiency and better public transport.

3/ Have a carbon trading system where a fixed amount of carbon pollution can be purchased at market prices.

4/ Ban any future building of new coal fired power stations.

 One Cool lesson includes material reading like nonsense, even by the standards of alarmist true believers,for example:

Thought starter – Which comes first; climate change, the greenhouse effect, or global warming?

Ignoring the semantic muddle, the real answer is that ice core sampling proves warming happens first, followed by CO2 rising around 800 years later. In other words, throughout paleoclimate CO2 is a consequence not a cause of warming.

All up, kids in education are drenched in climate alarmism for some 16 years from pre-school to university. One needn’t ask who’s winning this culture war — and which side takes refuge in believing the sound policy course is to go along to get along with the alarmist implacables.

 Tony Thomas’ latest essay collection “Foot Soldier in the Culture Wars” ($29.95) is available from publisher ConnorCourt

[1] The School Strike for Climate crusade couples itself with the anti-Australia Day/”Survival Day” push. Here’s from an email ‘SS4C’ sent me last January 25:

My name is Ethan; I am a Wiradjuri striker living on Darug Land in Warrang (or so-called Sydney) & I’m Heidi; I live on unceded tipina, paredarerme pungenna Country (Oyster Bay Nation), trowunna/lutruwita (Tasmania).

We have a question; what is there to celebrate about so-called Australia? Is it a justice system that targets, imprisons and kills First Nations Mob? Is it the fact that sovereignty has never been ceded and giant corporations continue to profit off of destroying sacred lands and water? The answer is: there is nothing to celebrate… 

[2] AYCC answers its own question, “Who is this organised by?”

The idea for the strike came from kids in Central Victoria who are worried about climate change and tired of our politicians not doing anything about it. We, the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, have put an invitation out for other kids who share our concerns to join us.

[3] Cool Australia brags that Teachers Health insurance fund, with its 300,000 clients, is “Our Coolest Partner”. Other funders include various Rich-Listers’ foundations (e.g. the Fox family, Purves, Fairfax, Smorgons), billionaire-run Atlassian, Google and Cisco, plus odds and sods such as the Lord Mayors Charitable Foundation.

[4] Email from SS4C, 22/3/22

[5] ibid

[6] “Four Days for Future is our way of showing the government that our future is far more important than funding fossil fuel-giants for profit.”

and

“Despite the clear science they continue to accept huge political donations from the Fossil Fuel Industry.” SS4C emails

[7] I was astounded to discover that Dromana Primary’s

Science and Aboriginal Studies Program looks at science through an Indigenous lens. The program focus is for students to engage in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s unique culture through ways of being, knowing, thinking and doing … Acknowledging that Aboriginal Peoples and Torres Strait Islander Peoples have worked scientifically for millennia and continue to contribute to contemporary science.

Who knows, after 60,000 years of scientific endeavour Aborigines might have pioneered inter-planetary  travel except that the British invaded them in 1788.

I found from the websites that it is now common for each day at a pre-school to start with an Acknowledgement of Country. If this goes on from say, ages 3 to 18, the kids would do 3,000 Acknowledgements in the course of their school education.

[8] The alarmist crowd has twigged that scaring the daylights out of kids with futuristic horrors — think here of polar bears dropping from the clouds, as per one infamous scare clip. It seems this approach has been recognised as counter-productive, so the narrative now is to promote feel-good emission actions to save the planet, based on the amusing assumption that China, India and Russia will join the crusade.