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Scaring kids to death about climate change won’t help

Anthony Sharwood

by Anthony Sharwood

26 Mar 11:05am

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Filed under: Climate Change, Earth Hour, Electricity, Environment

44 comments

One of the worst things I’ve seen in ages was the Copenhagen Climate Summit opening film, where a small child has terrible, apocalyptic nightmares after learning about human-induced climate change.

Talk about scandalous fear-mongering. If we’re serious about enlightening young people about sound environmental custodianship, surely the worst approach is a campaign of outright fear.

Less extreme but just as futile is the path of symbolic, one-off action underpinned by a threat of doom. Earth Hour is one such initiative. Its official slogan might as well be “Lights off for an hour tomorrow or it’ll be lights off forever”.

Now, I’m willing to concede that Earth Hour, like Walk to Work Day and International Talk Like a Pirate Day, is a concept with some merit.

As a believer in human-induced climate change, and an advocate for a raft of pro-environment causes, I believe it’s crucial to get people talking about threats to the natural environment. And not just talking but acting!

But what’s the ongoing transformation that will arise from Earth Hour? Does anyone really think that turning off the lights for one hour will usher in a change of attitude and behaviour? Yeah, right. Just like banning burgers for a night will turn the kids off Maccas forever, or a one day TV ban will free us all of the desire to watch the idiot box.

My six year old daughter has been learning about Earth Hour at school. Want to know how to really inspire her and others like her to save the world? Get them to love it, not fear it. Allow them to develop their own sense of environmental responsibility, rather than indoctrinating them to feel part of a “problem”.

I’m not a perfect parent. If anyone has an IKEA-style parenthood manual complete with helpful Swedish pictograms, please loan it to me. But one piece of parenting I think I’ve gotten right is instilling a deep love of nature in both my kids.

Together, we’ve bushwalked, skied and swum in some of Australia’s most beautiful locations. We’ve thrown summer snowballs on a New Zealand volcano and caught (and then released) tadpoles in a clear, Blue Mountains stream.

At home, I teach my kids about clouds and the wind direction, and always Google the birds that alight on our backyard trees, so that we can observe their habits armed with a few facts. How many city kids do you know that tell the difference between a white cockatoo and a Corella?

One day, I hope my daughter becomes an environmental scientist or activist who helps save the world. More likely, she’ll live a regular life with a regular job, and that’ll be fine too. Either way, I’m sure she’ll choose to pursue a lifestyle of modest consumption and environmental light-stepping.

And the families that participate in the environmental badge-of-honour called Earth Hour? I’m willing to bet plenty of them will turn their Nintendo Wiis on straight afterwards, then do the school drop-offs in gas-guzzling 4WDs on Monday morning.

So I’ll be keeping the house well lit on Saturday night. I might even crank up the DVD player and watch a Bindi Irwin disc with my kids.

The Jungle Girl may have been shockingly sledged on the ABC the other week by some comedienne whose name I can’t be bothered looking up, but ultimately, her message of “here’s a lizard, isn’t it beautiful, by the way there’s not many left” is so much more powerful and inspiring than “turn your lights off NOW or all the lizards will die” – especially to innocent, young minds.

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44 comments

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    • Martin G says:

      10:26am | 26/03/10

      Hi Anthony, even though we may disagree on AGW, I do appreciate this article to be more balanced and honest on the subject than many I have seen. Spreading fear amongst children is an absolutely deplorable way of getting your message across and I am pleased to see someone from your side of the argument acknowledge that.

      On that note, you may want to check out the British Government’s infamous ‘nursery rhymes’ ad run. It is even worse.

      Symbolism gets people nowhere, just ask Aboriginals what they think of Kevin Rudd’s apology. Good on you for taking a stand against it, though we may be on different sides of the fence.

      I will be joining you with lights on, however, I will be celebrating as a part of *Human Achievement Hour* , to symbolise what the human race has achieved (as opposed to what we hope to achieve).

      And yes, I do feel pity for those so unfortunate to be living under communist and dictatorship regimes.

      P.S. I find it disgraceful, but not surprising, that this Earth Hour rubbish is being rammed down our childrens’ throats at school. I am a student of the 90s, looks like the leftist-guilt teaching in schools as not changed.

      Reply

    • the petulant magpie says:

      11:29am | 26/03/10

      Martin G, I’m sure all the power companies will “delighted” you will be turning more lights on for Human achievement hour, ignorance must be bliss.
      How about you donate your money to a better human achievements such as Medecines Sans Frontieres?

    • Martin G says:

      12:06pm | 26/03/10

      Ah, but I never said I would be turning more lights on!

      Pray do tell how I am being so ignorant.

    • The Bastard of Canberra says:

      05:09pm | 26/03/10

      But Petulant Magpie, you will be donating too, albeit not to MSF. When you obediently switch off your lights for the Earth Hour, coal-fired power generating turbines will continue to spin, as they must for technical reasons.

      The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) website will tell you with precision, in advance, how much power will be produced and consumed in each state before, during and after the Earth Hour, regardless of what the faithful do with their light switches.

      If you generate electricity into the national grid, but not draw from it, the grid will fail. So the electricity not consumed by the obedient will be sold, at a discount, to major industrial consumers. If that is not enough to dissipate the Earth Hour surplus, excess power will be dumped into lighting of freeways and pumping water at treatment plants - back and forth, if necessary. If need be, the last resort is switching on ‘dump loads’  at power plants, usually heating water and then pumping it through cooling towers.

      Will fools in the dark ever be parted from their illusions, and their support of ideologues who do not want them to prosper, but to obey?

    • Mark says:

      10:24am | 26/03/10

      Good read.

      The need to perpetuate a State Of Fear is the main turn off for me in the whole debate.

      Scaremongering and no rationalisation about the cost of doing nothing IF there is a problem to the cost of doing something, or seen to be doing something in the case of the ETS which will have no impact on the worlds wellbeing in any significant way, is unfortunately never debated.

      All we are left with is the statements that you do it this way or the world dies. Staements so blatantly erroneous like the “science is settled” and the IPCC is made of is people in “white coats measuring stuff” now make me laugh. It is not a debate. It is an argument trying to be won by decree.

      The science isn’t settled but in any case I will do my bit by turning off unecessary lights, recycling, cutting down where I can on packaging etc, just normal stuff most people do. It aint rocket science.

      Cudos Anthony you sound like a sensible fellow.

      Oh by the way it wasn’t the opening horror flick at Copenhagen that did it for me rather it was our PM in front of the world reading out that ficticious letter of Gracie. That was embarrassing to me as an Australian. It was fake the stench was apparent back home In Australia. It was a pure “oh why won’t someone think of the children” Simpsons moment. That was the final proof that the science was not on the warmists side and all that was left was appeals to an ideology or a religion.

      Look forward to reading more from you mate.

      Reply

    • Super D says:

      10:30am | 26/03/10

      Given that the “facts” that support the “science” of human induced climate change and the ridiculous extrapolations advanced by the IPCC have been truly debunked to anyone not in the pay of Big Green or blinded by Left Wing politics it would be nice to get back to practical environmentalism that you mention - of enjoying nature and appreciating it and looking after it.

      Far too much environmental credibility has been wasted on the CO2 scare.  I mean think about all the on the ground, pratcical things that could have been achieved with the resources wasted on COP15 and all the proceeding COPs, not to mention those planned for the future.

      Reply

    • Skippy says:

      12:01pm | 26/03/10

      Spot on Super D! I knew of someone that went to the joke that was Copenhagen, the apparent wastage that occured at the summit, was deplorable to say the least. I guess my feeling is and always has been, complete hypocrisy with this whole debate! I don’t buy the argument of climate change, and it turns me off even moreso when I see people spruiking about global warming rah rah, the majority of them have more frequent flyer points than the average business class traveller. It enrages me! I strongly believe in everyone doing their bit to preserve our precious natural resources, we can all make a change, and I reckon those quietly doing their bit and educating the next generation to do so will have a much greater impact on our environmental future than the hyopocrites who think they are making a difference!

    • Carnegie says:

      10:25am | 26/03/10

      Anthony,

      Really enjoyed your article, it is not often that common sense and climate change appear in the same piece. I found your article very thoughtful and sensible!

      Reply

    • Zeta says:

      10:38am | 26/03/10

      I don’t like Earth Hour because more than anything it’s an excuse for companies to feel good about themselves because they bothered to switch the lights off when they leave. Some of us were beaten with bamboo rods if we didn’t do that as children, and yet we applaud companies that do it for one hour of the year?

      Reply

    • Andrew says:

      10:35am | 26/03/10

      The two great motivators in life are fear and greed.

      The greedy have created the fastest growing commodity market in the world (carbon trading) and the fearful are on the way to making it much bigger by allowing ETS’ and their ilk to permeate western economies. Dear Leader K Rudd is part of the Fearmonger group.

      More articles like this would be good. But the left wing media is so convinced of their own infallibility on the subject of climiate change, anyone who questions either the “science” or the methodology is immediately portrayed as crackpot.

      Reply

    • A Bob says:

      12:58pm | 26/03/10

      I’m torn on the ETS. I don’t care about AGW but I do believe we need to wean ourselves off fossil fuels, and the sooner the better. As much for security reasons as environmental.

      As such, I favour a markets based approach in principle. But, working in Global Markets as I do, I don’t trust the current financial system not to abuse such a scheme. Right now the wizards of Wall Street have gone shy on mortgage backed securities and instead trying to build a new bubble based on health insurance. Basically, they are gambling on when people are going to die. That type of thing alone removes all credibility from people like Al Gore.

      So I’ll stay on the fence for now and prefer no ETS.

    • Willy K says:

      10:35am | 26/03/10

      Totally agree.  Its such dumb hogwash it scares me that people actually fall for it.

      Notice how the alarmist brigade are now trying to just talk about ‘Climate Change’ not AGW etc?

      Everyone knows that the Earths climate is in a constant state of flux.  But to have the utter arrogance and stupidity to think that Man can stop this is dumb beyond words themselves.  Yet people believe this bullsh*t!

      Of course man needs to treat the Earth better and be ‘green’  but the AGW and ETS scam is simply fraud and must exposed.

      My lights will be on and I will will be powering out some of my favourite live Led Zeppelin tracks at full volume tomorrow night.

      Up yours Al Gore, Penny Wong and Tim Flannery!

      Reply

    • Anne71 says:

      12:56pm | 26/03/10

      In regards to climate change, I think that the truth, like in so many other areas, lies somewhere in the middle. Yes, I think human activity is having an impact on our climate. But I do not believe that we’re all in grave danger of total extinction in the next 50 years if we don’t all subscribe to carbon credits, buy a Prius and or turn our lights off. As for the scare campaign aimed at kids, yes, it’s deplorable. As a child of the 70s and 80s, I still remember the nightmares I had thanks to all the anti-nuclear proliferation movies we were shown in an effort to teach us that War is Bad. Scaring the kapok out of the kiddies isn’t going to make them want to save the planet, it’s going to make them feel scared, helpless and that they have no future to look forward to. Trust me, you don’t want to make them feel that way.

    • Saskia says:

      02:51pm | 26/03/10

      So you were made to watch those films at school too!!!  In about 1982/83 i think…  They terrified all of us kids and when a kid almost crying asked the teacher whether she really thought the world will be blown up by Russia and America she said Yes - its just a matter of when.

      These teachers do not deserve to go near kids.  I still remember that fear I had and the despair I felt afterwards.  I would really have a go at that b!tch if I saw her again!

    • Anne71 says:

      08:44pm | 26/03/10

      LOL @ Saskia - I’m so glad to know it wasn’t just me! Remember “The Day After”? Seriously, I was traumatised after seeing that one at the tender age of 12 or 13. And what good did it do? None. Anyone who uses scare tactics to influence children to follow one ideology or another should be locked up.

    • Joe from Brisbane says:

      10:59am | 26/03/10

      I agree totally that we shouldn’t have environmental indoctrination at school. And not even if it is “positive”! I’ve already had my child telling me he learnt that the polar bears are dying (which is totally false).

      It is because the science is falling apart and the public is now sceptical that the green movement is resorting to fear.

      Earth hour is such token nonsense. These stupid schemes give your green movement a bad name as it isn’t based on science but religious belief - like sacrificing one hour of lower power for gaia.

      Reply

    • A Bob says:

      11:01am | 26/03/10

      I agree with your comments about scare campaigns. But Earth Hour gets people talking, as is evident from your post. It isn’t designed to do any good in the practical sense but just raise public awareness. Love it or hate it, it’s doing its job.

      As for me, I usually go to bed when the sun goes down so almost every night is Earth Hour for me. I have no TV at all, much less a 60-inch plasma. My most evil appliance is my clothes drier that gets used on Sunday night when the weather has been so wet that I won’t have any shirts to wear on Monday otherwise.

      AGW means nothing to me. There are losts of other good reasons to moderate, or modernise, our energy consumption and generation. I don’t need monsters under my bed to motivate me.

      Reply

    • Joe from Brisbane says:

      04:21pm | 26/03/10

      Ok lets have “Wear your Shirt Inside Out Hour” for public awareness of child labour. That would make more sense

    • Anne71 says:

      08:58pm | 26/03/10

      Hey, Joe of Brisbane, the Industrial Revolution would never have happened without child labour. Think about it. wink

    • Ryan says:

      11:18am | 26/03/10

      Teachers and schools are there to teach your kids the fundamentals of education not political diatribe. If I catch a teacher brainwashing political lies into my child’s head,  there will be a lawsuit.

      Reply

    • Mite says:

      12:31pm | 26/03/10

      Earth Hour is the sort of hollow symbolism we’ve come to expect from those on the left side of the political/philosophical spectrum. It’s all about meaningless gestures that momentarily absolve one of guilt so they can go on living the life they’ve always lived without any personal consequences or costs.

      Reply

    • Joe from Brisbane says:

      04:22pm | 26/03/10

      Yeah its all about the ‘vibe’ man.

    • acker says:

      12:30pm | 26/03/10

      If the author wants to jump on the skeptic gravy train like Munkton, perhaps he should put some kids in some skeptic ads, as for being the worst thing the author has seen, obviously he doesn’t watch many modern movies, TV or video games.

      Reply

    • Wayne Fehlhaber says:

      01:07pm | 26/03/10

      I put the Global Warming scare campaign in the same bin along with the G.W. bulls#*$.  It is bad enough that our kids are brainwashed with guilt over the indigenous sorry saga. Labor has gone all out to politicise a national school curriculum designed to instil labor dogma into our kid’s minds.

      Reply

    • Skippy says:

      07:39pm | 26/03/10

      Couldn’t agree more Wayne, climate change and sorry crap to Aboriginals, they are all freaks the lot of them who run with this s*^t! Notice it’s the same crew? Thanks to the Punch for bringing out Aussies with a brain and who are not just happy to run along with the latest fad. Climate change will soon lose it’s political interest and then it will be some other rot. Lets just hope to god we are not paying the ETS once they realise how wrong they were, can’t believe the clowns that run this country and how ppl buy the lies! Wake up Australia educate yourselves and form an opinion, challenge everything!

    • Mcoy says:

      01:20pm | 26/03/10

      A good point, we should have David Attenborough day instead.  Where everyone dresses and talks like David and we all watch AT LEAST one of his programs. 

      I owe my love of the natural world in no small part to the man in the blue shirt and tan chinos.

      If we all just watched more BBC nature documentaries, we would be well on the way to solving climate change.

      Reply

    • Russell says:

      11:27am | 28/03/10

      Go tell that to David Bellamy, I’m sure he would be ammused - not

    • Anna C says:

      02:05pm | 26/03/10

      I totally agree with you Anthony.  Earth Hour is tokenistic b@#&sh;*!t.  My family may not participate in stupid stunds like Earth Hour but we don’t tend to use alot of electricity anyway. What really pisses me off is when I see the same people who extoll the virtues of Earth Hour, are the same people who normally have all the lights of their house on at night and are using all the latest mod cons.  They are nothing but a bunch of hipocrites.     

      I am also very concerned about the brainwashing of our children.  Sure, teach our kids about the looking after the environment ,but the people who are feeding our children this environmental doomsday scenario should be ashamed of themselves.  Children should be allowed to be children.  When I was growing up we were all convinced/worried that we were going to be bombed by the USSR and endure a nuclear winter scenario.  Environmental Alarmists are doing our children a great disservice.

      Reply

    • Anna C says:

      02:05pm | 26/03/10

      I totally agree with you Anthony.  Earth Hour is tokenistic b@#&sh;*!t.  My family may not participate in stupid stunds like Earth Hour but we don’t tend to use alot of electricity anyway. What really pisses me off is when I see the same people who extoll the virtues of Earth Hour, are the same people who normally have all the lights of their house on at night and are using all the latest mod cons.  They are nothing but a bunch of hipocrites.     

      I am also very concerned about the brainwashing of our children.  Sure, teach our kids about the looking after the environment ,but the people who are feeding our children this environmental doomsday scenario should be ashamed of themselves.  Children should be allowed to be children.  When I was growing up we were all convinced/worried that we were going to be bombed by the USSR and endure a nuclear winter scenario.  Environmental Alarmists are doing our children a great disservice.

      Reply

    • Luke says:

      02:08pm | 26/03/10

      Do people in Mackay/Whitsundays region have to turn their lights off for anhour on Saturday night considering they had their power off for three days from a cyclone. If they do, they might just stop another cyclone!!! The irony is fantastic!!
      Apart from that, actually a great article and good to see an approach that is balanced and fair. You could actually compare it to when recycling started at homes in the 90’s, it wasn’t done by making you feel guilty, by by saying it helps.  I have recycled ever since and if this kind of way is communicated to kids these days i am quite sure we will have a more environmentally tolerant society in the future.

      Reply

    • iansand says:

      03:14pm | 26/03/10

      You have all missed the most important aspect of Earth Hour.  Letting your neighbours know that you care.  Or don’t care, as the case may be.

      Reply

    • Marie says:

      04:20pm | 26/03/10

      Mmm…group think !!

    • Z says:

      11:23pm | 26/03/10

      I know we should all follow what the next door neighbour thinks is best.
      Because the next door neighbour is allways right. Right?

    • Old Bert says:

      01:52pm | 27/03/10

      A neighbour has pledged not to use an ‘industrial strength vibrator’, whatever that is, for an hour, as it’s likely to black out the entire suburb. I agreed, because I care.

    • Martin Milne says:

      03:21pm | 26/03/10

      I was expecting something really terrifying, such as the AIDS Grim Reaper or the one of the anti-smoking adverts. Instead, we get a film where a young girl sees the daily news coverage of the environmental impact of climate change, as often happens in real life, she has a nightmare about it. But she reacts positively, researches the subject and does something about it.
      What is the problem with that?
      Parents shouldn’t try and shield their children from the reality of climate change or any other threat to the planet. Instead they should encourage them to learn about it and take action.
      This seems to be what is happening to Anthony’s daughter. It’s a pity her Dad is going to stop her talking part in Earth Hour, even it is tokenistic. You never know it might have been the first step in her becoming an additional voice against human-induced climate change, which Anthony claims to believe in.

      Reply

    • marley says:

      01:33pm | 28/03/10

      On the other hand, maybe Anthony is teaching his daughter that real solutions to problems are not found in meaningless gestures designed only to make the participants feel good while doing nothing to address the issue.

    • Mikko says:

      04:54pm | 26/03/10

      The problem with “that” is there is a vast difference between educating kids to respect the environment and scaring the hell out of them. Ask any phychologist or clued up GP for that matter what the scarring effects of such exaggerated overkill on a young mind can be, not to mention the news beat-ups themselves. Climate changes guys, always has, always will.

      Reply

    • John Allen says:

      12:11am | 27/03/10

      A good common sense article.

      I want to reduce pollution, but I will not kowtow to gibbering idiots.

      Earth Hour?  My joint will look like the Arabian Nights - and if I am the only bright spot in my suburb I hope any lost Aliens will come down and share a glass of wine with ME.

      Reply

    • Carley says:

      02:26am | 27/03/10

      You’re not going to find it hard to believe that, on attending a parent’s night at my 3.5 year old’s early learning centre, that only two days ago we were all forced at the end to sit on tiny wooden chairs and watch this film clip by a bunch of teachers (like we were misbehaving 10 year olds).  We were supposed to draw from it what our children feel about climate change - but most of us came away pissed off about the hamfisted lecture (without checking what we might or might not be doing to educate our kids at home).  But there was a light side - the splash add at the end was MOST amusing, ironic, and for the message, inappropriate - for Lexmark printer consumables.  One of your more polluting items, printer cartridges. The sniggers from parents in the room were a bit delicious! wink

      Reply

    • Shane From Melbourne says:

      02:11pm | 27/03/10

      Why is anyone surprised? Childhood is the best period for indoctrination whether it is Sunday school, left wing commie propaganda or right wing capitialist swine propaganda. Just wish parents would indoctrinate their kids with self discipline, but that’s another story. By the way where do they recruit all these left wing pinko teachers and journalists? Must be a box that you can tick on the application form…...

      Reply

    • Bob H says:

      07:46pm | 28/03/10

      @Bastard of Canberra - thank you for putting some light (ho ho) on the issue that power stations will still be providing potential power - I believe also that the load massively increases beyond the norm as everyone turns lights back on and makes a cup of tea after the effort of saving the planet. 
      A dumb stunt for tabloid TV audiences.

      Reply

    • Sam Chowder says:

      07:56pm | 28/03/10

      I turned my lights off but got bored sitting in the dark after five minutes so I went for a drive.

      Reply

    • S.L says:

      03:44am | 29/03/10

      When Earth Hour first started Mel and Kochy on channel 7s “Sunrise” progam took the bait hook line and sinker screaming COOL THE GLOBE! I couldn’t believe two intelegent, university educated people could swallow such rubbish!
      Whether you believe in AGW or not (and I don’t) anyone with half a brain should realise turning lights for a hour will do absolutely nothing.
      Great article Anthony.

      Reply
 
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