Like what you've read?

On Line Opinion is the only Australian site where you get all sides of the story. We don't
charge, but we need your support. Here�s how you can help.

  • Advertise

    We have a monthly audience of 70,000 and advertising packages from $200 a month.

  • Volunteer

    We always need commissioning editors and sub-editors.

  • Contribute

    Got something to say? Submit an essay.


 The National Forum   Donate   Your Account   On Line Opinion   Forum   Blogs   Polling   About   
On Line Opinion logo ON LINE OPINION - Australia's e-journal of social and political debate

Subscribe!
Subscribe





On Line Opinion is a not-for-profit publication and relies on the generosity of its sponsors, editors and contributors. If you would like to help, contact us.
___________

Syndicate
RSS/XML


RSS 2.0

'I matter!' - Kids against Climate Change.

By Michael Kile - posted Friday, 30 December 2011


Gore is a big fan of Noah. “Noah is commanded by God to take into his ark at least two of every living species in order to save them from the Flood.” It was “a commandment that might appear in modern form as: Thou shalt preserve biodiversity. Indeed, does God’s instruction have new relevance for those who share Noah’s faith in this time of another worldwide catastrophe, this time one of our own creation?” 

Hansen has been - and remains – another key influence on Loorz, introducing him at the Bioneers Conference on October 15, 2010. “I met him when he was a kid,” he confided. “He’s still a kid. He’s a high school student, but he now towers over me. He’s an example of what we need. We need to get the young people to understand what’s happening and get them to put some pressure on the older people to give them a fair shake.”

Dr Hansen, Alec replied, was one of the people he “admired most in the world. He’s a scientist who’s become an activist, a movement leader and a hero for my generation. Yes!”                                                                                                                    

Advertisement

Yet there is something unsettling – and disturbing - about the targeting of vulnerable young (and not so young) minds; about Alec’s “inherent sense of calling”; and how this mission electrified his Bioneer audience. Was this the birth of a new religion, political party, or a combination of both? One thing seemed clear: they were going to try and give Hansen’s “older people a fair shake”.

Perhaps it was the time of day or that galah across the road, but Bob Fosse’s 1972 film, Caberet, suddenly came to mind. Could Alec have been channelling one of the young patriots in the beer garden scene?  They also believed tomorrow belonged to them; that it was up to them to change the mindset of every person – if not on the planet, then in the country - for that was “what we were born to do”.

Dr R K Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for almost a decade, also sees kids as“major agents of change”. For him - and his UN colleagues - kids have a “crucial mission”. They must be “mobilized” to join the climate crusade.

This is no surprise. Remember the opening film of the UNFCC’s 2009 COP-15 Copenhagen Climate Conference? An anxious young girl clutching a white (polar) teddy bear is plunged into a world of extreme weather and climate catastrophe. At the climax, she asks us to “please help the world”.

Background voices warn of “hundreds of millions of climate refugees” and chastise those who “still doubt the human influence on this predicted catastrophe.” The 4 minute 14 second film ends with what an analytical psychologist might describe as an infantile fantasy: “We have the power to save the world - Now.”

Donna Laframboise, author of The Delinquent Teenager Who Was Mistaken for the World's Top Climate Expert, asked two questions on her blog last week: “Does it really need to be said that science and activism are two very different things? Is there something I’m missing here – something that makes it OK for the head of a scientific body to be a full-blown activist?”

Advertisement

Reports by Dr Pachauri’s IPCC (the delinquent teenager) are being used by governments to justify carbon (dioxide) taxes and increased energy costs. They are why many UN countries seek to settle alleged developed world “climate debt” by annual transfer of at least one hundred billion dollars from it to the developing world. They are the sacred texts of those who insist anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are “dangerous pollution”. Yet Laframboise’s book demonstrates aspects of the Panel’s work (and processes) are flawed and not the outcome of an impartial compilation of evidence. 

The tomorrow-belongs-to-me (us, them) school of climate alarmism – and the IPCC - clearly need a few shakes too.

  1. Pages:
  2. 1
  3. Page 2
  4. All


Discuss in our Forums

See what other readers are saying about this article!

Click here to read & post comments.

101 posts so far.

Share this:
reddit this reddit thisbookmark with del.icio.us Del.icio.usdigg thisseed newsvineSeed NewsvineStumbleUpon StumbleUponsubmit to propellerkwoff it

About the Author

Michael Kile is author of No Room at Nature's Mighty Feast: Reflections on the Growth of Humankind. He has an MSc degree from Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London and a Diploma from the College. He also has a BSc (Hons) degree in geology and geophysics from the University of Tasmania and a BA from the University of Western Australia. He is co-author of a recent paper on ancient Mesoamerica, Re-interpreting Codex Cihuacoatl: New Evidence for Climate Change Mitigation by Human Sacrifice, and author of The Aztec solution to climate change.

Other articles by this Author

All articles by Michael Kile

Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Article Tools
Comment 101 comments
Print Printable version
Subscribe Subscribe
Email Email a friend
Advertisement

About Us Search Discuss Feedback Legals Privacy