Bishop Hill Climate control
Apr 8, 2014 Climate: other Education The following press release was issued by GWPF yesterday:
London, 8 April: A new report published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation is calling for Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Education, to institute an official inquiry into the way environmentalism and in particular climate change are being taught in schools.
In the report, authors Andrew Montford and John Shade describe how environmentalism has come to permeate school curricula across the UK, featuring in an astonishing variety of subjects, from geography to religious education to modern languages. Passing examinations will now usually involve the ability to recite green mantras rather than understanding the subtle questions of science and economics involved.
The authors review in detail the climate change teaching materials currently used in British schools, with disturbing results. There is ample evidence of unscientific statements, manipulated graphs, and activist materials used in class and even found in textbooks.
The report also describes how activist teachers try to make children become the footsoldiers of the green movement, encouraging them to harass their schoolmates and pester their parents to bring about “behaviour change”.
The use of fear of climate change to alter children’s behaviour is also highlighted. This is undoubtedly having harmful consequences on children’s development and surveys indicate that fear of the future is widespread. The report quotes one child as saying:
"I worry about [global warming] because I don’t want to die."
Author Andrew Montford says: “The brainwashing of our children for political ends is shameful. Those responsible for education in the UK need to take action and take it quickly”
The report has been the work of many months and I must say I think the results are an appalling indictment of what is going on in schools. I just hope people take notice.
The full text is here.
Reader Comments (86)
Tales of Hollywood style eco-catastrophism can be psychologically damaging to impressionable young minds. The dissemination of such ideas, is a cynical form of child abuse. I believe it urgently needs to be called out for what it is.
Andrew, John:
Bravo!
In Australia there has been a tragic rise in youth suicide over the last decades.
There is public discussion about reasons.
In the discussion there is never any mention of pessimism and depression generated by the Green movement.
I think a lot relates the issues raised by AM in the main post.
Science and technology talk used to be focussed on a wonderful future.
Now it is focussed on problems, some of which may seem to be insoluble.
This leads to pessimism and depression, with tragic consequences.
Is youth suicide a problem in the UK?
Some 25 years ago some kids in Holland were crying at school for the forests that were all being killed by the acid rain. It saddens me that eco-brainwashing has continued, be it using a different subject.
Very good to expose these totalitarian abominations, Andrew and John.
I noticed that figure 1 on page 19 of the report depicts earthquakes and tsunamis as climate change impacts.
I'm only into the third paragraph of Terence Kealey's Foreword and this seems the most important report the GWPF has ever produced. John Shade has dedicated much of his time to this for many years. Thank you to everyone concerned.
As a retired teacher who worked principally in NZ and, for a few years before retiring from the classroom, in the UK, I applaud this report for revealing the immense harm being done to young people in the guise of 'educating' them. I suspect many young people would enjoy superior mental health and lower levels of gloom and stress if they managed to avoid much of current 'schooling'.
New Zealand has dismal youth suicide rates which are not being sensibly addressed. Young people need truth and hope, not misinformation and gloom.
I have grandchildren in both countries and thus feel I have a very real stake in the is issue.
Amen to that
If it was a a religious group getting up to the same sorts of shenanigans there would truly be an outcry - but in particular the participation of the state broadcaster in the flood of propaganda drowning young minds blunts the average trusting member of the public's perception of what's going on...
The cult of AGW environmentalism is pushing arithmetic, logic, common sense and a bunch of other stuff off the curriculum - and the activists presume to trump anything with their assumed moral superiority as the arbiters of anything and everything - the cultism is well established and will take some considerable uprooting.
This is your best, and most important, work. We are indebted. Thank you.
Extremely important work....just astoundingly frightening
I wonder how many with an open mind, are employed at DECC, UEA-CRU, and, the Science/Environment Dept of the BBC?
Perhaps there should be mandatory quotas, to protect those organisations from claims of 'discrimination'?
It's all very sinister isn't it?
My recollection, from the tertiary education of my children, has been going on for some while, particularly in geography which I found to be a subject transformed from what I knew it to be. It is perhaps ironic that children leaving school in 2014 will have lived their entire lives during a period of zero warming. How many of them know that?
From the Ecclesiastical Uncle, an old retired bureaucrat in a field only remotely related to climate with minimal qualifications and only half a mind.
Well, what on earth else do you expect if you trust the state to educate your children? You get the education the state wants.
Why not return the education budget to parents and allow them to employ the Mrs down the road in a series of dame schools? If you didn't like what was going on in the one you'd chosen you could simply change school.
And it's the same with most other government provided services.
Welfare state -my *rs*! It's do as you're told by well meaning professionals who are sure they know best but don't know anything about citizens' individual circumstances. So how can their decisions possibly be appropriate? Even theoretically, the welfare state is nonsense.
Rant on, Uncle!
I don't see any mention of this on the BBC website yet under the 'education' items. The latest education item is entitled "Schools 'need kitchen improvements' for free meals".
Excellent report, congratulations to Andrew and John.
"CO2 is an invisible gas emitted by dead animals and decaying plants" US govt glossary for primary school teaching aid.
While schools are politically funded and managed, they will be made to serve the interests of politics.
My daughter in law studied Architecture and told us that one lecturer only passed students if the regurgitated the "AGW mantra". Students who even mentioned that this catastrophic scenario was possibly questionable were poorly graded.
The disquiet and anger this produced in the students was totally counter productive to what this advocate of CAGW was trying to achieve. My DiL stated openly that upper year students advised them that to get the required grades they had to pander to this individual and NOT provide the normal questioning thought provoking work other Lecturers encouraged them to produce.
This report is immensely valuable. It should get discussed at all levels. BUT - never forget that the young do like to question the perceived "wisdom" of their older generation.
The unfairness of what this advocate of CAGW does to his students caused my DiL and her fellow students to move from being "believers" to being highly sceptical.
So have faith in the up and coming generation - they will question the dogma.
The more the spin doctors and the believers manipulate the system, the more obvious is their deception - especially to those bright enquiring minds on the receiving end of it! And ultimately the bigger the back-lash against this deception will be.
" If it was a a religious group..."
"The cult of AGW environmentalism..."
you said it yourself, essentially it is a religious group, hence why it annoys us science types so much.
It would be easy at this point to just blame the teachers but I’m not going to do that. They’re obliged to teach a subject within the constraints of the syllabus set for it and very many of them have deep reservations, not only about the supposed “facts” they have to impart but the degree of political influence being indirectly exerted in subjects, which one would naturally expect to be free of such interference. At some point in the future, this abuse of young and impressionable minds will have to be addressed and corrected.
http://thepointman.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/polar-bears-going-extinct-yawn/
Thank you Bish and GWPF.
Pointman
"The report also describes how activist teachers try to make children become the footsoldiers of the green movement, encouraging them to harass their schoolmates and pester their parents to bring about “behaviour change”."
and people complain that paralleling this with the Hitler Youth Movement is wrong!!! I can see many parallels with Environmentalism and the 1930s!
A timely report. Well done, gentlemen.
I note Channel 4seven last night....the Blackdeath (Bubonic plague 1348 for about 9 months)
Seems it rained a lot for a couple of months before the plague hit.This caused crop failure and weakened the population. The remains unearthed from the Cross Rail link show evidence of anemia for instance. Fairly matter of fact stuff it appeared. However, what caused the rain...none other than Climate Change. Had to be really.
I guess school literature needs updating with this info PDQ ?
My knowledge of British History never included Climate Change. In the 1950/60's I got the message that very few people cared much about any peasants quality of life up until somewhere after WW2.
I have told my children to ask constantly the very simple question, "How do we know?" when the subject of climate change and its effects crop up. By conicidence, this is the same question I tell them to ask their RE teacher.
From my questioning of the teaching staff at the local primary school it is obvious they have only a superficial knowledge of the science underlying this issue.
For anyone unconvinced by this excellent report by AM & JS, I suggest they take a look at the pages and pages of overt and insidious material (for teachers) on Education Scotland's website. This comes under two separate sections:
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/exploringclimatechange/index.asp
http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/weatherandclimatechange/climatechange/index.asp
There are the usual links to BBC and Skeptical Science propaganda pages, polar bears, Arctic sea-ice melting and ice sheet collapses in Antarctica (and Greenland!), and also direct links to campaign groups like GreenerScotland, and Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, but it is the 'Reflective questions' which overtly expose the agenda, e.g:
And don't forget the flaming hockeystick - http://www.educationscotland.gov.uk/exploringclimatechange/thebasics/index.asp
I think a nod in the direction of Johnny Ball would not go amiss here, as he jeopardised his career and business trying to publicise this state of affairs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3d23B-R2-qw
I've just encountered some footage of climate catastrophists plying their trade on the unsuspecting public in Brazil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5rdCH-Ql78
As a practising physics teacher in a UK comprehensive school, the contents of this report do not come as a surprise. There are GCSE science textbooks in my school with a double page spread on agenda 21 and a whole chapter on sustainable development in the biology section. You will still find multiple copies of 'An Inconvenient Truth' on the shelves. Green dogma has been pervasive in education since I started teaching in 2002, so its unfortunate that reports like these weren't produced years ago. Needless to say I also give pupils skeptical arguments too and have consequently been called the D word by colleagues and was even once told that I was 'worse than George W Bush'.
It's a form of child abuse.
"My knowledge of British History never included Climate Change" - Ex-expat Colin Apr 8, 2014 at 8:04 AM
I recall a talk from my days at school in the early 70s: a local historian from Cambridge University told us that there had been a greater acreage under cultivation in the mid-13th century than at any time until the late 19th century. Marginal land could be productive in the climate of the MWP (not that he put it in those terms). As cooling set in, it was all downhill; bad harvests (lots of them) and many undernourished/landless people: so the suggestion that climate change was part of the web of causes of the Black Death is highly plausible.
The effects of climate change on human beings can indeed be appalling: cooling is a nightmare for many of those unlucky enough to live through it. I recommend Wolfgang Behringer's A Cultural History of Climate, which deals with the horrors (not an exaggeration) of the Little Ice Age. Religious/political turmoil, terribly destructive wars, the witch craze, in some places huge falls in population (enough to warm David Attenborough's heart).
We must all pray this doesn't happen while the Greens retain any influence - any influence at all - over our affairs.
Perhaps you should have point out to Gove, that Parliament are about to debate a new law.
The new law would make it a crime to deliberately harm a child's 'intellectual, emotional, social or behavioural development'
Petard
It's been going on for decades, but sometimes it helps to stand back and reflect on our own experiences. I had to sing quasi-religious songs in school assemblies, but I didn't believe the words. Many of the teachers didn't sing along either. Children notice these things. Equally, I bet most of those processed by Leninist Komsomols could see straight through their Great Leaders.
If want a really good laugh, read this from the President of Harvard University:
It could have been written by George Orwell or a Hero of the Soviet Union (First Clas
Apr 8, 2014 at 8:23 AM | Unregistered Commenter Steve Jones
Indeed, the parallel with religion is striking. However, the Education (Scotland) Act 1980 proscribed religious instruction and/or proselyting in schools, and following complaints from secularists that the message had not always got though to schools and teachers, the Scottish Government issued clear guidance in 2005 that all state schools must make parents aware of the right they have for their child to opt-out from Religious Education or activities, and provide alternative suitable occupation for them to undertake (until the children are are 16 when they can decide for themselves). Also, the UN Charter for Human Rights, Article 14, on the rights of the child, states that children have a right to be educated, and must not be indoctrinated. It is ironic that these principles are not applied to the what has in many ways become the main religion of the 21st century, i.e. CAGW.
Hamish (8:57am) it is thought that the famines of the 1690s (at least partly due to cool summers) killed 1/3 of the Scottish population.
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_interdisciplinary_history/summary/v041/41.3.allan.html
With thanks to Andrew, John and GWPF - agitprop in Britain and statism lives and breathes.
A few observations [quotes italicized]:
The Institute of Education at the University of Reading is welcoming more
than 300 school children for an exciting and innovative programme of
climate change activities, which combine science, maths, history and
modern languages.
Also it tells a story about Reading University, in the past a robust academic institution - not any more. 'History' is being rewritten by the thought controllers and the British narrative is lost in the noise of subjective opinion taught as facts. Disturbing - to say the least.
with the revision of the National Curriculum in 2000, when sustainable
development was made a compulsory part of teaching in geography, science,
design and technology, and citizenship.
"citizenship" - this is not just about sustainability - the agenda is Cultural Marxism programming.
While parents might have wondered whether issues such as these were any
business of teaching staff, the authors of the pamphlet were more concerned
about how teachers would be able to ‘measure children’s values’ and assess
the actions they might take.
"measure children's values" - truly a sinister phrase - Orwellian.
An AQA GCSE specimen answer in Chemistry,deemed worthy of full marks, in-
cludes the following words: ‘Overall Ithink we should be using more biodiesel
as it is important for us all to reduce our carbon footprint in an effort to halt
global warming’. One for a physics question includes: ‘I think wind turbines
are a good idea as global warming from burning coal is an increasing problem
and needs to be stopped.’
That whole paragraph.......English? ...............oh dear.
Politicians seem to have given the nod to this process, effectively hand-
ing much of the curriculum to green activists.
"green activists" fortunately are not the sharpest tools in the box but what that says about UK state education - it makes one want to weep.
Your Grace lives in Scotland. However your summary of the GWPF, of which you were one of the authors, gives the impression that Michael Gove is responsible for education in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as well as England. That mistake is not made in the actual report so why do you make it in the summary?
[BH adds: The press release needs to be snappy. You have to leave out detail or you make no impact]
Apr 8, 2014 at 8:34 AM | Kaptin Kaos - A sincere thank you for your efforts. The abuse you suffer means you must be doing the right thing.
Apr 8, 2014 at 9:12 AM | lapogus - A very interesting post.
Just out of interest, it would be useful to know if Private schools also push environmentalism?
[James Delingpole has said it's prevalent at Eton too]
This does not surprise me. My 11 year-old daughter had a "project" on Climate Change to do. It was about Polar Bears.
I gave her some facts about Polar Bear populations which she duly wrote about.
She was made to stand up in class and accused of "plagiarism".
I paid a visit to said school and teacher, along with a "Turnitin" (plagiarism detection programme) report. Believe you me they will not be using this "material" again!
Lord Montfort* had an article on the WUWT site a few days ago claiming that there had been no global warming for 17 years and 8 months. That means that unless the world starts warming up again very soon, school leavers next year (and perhaps even some this summer) will not have experienced global warming at any time in their lives.
In that case, how will the (mis-)educationalists be able to justify what they have put in the curricula?
{* Monckton. BH}
My daughter is about to sit her A levels in Geog, Economics and RE. I have been astounded at the left wing bias and climate change propaganda in all three subjects. At times it has left me speechless! What is worse is if she does not tow the party line, she will be marked down and run the risk of not getting her grades. Her school is an expensive fee paying school!
Given what she is taught in economics you would be amazed that the free market has ever functioned, we should be delighted that government interferes the whole time to sort out market failure. Bring on World Government!
I hope Gove reads your report and gets stuck into this socialist nonsense.
Roy (9.48am) I think you mean Lord Monckton. Re the pause/hiatus/plateau; I pointed this out to Geoffrey Boulton (in a chat I had with him after he gave a very alarmist presentation to a local group), that his first year students had never actually experienced any global warming. From the look on his face, this thought had not occurred to him at all!
Steve Jones on Apr 8, 2014 at 8:23 AM
"I have told my children to ask constantly the very simple question, "How do we know?" when the subject of climate change and its effects crop up. By conicidence, this is the same question I tell them to ask their RE teacher."
I hope that does not mean asking those in Authority and accepting their response, unquestioningly!
It's what happens around here.
@Hamish McCallum 8.47
Thank you for the info. My history lessons did not include that detail (too difficult file?).Ch4 won't divulge that information in a programme that has a designed in panic button near the end. It may get a bit contentious if the dumb media mention too much detail about history whether its fact or not. I'll leave that to Monckton who never fails to enjoy major detail.
Where you kindly provide some clue to previous events its the period where AGW did not exist to the extent its supposed to now. Unless of course the MSM want to press the fact that our ancestors were burning fossil fuels and is causation? And then there is the evidence problem.
The term Climate Change causes alarm/fright/anger very easily. The doctrine works!
I keep thinking of sunny days with Robin Hood and Ivanhoe for some reason....must be that TV again and not real history.
My son is now lower 6th form and has been educated like this his entire school days. Fortunately I can counter some of the most egregious propaganda.
But when even French comprehension contains green examples (pollution) you can't but wonder when did the ecofascists take over control of the education curriculum?
Bish, an alternative post title for "Climate Control" could be "Heir Conditioning".
A brilliant move!
It will be interesting to see if the requested official inquiry takes place, and if it does, whether it starts before the next general election, and who is on the panel. Will it be those in 'human communications', like teachers, BBC science correspondents (with degrees in English) and heads of children's TV, or the 'climate' scientists themselves, academics from teacher training colleges or sociologists with a built in drift towards State control?
Maybe the surrounding publicity and public discussion will be the most effective agent at disrupting this corruption of children's education, so it is even more important to keep digging!
Once parents realise what is happening to their children, they will want evidence to correct the wrongs.
Once scientists realise what is happening to their disciplines, they will want evidence to correct the wrongs.
This action is a sequel to Stewart Dimmock's actions, in 2007:
Al Gore's 'nine Inconvenient Untruths'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthnews/3310137/Al-Gores-nine-Inconvenient-Untruths.html
That was so long ago!
This sounds an important and disturbing report. Congratulations.
Robert Christopher's question above "How do we know?" seems a very good one to encourage children to ask. I often mutter it to myself when watching the BBC.
lapogus (9:57)
Yes, I did mean Lord Monckton. I am not surprised that Geoffrey Boulton had not thought about the subject. It is probably one that alarmists would want to avoid, but how much longer will they be able to do so, I wonder?
In the Netherlands there exists one political party explicitly resisting the climate swindle. As an old-fashioned Labour voter I will not give it my support for a variety of reasons. I would like to see an one-issue party being neutral regarding traditional politics. The party should restrict its existence to eight years and should have the only purpose to undo everything that has been done by the environmentalists. If we would have such a party at the EU level, the better. The infiltration by the environmental charlatans in our education, science, health institutions, technology, and economy is a huge problem demanding a political approach. Just a dream, of course, but we should start somewhere.
My granddaughter has been told that the sun is getting bigger as a result of atmospheric CO2. I asked if she believed the story and she said that it was impossible and didn't. But then she is far more intelligent than those peddling that story.