Bishop Hill UNESCO wants green activists in the classroom
UNESCO has published a report into Climate Change Education around the world. It's rather sinister, in a bleakly bureaucratic way.
It starts off innocently enough. In the section on England, we learn that the Conservatives are not quite on message, having shifted the focus away from "sustainability" and towards economic growth. I'm not even sure I don't detect a degree of concern from the authors when they talk about the government having brought about a shift "towards science, technology, engineering, mathematics, innovation and management competencies".
But it's in the conclusions that it gets really ugly. Here the authors suggest that what is really needed is for everyone to have "an understanding of the impact of climate change on the educational opportunities of marginalized, vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society". To do this they want environmental activism to play a prominent role in the classroom, and call on governments to give "support to non-formal educators and facilitators of [climate change education]". The are also keen for governments to try to pervert the media and civil society, with demands for government money to be ploughed into green NGOs and journalism training courses, and for support to be given to media "efforts to disseminate clear messages".
Before the Berlin Wall came down, UNESCO was widely seen in the West as a hotbed of communist troublemakers and in the 1980s the US and UK withdrew from the organisation for a while.
I think it might be time to take a step back again.
Reader Comments (42)
the government having brought about a shift "towards science, technology, engineering, mathematics, innovation and management competencies".
My God, whatever next.
You rather wish the people who write these reports were more aware that most people have got over the global warming scare and it sounds pretty "last millennium".
As for the call for [Green] journalism training courses: a lack of training hasn't held back the likes of Hazzabin and Black.
You forgot to mention the title: “Not Just Hot Air” - a magnificent understatement.
It's a pity you put in the bit about UNESCO being “a hotbed of communist troublemakers”. UNESCO's prime purpose is to protect cultural sites worldwide, something that can get you beheaded these days. Also, irrelevant comments like that encourage the kind if commenters who come here and accuse people like me of being “leftist scum”.
It's not easy to discover who is responsible for this document. They say: “Leila Loupis and Alison Clayson ... developed and edited the final version of the publication.”
Leila Loupis holds an undergraduate degree in communication from the University of Paris XIII and is currently completing a Master of Public Administration.
Think of how quickly national debts could be wiped out if we stopped paying into these wastes of space.
You have a fair idea the gig is up when they focus on "efforts to disseminate clear messages" rather than acknowledge the actual science, which is telling us in no uncertain terms that there is absolutely no 'climate crisis'.
"Climate change presents a global challenge of a
magnitude that human beings have not encountered
before."
Fell at first sentence! We have survived many Ice-Ages & are still here. Me thinks history education might need a little lift too! Oh & will they be training some teachers to teach how to get one's head out of one's a£$e?
TinyCO2:
The correct description is 'oxygen thieves'.
"UNESCO's prime purpose is to protect cultural sites worldwide" geoffchambers
With so many of these departments, their stated goals are purely at the whim of international individuals. Success or failure often has nothing to do with these groups. Their ineffectuality leads them to meddle in other areas to give the impression they're doing something. Climate change is popular because it's supposed to be the fault of the West, where there is more chance of a favourable ear. All those traditional issues are shelved - peace, freedom from slavery or rape, food, water. Stamp them all too dfficult and harass the UK government instead.
Notwithstanding the rather salient facts - CO² rises as an effect of and because of Temperature increase and thus man made CO² ≠ global warming.
Who governs us, who is responsible for making the decisions and if these decisions have been taken away from the oversight of our elected representatives [which we know to be the truth] - then indeed British sovereignty and its very existence - of the nation is threatened.
This UNESCO 'report' goes to the very essence of the problem and begs the question:
What business is it, of any overseas bunch of
air-head tosserswet behind the ears just graduated bureaucrats to even posit the very notion, let alone to dictate what is and what is not appropriate for British school children to be taught?Who do they think they are? Moreover, why do we even give them the time of day?
Is it not time to inform the EU, UN with it's propagandized pap to UNESCO and a host of other shadowy misanthropic organizations to Foxtrot Oscar - to all of it's agitprop global warming lunacy?
As we know, they would generally be late with that one, Bish.
geoff chambers
tells you all you need to know about this lot. It's knee-jerk language and pigeon-holes its users better than anything else they can say or do.I don't care whether you call yourself "left" or "right" and you and I have debated this subject and agreed to differ over quite a time but
They are unreconstructed "lefties", probably influenced by the Trot element if not actually part of it and are a menace to free people everywhere.
I doubt if there is anyone in this thread that would tar you with that brush but trying to divert attention away from what UNESCO did and is doing (as TinyCO2 says) only aids their cause (if I'm allowed to call it that!)
@TinyCO2: Well they also failed with the Nasca lines when their little greenpeace friends vandalised them in the fight to save the world!
Agit-prop: why is the widows mite being used in this way?
I'll add that these sorts of organisations have what might be described as 'encouraging the naughty child' policies. There is a theory in parenting and schools that you can praise a child out of bad behaviour. The better the child becomes, the stricter you get because the kid will rise to the challenge but needs praise at the beginning. This is played out on an international stage. Thus one country will be lavished with plaudits for reducing the amount of political imprisonments and executions and another country will be rebuked for funding less after school activities.
The reality is the bad child will feel smug and the good child will think 'why the f*** am I being good when that git gets all the praise?' The same applies to international interactions.
I'm not sure when logic got so mixed up.
geoffchambers
Has any regular here, as opposed to the odd drive-by, accused of being "leftist scum"?
UNESCO like most taxpayer funded operations just grows and grows, empire builders of whatever political bent can become the head of a huge and powerful arm influencing, if not actually controlling, the lives of whole populations. In my view, those who wish to control people tend to be from what is known as the left and are attracted to organisations such as those run by the UN. There is never any pressure to spend wisely rather all budgets must be spent completely by the end of the financial year. The current budget cuts in the UK haven't had anyone in the affect branches of publicly funded services saying how can we save money only we deserve more. Which isn't to say there are no good, selfless and altruistic people working for the UN, unfortunately there aren't many in positions of power.
The climate obsessed are stealing the public square.
Not able to win their policy demands by fact-based debate, they seek to censor those who disagree.
Not able to offer scientific reasons to impose their will, they corrupt the science.
Not able to get laws passed to impose their madness, they get regulations that by-pass law.
Not able to discuss issues, they demonize those who disagree.
geoff chambers
I don't care whether you call yourself "left" or "right" and you and I have debated this subject and agreed to differ over quite a time but
...marginalized, vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society...
tells you all you need to know about this lot
Aug 20, 2015 at 10:56 AM | Mike Jackson
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Correct. I highly recommend Theodore Dalrymple's "Life at the Bottom: The world view that makes our underclasses", a work which nails the liberal elite's complicity in creating these "marginalized, vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society". He works from a position knowledge, as a doctor in inner-city Brum and in a local prison.
"They want environmental activism to play a prominent role in the classroom"
Doesn't it already?
Practically every primary school teacher I've ever met is a rampant proselytising alarmist, despite their near-total ignorance of, well, pretty much everything really.
"a shift towards science, technology, engineering, mathematics, innovation and management competencies".
Heaven forfend! Too much of that, and school leavers will be able to get real productive jobs, or even spot a gravy train in the distance...
Can anyone remember what UNESCO was supposed to achieve? Has the passage of time improved their ability?
If UNESCO's head office was demolished, it could be turned into a World Heritage Political Waste Recycling Memorial Garden, and might be better value for money.
Andrew Duffin
+1 there - what they lack in experience and knowledge - they overcompensate for by overdoing vehemence and volume!
It would appear they are hard at work in Australian schools with the latest bull.
http://joannenova.com.au/2015/08/merchants-of-doubt-insidious-propaganda-in-schools/
Jeremy Poynton
I would recommend any book by Dalrymple with that one very high on the list.
Politically correct he ain't but you sense a little sympathy for the individuals though not for the system that got them into that position in the first place.
His observations on life at the lower margins in Britain ought to be compulsory reading for every politician, civil servant, and academic with the slightest involvement in any of the social sciences (so-called). Not to mention doctors, teachers, and local government gauleiters.
Hop, hop, hoppin' comes little cock Robin,
Tugging at the worms and sometimes a gobblin'.
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Geoff,
A minor modification needed:
"UNESCO's prime purpose WAS to protect cultural sites worldwide"
Sadly, they have suffered severe mission creep and now feel empowered to get into all kinds of places where a supranational organization should not poke a toe. I have dealt with UNESCO-led initiatives in a couple of supposedly scientific areas and they have way too many idealogues running the show.
Like too many agencies created with a very clear (and often needed) mandate, UNESCO have been taken over by some very dodgy people who have used the agency for other - often very political - purposes. In this group I would include the environmental NGOs who filled a real need in the 60's and 70's, but should simply have disbanded when they achieved their original purpose. Instead, they became a target for take over by people with little more than a desire for power and as this coincided with a general loss of power of the more extreme left in national governments, many of the people taking over the agencies are from that side of the political spectrum. This is not a dig at the left in my opinion as, in another era, it might well have been right-leaning politicians taking over (in much the way that the global sporting bodies became a bit of 'home' for ex-fascists in the 50's).
The sceptical side of the CAGW argument should cover all sides of the political spectrum and I do hope that insults are left out of the comments.
Assuming they are using The Brundtland Commission definition of Sustainable Development (SD), then the whole thesis of the Unesco Report is a pile of cobblers as is the Brundtland definition. If at any point in the past be it 1700, 1800, 1900 they'd have introduced their global practice of sustainable development, then the world now would be far more primitive than it is under business as usual. Consider the following
1) We'd have done nothing that would have depleted natural resources that future generations could use, even though, under SD, future generations would not be allowed to use those resources either.
2) World population would be far lower than it is today, millions of lives denied on the altar of sustainability.
Essentially, sustainability would have been more justified historically because we knew far less about possible future technologies. Now at least we have a long term vision if safe nuclear fusion, we have masses of oil and gas, we produce more food than the world needs. And these nutters want to slow it all down.
Need I go on.
Well-spotted! Plenty of publicity for this sort of thing brings at least the possibility of critical review and a strengthening of our defences.
These organisations can do a great deal of harm by allowing rich-world zealots to build up a base using funding and political mechanisms/opportunities in the UN. Look what Maurice Strong managed to do with UNEP for example. The UN is mainly funded by the rich, and peopled by the poor, and in many cases with very authoritarian governments and with inadequate research/academic resources of their own. Ripe for the plucking by savvy operators like M. Maurice.
In 2012 Donna Laframboise stumbled across (her words) another shocker from UNESCO from 2008:
I wonder if they are still trying the 'first you scare 'em and then you snare 'em' methods once so popular with eco-zealots wanting control over children's minds.
Our report Climate Control: brainwashing in schools noted on page 32 that 'the discovery that fear is a poor means of persuasion seems only to have engendered a determination among activist teachers to find more insidious ways to recruit children to their cause'. We referenced this piece in the Guardian by way of illustration: http://www.theguardian.com/teacher-network/teacher-blog/2014/mar/27/eco-school-games-climate-change
As I have been saying for years. Defund the UN (was it Reagan who threatened them) and break up the EU. Money saved can go to the development of really sustainable energy mixes.
Thanks kim. I have hopped over here because as you know I have tracked this ed story all over the world and documented what unesco is pushing in my book Credentialed to Destroy. That's why I know this actually ties into this UNESCO related EFA report that came out today on the need for education to create an egalitarian society.
https://efareport.wordpress.com/2015/08/20/new-statement-on-framing-and-measuring-inequalities-in-education/#more-6089
Remember also that beliefs are what guide intentional behavior, not actual reality. Every behavioral scientist all over the world knows that and plans to use false beliefs to foster desired future behaviors reliably. And if that sounds like tyranny, the expressed intention repeatedly is to make sure these beliefs become physiologically grounded in the brain's synapses at a neural level. If I read one more time how great Project-Based Learning around these politically useful topics will be because "the nerves that fire together, wire together" I will scream.
Any money saved in defunding the UN and EU would be lost 1000 times over in petty wars and new defence spending.
"...marginalized, vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society..."
they have a bloody cheek . unesco and their ilk have created more of the above than any other organisation in history.sandy s and mike jackson have it spot on.
Palestine, Israel, Syria, Iraq, Egypt, Libya, Turkey and the Kurds, various subliminal conflicts around Africa involving assorted thugs, dictators and pirates.
Then there's Russia starting to flex her muscles again in and around her borders.
And if you think the EU is responsible for keeping the peace in Europe for the last 70 years you've obviously never heard of NATO and if you think the continued existence of the EU is a guarantee of anything other than possible friction between Greece (at the moment, and possibly other countries to follow) and the 'northern group' then you have little grasp of either history or human nature.
And sooner or later the UN will either get its own way and attempt to impose its dictatorial view of the world which will only serve to split Western Europe, North America and Australasia (and possibly even China and India given their current advance) from the rest or the interference embodied in such projects as we are talking about here will eventually lead those same countries to abandon the concept as fundamentally flawed and out-dated.
The more likely scenario (I would guess) would be the latter since it doesn't take a genius to understand that the UN's activities are as divisive as you can get and its efforts at peace-keeping over the decades have been totally f***ing useless.
And that is the polite version. ☺
Well, in case it escaped your attention, JamesG, neither the EU nor the UN has been any use whatever at stopping wars. The UK has recently increased defence spending (not before time) and we belong to both disorganisations.
And how "petty" is a "petty" war? Just a few crucifixions? Five hundred beheadings a week, or two thousand? Great job the UN's doing, right now, isn't it?
I recall reading a few pdf scans of, originally type-writer written, documents that I had downloaded from a U.N archive site. They were describing how that teaching a group of teachers who would then teach the teachers of tomorrow was a very good aim, from memory these pdf's had early 1990's dates. Although these were not policy documents, only discussion documents if I recall, they were by pretty senior members.
For me to suggest that such a plan (as described in this UNESCO report) has already been placed into our education systems would have me branded a conspiracy theorist. Has anyone got a template for creating one of those triangular Bacofoil hats things? :)
unkno, see the Early Bird's site @ invisibleserfscollar.com
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The correct description is 'oxygen thieves'.
Aug 20, 2015 at 10:16 AM | Unregistered Commenter Graeme No.3
Oxygen thieves - and CO2 polluters..
Heh, elsewhere Robin's posted: 'neurological social engineering with a collectivist political purpose'. Remember that.
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Sadly UNESCO's wish seems to being fulfilled in our education system:
https://yougov.co.uk/news/2015/08/18/students-profile/
Climate Change is the second most important issue for students (after tuition fees) on 29% and fifth is Green energy on 25%.
"Climate Change is the second most important issue for students (after tuition fees) on 29% and fifth is Green energy on 25%." It doesn't add up...
We have a lot of students who don't know enough to steer clear of courses that will condemn them to the minimum wage and the 30 years of debt that will hang over them. That they should have such a gullible attitude to climate change is almost to be expected.
Eric Worrall reports at WUWT on a piece in the Guardian encouraging the use of science fiction to scare children about their future prospects. He notes:
I suppose there are quite a few in the scared-witless-about-climate camp who do not find this disturbing. Does spreading panic somehow make them feel better?
Andrew Duffin,
++1 Based on the experiences of my children, the green activists have been in the classrooms of our nations for decades.
Green applies to both their political bias and their knowledge.