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:

To continue reading this terrible narrative click HERE

7 Comments

  1. Tony against my better judgement I read your latest and, as expected was driven to despair. Is there no encouraging news about Australian education and its seemingly relentless march against nonexistent climate chaos?

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  2. Tony – from your post –
    “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.”

    sounds reasonable until the last bit – “care for students’ mental health.”

    so you scare them to death from an early age, then wonder why you may have to “care for students’ mental health.”

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  3. If a carbon tax is needed on fossil fuels to allow other forms of energy to compete, where does that leave the claims that renewable energy is now cheaper than fossil fuels?

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  4. Tony. I have written several similar questions to that sent here on the 24th March without getting any response from you. They have been legitimate questions seeking genuine answers. The education system you often describe regarding climate is sometimes horrendous and even scary. And it is so unremitting. I don’t want to believe that everyone in Australia will be scared of climate change and convinced draconian measures need to be taken but if Australian education lacks any opportunity for scepticism this I would have thought has serious implications for your society. Is there no good news at all?

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  5. Apologies Alan, I missed your queries (or maybe thought they were rhetorical.
    In Australia despite the best efforts of the “educators” and the media (other than 2 Murdoch dailies), federal voters here have been rejecting the climate narrative for a decade, and Prime Ministers who have gone in for green b/s have been deposed.
    Conservatives here are a coalition of Liberal (originally right of centre) and the farmers party Nationals. National are broadly climate sceptics. Sadly the incumbent PM, the centrist Morrison, has gone woke to the extent of endorsing net zero 2050, meaning little product differentiation against Labor with its 2035 target or some such (can’t remember but whatever). This Morrison move, and other drifting towards the left, is causing Right-minded voters and players to splinter towards niche Right parties. Morrison is doing badly in opinion polls re the coming May election. He got re-elected last time (a ‘miracle’ win) thanks to Queensland coal-mining electorates who remain realists. So broadly the electorate isn’t buying the green story but the youngest voters certainly do, and each year new cohorts of them vote.
    As for schooling, this is a State not federal matter and each State runs its schools autonomously. All have been captured the teacher unions and green indoctrination is rampant, except that political parties are not explicitly named. This contrasts with UK’s anti-partisan schools legislation which I’ve been studying (including recent guidelines) and intend writing on , comparing with Australia.
    Our ex-PM Abbott declared in his earlier days that CAGW was “crap” but was overthrown by super wealthy green wet Turnbull who in turn was overthrown by Morrison who sadly has gone to water on CAGW. He’s declared net zero by 2050 hence little product differentiation now with Labor and Right-minded voters are splintering off to minor Right parties.
    Hope this helps.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. Tony, thank you for your reply which largely concerned the attitudes of Australian politicians to climate. As an ex- educator I must admit I read your pieces here mostly regarding climate science in Australian schools and universities. What you describe is sometimes, to my prejudiced mind, appalling. But then I hear from my wife, who was a school teacher, that conditions in British schools is little better, and apart from the occasional older university lecturer like myself, whose ranks are rapidly depleting by retirements, British climate science teaching at the university level is becoming so lopsided with little to no sceptical voices. I presume, from your writings, which I sometimes dread reading, that the situation regarding scepticism is no better in Australia.

    Liked by 1 person

  7. ‘t is Gramski’s long march through the institutions.
    They did it via the UN human rites Council and actions
    for environmental susstainability.

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