DAVID STAPLES, EDMONTON JOURNAL
A girl wears face paint as schoolchildren take part in a student climate protest on March 15, 2019 in London, England.
JACK TAYLOR / GETTY IMAGES, FILE
Canadian parents were put on the spot by their children this week.
You see, climate change is the hot subject at schools across the country. Teen activist Greta Thunberg is in the news. Children were asked to take part in Thunberg’s Global Climate Strike.
This led to kids asking difficult questions of their parents: Is it OK to miss school to protest? Is climate change real? Is there anything we can do about it?
When I was asked these questions by my own daughter, I answered carefully, partly because I wanted her to make up her own mind, but also because I wanted to avoid the relentlessly dark talk about climate change, talk that is harming our kids.
It is nothing less than child abuse
This phenomenon is so pronounced that a new term has developed to describe the psychological impact on people: eco-anxiety.
As Psychology Today describes it: “Eco-anxiety is a fairly recent psychological disorder afflicting an increasing number of individuals who worry about the environmental crisis.”
It doesn't help that virtually every day a new report comes out spelling doom and disaster. Nor does it help that climate alarmists including left wing governments and media are targeting children with their message of terror. It's hyperbole beyond all reason or sanity and it is terrifying our children. It is nothing less than child abuse.
It’s not just adults gripped by eco-anxiety, it’s children, in large part because many adults are describing to them a future ripped apart by climatic catastrophes. Thunberg herself spoke of this dark vision in her speech Monday to the United Nations Climate Action Summit: “People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction …”
Psychologist Christine Korol, who specializes in treating anxiety disorders at the Vancouver Anxiety Centre, says her teen daughter recently came home from school with news that a teacher had advised her students not to ever have children because of coming ecological catastrophe.
Little wonder then that Korol has had many parents coming to her for advice on how to help their anxious kids. Korol says this anxiety can take the form of despair, helplessness, and obsession about recycling or not burning fossil fuels.
One way to cope is to take action, such as making a YouTube video on the issue or participating in the Global Climate Strike, Korol says. “That’s a great way of coping so I hope that mitigates some of the anxiety, if they feel like they’re taking action.”
There is no climate change crises
and there is no need for alarm
To answer my own daughter, I told her I was no expert on climate science, but that the scientific consensus right now is that climate change is real and that the world is getting warmer.
That said — and I stressed this point — there is no climate change crises and there is no need for alarm.
I know this statement will astonish some folks, especially our many climate alarmists. But the world’s smartest and wisest thinkers and leaders have devised a great solution to climate change — converting to a safe, reliable source of abundant carbon-free energy, nuclear power.
Right now we are grossly under-estimating our ability to handle climate change. Yes, it’s going to take time and money to fully develop a nuclear economy. It’s also going to take political will, as many influential leaders such as Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, 65, and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, 70, have antiquated ideas and are fiercely opposed to nuclear power.
The fact is that our new 21st century nuclear reactors have never had major safety issues. They can power electrical grids, rapidly cut carbon emissions and become a source of cheap energy that raises hundreds of millions more people out of poverty.
Nuclear power is not only carbon-free, but one small nuclear plant creates a massive amount of power, says nuclear engineer Mark Schneider, a leading U.S. expert on nuclear power. This gives nuclear the lowest carbon and green footprint of any form of energy production.
It’s also reliable. It’s not dependent on windy days and sunny skies to work.
And because it’s scrutinized so closely, it’s got the best record for safety.
Nuclear already drives prosperous, low-carbon economies in France and Sweden. And nuclear is no pipe dream in Canada. Reactors have safely supplied two-thirds of the power for Ontario’s electrical grid for many decades.
The good news is that nuclear energy is strongly backed by industrialists like Bill Gates, environmental activists like Micheal Shellenberger and by both Andrew Scheer’s Conservative Party and Justin Trudeau’s Liberals, two parties that will likely get about 75 per cent of the votes in the coming election.
I can’t think of a more hopeful message for our children.
All we have to do now is convince anxious and alarmist adults to get over their fears and to quit scaring children, especially about nuclear energy.
Burning fossil fuels caused global warming. But fossil thinking is the only thing preventing us from stopping it.
It has yet to be proven how much of a contribution fossil fuels make to climate change. It may be substantial, or it may not be that significant. Climate change alarmists are very secretive with their computer models as opposed to putting them out for scientific scrutiny by their peers as good, ethical science would require.
There is some disagreement about whether or not domesticated feed animals contribute more to climate change than fossil fuels. Certainly, deforestation is a significant contributor as well.
But unbiased scientists know that CO2 and global warming are not closely linked through history.
Also, there is a global political movement behind this alarmism. It is not science-driven as we are led to believe, but the politics is driving the science and anyone with scientific evidence that counters or mitigates the panic is quickly silenced.
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