Environmentalist Propaganda
for Kids
by Jay Lehr
It is sad, indeed,
that writers and photographers can so cleverly use the vast beauty of the
Earth to promote wrong-headed, doomsday, collectivist philosophies. In
previous issues of Environment & Climate News, I described such
malevolence in my reviews of Fatal Harvest (March 2003) and America's
Living Oceans (October 2003). The Future of the Earth: An
Introduction to Sustainable Development for Young Readers, by Yann
Arthur-Bertrand may be the most insidious of all, because its target
audience is young people between the ages of 10 and 12, who are susceptible
to big pictures, big print, and oversimplified concepts. Young persons who
have yet to grasp a significant perspective of our history can be easily
taken in by the excellent prose and attractive pictures and drawings in this
book.
Pestilent Good Old Days
The reader is
quickly told of “the good old days” when all of life was better, and the
Earth was pristine, before fossil fuels destroyed our atmosphere. The
authors conveniently forget to describe, for example, life in New York City
in 1900, when 100,000 horses walked the streets, creating 2.5 million pounds
of manure requiring daily disposal, when 15,000 horses annually died in the
city, requiring sanitary disposal, or the filth and disease that horse
transportation bred, all of which amply prove the inaccuracy of that fable.
Simultaneously,
these young minds are taught class-envy by the authors’ explanation of the
unfairness of the fact that 20 percent of the Earth’s inhabitants share 80
percent of the world’s riches.
Politics Overcome Science
The Future of
the Earth cavalierly teaches the worst global warming scenarios, using
inaccurate greenhouse physics. It vilifies agriculture for spoiling the land
by growing abundant food upon it. In spite of the fact that increased farm
efficiency has tripled yields while reducing the acreage needed for farming,
the authors tell the young reader to say goodbye to wild lands.
The book falsely
accuses mankind of destroying the oceans and all that lives therein, while
producing more and more floods resulting from -- what else? -- global
warming. It lays blame on mankind for expanding deserts (even though, aided
by the increase in atmospheric CO2, deserts such as the Sahara are actually
giving way to foliage and grasslands) and falsely charges global trade as
riding on the backs of child labor.
Virtually every
picture and page (74 of them) contains a blatant falsehood or distortion to
be absorbed by its young readers. Here is a sample:
Air pollution from
cars will increase 25 percent in the next 10 years. (It is, in fact,
significantly declining, in spite of the fact that the number of cars is
increasing.)
Twelve percent of all
species are endangered. (Scientific study has yet to produce any
accurate numbers, but a safe guess is well below 1 percent.)
More than 20,000
square miles of ice disappear each year. (That invented number of
regional ice depletion fails to account for growing ice fields in other
global regions.)
Pesticides are no way
to treat insect infestations, no matter how bad.
Nuclear energy
provides no safe hope for humanity.
We must return to
fishing for our dinner rather than industrial fishing, which feeds those
who do not fish.
We cannot afford
to feed meat to the world’s population, so we must eliminate commercial
animal herds. (Actually, animal husbandry increases standards of
living, food choices, and nutritional levels. -Ed.)
Each year 50,000
square miles of forest land leave the planet. (Forest land has
actually increased, for many decades, in all developed countries.)
Bias Is Evident
On page after page,
the authors lay the blame for floods, cyclones, hurricanes, heat waves,
drying lakes, sea level changes, and more at the feet of mankind. And of
course, the authors lecture, our future depends entirely on the continuing
development of wind and solar power.
Two words can aptly
be used to describe the anti-technology contents of this book: socialist
propaganda. But it is certainly used effectively. The authors fully exploit
the fact that an attractive book, full of large, colorful pictures can
induce educators to mislead America’s youth about the current state of our
planet, and implore children to turn their backs on the technology that has
enabled man to thrive.
Jay Lehr, Ph.D.
is science director for The Heartland Institute.
Found at www.eco.freedom.org
TAXING OUR PATIENCE
by F.R. (Bob)
Duplantier
The flat tax is
best, some contend,
But the sales tax has much to commend.
Taxing income or sales -
These are minor details
‘Til we limit what Congress can spend!
Found at www.eco.freedom.org
