|
 The American Psychiatric
Association’s (APA) monthly “Healthy Minds” poll recently found that a large
percentage of Americans believe their physical and mental health are being
negatively impacted by climate change. APA President Vivian Pender, M.D.,
believes this is a real impact of climate change itself on the population. In
reality, what the poll is measuring is the psychological damage generated by the
mainstream media’s nearly continuous stream of false, alarming claims that the
world faces an “existential” climate crisis.
According to the poll, “58% of adults believe climate change is already
impacting the health of Americans and nearly half (48%) agree that it's
impacting the mental health of Americans.” In 2019, a group of
more than 170 news organizations and journalists, led by the Columbia Journalism
Review, The Nation, and The Guardian, teamed up to push “a week’s worth of
climate coverage in the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Action Summit in
New York on Sept. 23.” Kip Hansen did a nice analysis of the coordinated
propaganda event at WattsUpWithThat.
 Everyone paying attention knew we were in for much more than just a week’s worth
of propaganda. Most likely, we were getting a glimpse behind the curtain.
Climate alarmism has been rampant for decades. However, with the lightning-fast
reach of social media and coordinated efforts from businesses eager to get in on
the “green gimmies” from government, it has only become worse. When was the last
time you heard about a weather event that was not tied to climate change?
Even more worrisome, the poll shows that today’s youth are especially
frightened.
Per the APA poll, “Young people were more anxious about climate change. Of those
aged 18-34, 66% were anxious about its effect on the planet, 51% were worried
about its impact on their mental health, and 59% worried about its impact on
future generations. They were also more likely to believe it was already having
an effect on the health (64%) and mental health (57%) of Americans.”
I know the power that the education system holds over a young mind. From my
earliest encounters with the sciences in school, the idea that we humans were
destroying the planet in one way or another was ubiquitous. In middle school, it
was very common in science class to calculate your home’s “carbon footprint” for
homework assignments. I also had a teacher who berated students for using too
much water at home. To impressionable kids, this is a horribly
heavy burden to carry.
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Starting in elementary school and going all the way
through high school, the lessons are repetitive in a way that makes
them feel almost liturgical. In many high school curriculums,
including AP (Advanced Placement) sciences, the theory that carbon
dioxide is the control knob for Earth’s temperature is not
questioned or challenged. A student who does so is in for an uphill
battle unless he or she has a very open-minded teacher.
Unfortunately, most kids don’t really question what they’re being
taught, to look skeptically at things and wonder if it’s true. It is
not that they’re dumb or careless, but they do, by and large,
believe that their teachers are trustworthy, that at least what they
are being taught is not false.
Nor do I blame most teachers. The textbooks and the curricula
include these lessons, why dig too deep? There are, of course,
fanatics and radicals among teachers (more and more, it seems). But,
who or what created them?
Answer: The media, which greatly amplifies alarmism. If it weren’t
for the fevered pitch of anxiety and dire warning laced into every
media report of every weather event; every time it is hot (or cold),
dry (or wet), climate change would be a scientific area of interest
like any other, and countless attribution scientists would be out of
work.
The scientific journals play to the media; they boast more and more
extreme headline-grabbing studies, and soon enough you get decades
of “last chances” to save the planet. Social media has a role in all
of this too, almost anyone who defies the climate alarm narrative is
censored.
Fortunately the fears of those polled are
unwarranted: data show that not only are climate-related deaths way
down, most severe weather events are trending downwards too.
Of course, there is always the chance that these poll numbers are
total garbage anyway, achieved with leading questions and selection
bias. In that case, numbers like these are meant to make those not
in these groups feel like they are “outside” the norm, elevating
their concerns.
Don’t let the alarmists fool you or your kids. Engage in critical
thinking, question the status quo, and always dig into the data.
And for sanity’s sake – turn off the Weather Channel!
Linnea Lueken (llueken@heartland.org) is a research
fellow with the Arthur B. Robinson Center on Climate and
Environmental Policy at The Heartland Institute, a nonpartisan,
nonprofit research center headquartered in Arlington Heights,
Illinois. |
