Should we be frightening children about climate change?

According to our world leaders, the global consensus is: climate change is the problem and sustainable development is the solution. Without the idea of a global catastrophe through climate change, there is less urgency for changing energy consumption patterns. Children at school are being taught to expect the worst.

One of the winners of a competition, inspired by Earth Day 2013, from Calder High School in West Yorkshire, writes about saving the world:

"But not every human is bad. Some try to stop cutting down the trees and instead plant more. Others try to find new ways of causing less pollution. Some are organising themselves into groups instead of working alone. I heard that most pollution is let out by what they call cars, boats and airplanes. Can they not just walk and enjoy the air like we do?"

http://sustainability.thomsonreuters.com/2013/05/16/youth-perspective-saving-the-world/

A nice piece of work, but dark. Perhaps there is hope from the United Nations:

　
"An independent expert advisory group has been formed to advise the UN secretary general on the data revolution for sustainable development. One of its tasks is to strengthen national statistical capacities in support of the Post-2015 Development Agenda. In its first report to the Secretary-General in May 2012, Realizing the Future We Want for All, the UN Task Team outlined a vision for the post-2015 development agenda and suggested four key dimensions of " inclusive economic and social development, environmental sustainability and peace and security."

http://www.unglobalpulse.org/IEAG-Data-Revolution

It is difficult to know what "inclusive economic and social development" is, but it looks like we are all going to have to fit into some grand scheme of sustainable development, and it is just as well the data revolution is underway to assist with the monitoring and statistical analysis. Or maybe not.

The `Climate Lessons` blog points out that for the past 18 years the mean temperature of the earth has not risen as predicted and there is no good reason to be frightening children about the future.

http://climatelessons.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-min=2014-01-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2015-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=32