Children's Minds

Thursday 29 Nov 2001 Gerry Eckhoff Press Releases -- Environment & Conservation

The Government's decision to target children's impressionable minds about climate change is a scandalous abuse of power, ACT Environment Spokesman Gerry Eckhoff said today. He was responding to the Government's announced consultation project on climate change.

"The sandwich board mentality of the Government in promoting doom and gloom if New Zealand does not sign the Kyoto Protocol is bad enough without using children to promote their message.

"The appallingly one sided explanation of climate change is typical of this Government's misuse of information.

"The Government fails to explain to children why satellites have failed to pick up discernable change in the earth's temperature. The Ministry of Energy also ignores the fact that scientists who promoted the concept of global cooling, 30 years ago, now warn of global warming.

"Perhaps the Minister of Energy could explain to children (and adults for that matter) why the Vikings named Greenland, Greenland. It was because Greenland was subtropical in those days and it could hardly have been methane emissions from livestock or CO2 from coal fired power stations that brought about the change we see today.Much is also made of the rise in ocean level that threatens to drown Pacific islands such as Tuvalu. The Minister fails to explain to children that the sea level has actually dropped in recent years.

"I commend to the Minister and the Tuvalu Government the October 2001 issue of `Science' which describes how the sea level around Tuvalu has declined over the last 50 years.

"The Malthusian attitude of this Government can be interpreted as either naïve or downright dishonest. The Government should try warming to the truth instead of scare mongering amongst children for their own political purposes," Gerry Eckhoff said.

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

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