China teaches youngsters to restrict their local weather activism – what’s fallacious with that?
Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to the South China Morning Post, China wants children to learn about climate change but is trying to moderate the message to encourage children to focus on personal climate action rather than join protest movements.
Climate Change: Children in China Learn Beijing’s Version of History
Authorities want students to support environmentally friendly campaigns but want their activism to stop reducing their carbon footprint
Script teaching and censorship mean broad acceptance of the dangers of climate change and little impetus to push for more aggressive policies
Bloomberg
Published: 4:00 p.m., February 7, 2021
Why you can trust SCMP
Nine-year-old Gao Ximan dreamed of becoming a police officer for most of her young life. After participating in an eight-week online workshop on climate change that summer, she decided that being a conservationist was a more important goal.
“Siberian tigers and snow leopards are so cute, but they’re dying out,” said the fourth grade student at one of Beijing’s top public schools. She stopped using the air conditioning in her bedroom and insisted that her family use public transportation instead of their car for weekend trips.
Gao’s concern for the environment is something the Chinese government is trying to nurture among young people as it makes sweeping reforms to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2060. However, the country’s state-led approach to tackling climate change is less tolerant of the public debate about how it will get there. In other words, authorities want kids like Gao to support their green campaigns but would prefer their activism to stop reducing their own carbon footprint.
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“China’s climate education emphasizes that the responsibility rests with the individual and that they can make a difference by living a low-carbon life. However, they shouldn’t influence politics,” said Yao Zhe, who specializes in climate communications and has worked with various green organizations in China.
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Read more: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/3120716/climate-change-children-china-learn-beijings-version-story
How can children believe that carbon footprints are important, that the world is at risk, but should celebrate China’s right to development and never criticize government policies when the state orders the construction of a new coal-fired power plant? I think we’ll all find out.
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