UN Calls For Children to Become 'Climate Action Super Heroes'
During Covid, People Became Heroic by Inaction, Now it is Time to Act Again
From the UN Sustainable Development Goals’ website:
Climate change is a menace to our world. Our league of superheroes is taking action now and they want YOU to join them!
Empowering children to be heroic leaders for change and believe in the impact they can have on the planet is crucial. Meet our eight superheroes. Each of their missions has downloadable content including activities for kids to do with the help of an adult.
There are ‘fun’ online missions (what’s the carbon footprint of ‘the internet’, by the way?), such as (emphases mine):
Truth Talker, who ‘has the facts about climate change and tells others about it’.
Heroic activities incl. 'reports online bullies’, ‘speaks up against any type of discrimination in their community’, and ‘fights misinformation with true [sic] facts and scientific evidence’.
Why do we need the Truth Talker? The coronavirus has shown how important it is to listen to scientists. People all over the world are searching for information on how to keep safe, stay hopeful and help one another. The same goes for climate change. Scientists have been telling us that climate change is happening due to human activities and that we are on a path that will increasingly hurt the lives, livelihoods and health of people. And scientists also have the solutions to building a more sustainable world. Find out the facts and share them with your friends. Help counter misinformation. And speak up against discrimination and bullying. There’s no place for that. We are one human family and need to act together, in solidarity, for a better future for all.
The ‘Truth Talker’ is accompanied by the following super heroes, all of whom come with their own little ‘blurbs’ that describe them:
Veggie Vindicator, who ‘educates everyone on why to eat—and appreciate—more veggies’
Recycle Ranger, who ‘knows proper recycling techniques and shows others what items belong in which bin’
Green Guide, who ‘keeps plants healthy and doesn’t let them go to waste’
Fashion Fixer, who ‘mends, donates and keeps clothing out of landfills’ (that’s actually a useful thing to do, if only whatever clothing one buys in most department stores wouldn’t be of such crap ‘quality’—sure, they are comparatively cheap, but as long as prices serve as an incentive to replace instead of re-use, well, ain’t gonna happen)
Water Wizard, who ‘keeps dangerous plastics from getting into the ocean and makes sure you don’t let water go to waste’
Energy Expert, who ‘never wastes electricity, and always turns off the lights when they’re not needed’
Why do we need the Energy Expert? The energy sector (electricity, heat, and other energy) is the largest contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, responsible for about 35 percent of total emissions [good that we left out the US military, which emitted some 59m tons of CO2 in 2019, according to Statista (source):
See also this accompanying piece in Forbes; back to the Electricity Expert]
Electricity drives our lifestyles. Although some 790 million people in the world still lack access to electricity, for the rest of us, everything from a computer to a television and a refrigerator needs energy. You can save electricity by plugging appliances into a power strip and turning them off completely when not in use. By turning off your lights and using energy-efficient lightbulbs, you can also reduce your energy consumption and save money. Most of our energy is still produced using fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas, which cause large amounts of greenhouse gases [some 85% world-wide]. Encourage your parents to switch to energy from sustainable, renewable sources, such as wind or solar. And travel less, or bike, walk or take public transport, since cars and airplanes also need energy and are mostly running on fossil fuels causing harmful emissions.
Fume Fighter, who is the ‘defender of clean air and protecting the atmosphere from bad fumes’ (as a historian, I would point to something called ‘Miasma Theory’, which was, as per Wikipedia (my emphases),
an abandoned medical theory that held that diseases…were caused by a miasma (μίασμα, Ancient Greek for 'pollution'), a noxious form of ‘bad air’, also known as night air. The theory held that epidemics were caused by miasma, emanating from rotting organic matter. Though miasma theory is typically associated with the spread of contagious diseases, some academics in the early nineteenth century suggested that the theory extended to other conditions as well, e.g. one could become obese by inhaling the odor of food.
The miasma theory was advanced by Hippocrates in the fourth century B.C. and accepted from ancient times in Europe and China. The theory was eventually abandoned by scientists and physicians after 1880, replaced by the germ theory of disease: specific germs, not miasma, caused specific diseases. However, cultural beliefs about getting rid of odor made the clean-up of waste a high priority for cities.
[It looks as our political-economic ‘reversion’ to what heterodox economists, such as Steve Keen, Michael Hudson, and others, are labelling ‘neofeudalism’ is accompanied by the return of miasma theory. How fitting, even though I’m unsure the ‘Truth Talker’ would agree.]
Bottom Lines
We’re observing the ‘Covidification’ of everything.
‘Covid’ is rapidly becoming the one and only acceptable ‘blueprint’ for everything and anything. Would you care for a few examples?
Bad cough? Lockdown, test yourself, and don’t spread the disease to your loved ones, for otherwise you’re anti-social.
Holiday plans? Why not absorb the virtual reality of the internet (nevermind its carbon and other footprints), which is not only cheaper but also ‘morally’ superior.
Regular social interactions? Surely not, see above.
Need to travel? Get updated on your requirements (vaccines), obtain (an expensive) biometric ID, and subject yourself to random control by law enforcement, block warden-inspired strangers, and literally everyone you’re encountering.
So, if you’d like to become a Climate Action Super Hero, go ahead.
For starters, you might wish to try out the ‘Truth Talker’.
Epilogue: ‘Germany, A Hero’s Journey’
For good measure, here’s a a TV spot the German gov’t ran back in autumn 2020, which called on citizens to be a hero and contribute heroically to fighting Covid—by staying safe on their couches (note that the original content has since been taken down and that the below content comes to us courtesy of the Internet Archive):
Please check out the following links manually (as the Internet Archive does not allow, apparently, the embedding of archived content):
I suppose that, even if you don’t understand German, it’s going to be, well, quite informative, to say the least.
Climate Action Super Hero shortens to CASH, how very apt as it says what it really is: grift and graft.
The idea of a german-french headed Klima-Jugend scares me though.
Next step will be articles where parents of youthful pioneers (will they too get to wear a special red scarf perhaps?) testify how happy they are their children tell the authorities of any suspected transgressions.
EUrope-wide DDR, with german efficiency, french bureaucracy and italian/greek anti-corruption measures...
Hope I live to see it burn.
Did I need to see this on a Saturday morning? Probably. I remember the "good old days" when I used to sew my own clothes. It became pretty obvious in the 90s that sewing one's own clothes was no longer viable, as the fabric, cotton, pattern and zip cost more than a cheap dress from China. Ugh. We've been suffering ever since from a tsunami of cheap rubbish.
Can I suggest to the upcoming youngster "Energy Experts" that they persuade the oligarchs to somehow give up their private jets?
As for the "Truth Talkers" the "coronavirus has shown how important it is to listen to scientists". I need to go back to bed. I feel weak. I don't think I am going to survive much more of this twaddle.