Examples Of Brainwashing

By Paul Homewood

 

I briefly mentioned the GWPF report yesterday, concerning climate change brainwashing in schools.

The full report can be found at GWPF’s website here. It is by necessity very detailed, but the Executive Summary is well worth a read, if you have not already seen it.

 

But I thought I’d show some of the examples found, to give some of the flavour.

Let’s start with this example from the  “GCSE Geography AQA A (Student Book)”, which begins its description of the climate change question with a paragraph that would not have looked out of place in a Greenpeace pamphlet:

Climate change isn’t something that is going to happen in the future – it’s happening now! Disasters, like the severe droughts in Niger, in sub- Saharan Africa, in 2005–6 and 2009, are wrecking people’s lives more and more frequently. And it’s going to get worse. 

The book also includes a section about how individual children can help reduce greenhouse gases, suggesting that they join 10:10, an organisation best known for a controversial video campaign that vividly portrayed the violent death of two children at the hands of their teacher, when their parents refused to accept the teacher’s demands for action in response to her concerns about energy usage and global warming.

 

The text in GCSEGeography forWJEC: a Revision Guide makes several highly dubious statements, for example claiming that there has been an increase in the number and intensity of tropical storms, directly contradicting the IPCC, which says that there is low confidence that any such increase has taken place. The book’s section on the impacts of climate change features a mind map that suggests that global warming will be worse than famine, plague or nuclear war (see Figure 1). This has been taken directly from a pamphlet published by a ‘passionate’ green activist.

 

 

 

Some geography textbooks make passing mention of the existence of dissenting points of view, but these are often then dismissed. An example comes in GCSE Geography A AQA :

 The climate is changing – global warming is happening. It’s just that a handful of people think some of the evidence isn’t great. There are other things that cause climate change, but let’s face it,we humans better take the rap this time.

Even worse was this characterisation, from A2 Level Geography AQA Complete Revision & Practice :

All scientists care about is evidence…All these graphs can be mighty confusing, especially when people manipulate the data to try to show that climate change isn’t happening.

 

Propaganda also finds its way into the Biology curriculum, in the Revision Guide:

There’s too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and burning fossil fuels…is making the problem worse. Luckily there are some biofuels out there that we can use, which are carbon neutral.

No mention is made in the guide about the damaging effect on food production.

[You might also have thought biology lessons would teach pupils that plants need CO2 to live!]

 

English lessons are not immune either!

The CGP English Revision guide for GCSE English mentions global warming three times, for example the extract shown in Table 1, explaining effective use of adjectives:

 

 

Or French!

In a Heinemann textbook for A Level French, students are asked to study an open letter by a French environmentalist to schoolchildren:

 

 

Examinations and mark schemes

Just as worrying is that mindless repetition of the global warming mantra is the fact that exam marks depend on it.

A number of examination boards have repositories of past and example papers, together with examiners’ reports and these are revealing as to the emphasis given to global warming in exams. The following section is a review of materials in the repository of the AQA exam board:

 

AQA repository

A search of the AQA past paper repository returned 526 documents containing the expression ‘global warming’ and 391 containing the expression ‘climate change’, spanning a wide range of subjects. For example, the expression ‘global warming’ could be found in papers on economics, chemistry, geography, religious studies, physics, French, humanities, biology, citizenship, English and science.

 

One example, from an Economics paper,was particularly egregious, assuming in essence that a particular political response was beyond question:

 

 Explain why developed rich countries should provide money to poorer, developing countries so that they can reduce their CO2 emissions.

 

Questions on global warming also appeared in a paper on religious studies:

 

(b) Explain two reasons why many religious believers are concerned about climate change. (4 marks) …

(d) Explain actions religious people might take to look after the planet. (3 marks)

The mark scheme for part (b) of this question suggests awarding marks for:

The effects of climate change on life, e.g. loss of life, food shortages, devastation of livelihoods because of severe weather, droughts, floods, famine, destruction of crops, effects on plants and animals/long term effects/ religious reasons – stewardship, dominion, responsibility, etc.

While for part (d), marks were to be awarded for such things as:

 Avoid polluting the world/recycle/reduce carbon footprint – reduce use of car, use renewable energy, turn off lights, use energy saving bulbs/ encourage sustainable development/plant trees/protest when necessary/ join action groups such as Greenpeace and religious organisations which raise awareness/encourage others to protect the planet, etc.

 

Global warming also featured prominently in Humanities, for example:

 2. (e) Explain two ways in which global warming can be reduced. Use your own studies to answer. (4 marks)

The marking scheme for this question suggested:

 Max 2 marks for each of the two ways:

1 mark for identification and 1 mark for explanation or development.

Ways of reducing global warming include: reducing the amount of greenhouse gases we produce; taking action through international agreements such as the Kyoto Protocols; producing energy in cleaner ways; reducing individuals’ energy consumption, e.g. by better insulation of homes, recycling, using public transport rather than our own cars.

 

 

 

Footnote

If anybody has other examples of exam questions, coursework etc, please send over, and I will post .