Children of activists generally learn early not to depend on their parents for amusement. Long-ago there were the “red diaper” babies of committed Communists whose sense of fun stretched from struggle all the way to Leninist reading circles. Now spare a thought for the kids of climate zealots at a “climate camp” described by Cara Buckley at the New York Times “Climate Forward” where “Kids squirted one another with water at the stadium’s water-bottle refill station, learned about local environmental causes at nearby information tables and raced about in team jerseys made of recycled fabric and T-shirts reading ‘Climate Action Now.’” Wheeee! But what is one to make of “An ode to joy, in climate action”? Is it Beethoven’s IX symphony played on a kazoo or even trumpet made of recycled plastic bottles?
Buckley starts her piece on a distinctly cheery note:
“Reporting on climate change isn’t exactly uplifting. After all, the climate crisis is one of the scariest existential issues of our time.”
No it isn’t. Not compared to a nuclear-armed Iran, the demographic crash of the West, the revolt of our elites or even the counter-revolt by Donald Trump. Nor are we sure what the scariest non-existential issues might be, or the least scary existential ones. Perhaps the state of journalism. But we digress.
The point is, at Camp Climate fun is apparently not optional. You see:
“there I was at a recent soccer game in Burlington, to see a team called the Vermont Green, in the middle of an ebullient scene that showed that climate awareness could actually be really fun.”
Yeah, no. Nothing quite like learning about local causes at an information table and wearing recycled fabric to put your summer into overdrive. And you’d better:
“The notion that joy is integral to fomenting action or shifting behavior isn’t a new one, but it’s one that, on its face, seems intensely at odds with the grim reality of climate change. Several Vermont Green fans told me that finding joy was essential to climate action because it helped build resilience.”
And you can just feel the joy. Who among us doesn’t want to build resilience? Except when it comes to the economy, where preparing to adapt to bad weather, even if it gets worse or does something unexpected is no good, and we must instead wreck our way of life by destroying its affordable, reliable energy base just in case.
We do feel pity for these kids, who at least seem to have their priorities right.
“Of course many, perhaps even most, of the people at the Vermont Green game were probably there primarily out of a love for soccer. But another fan, Eli Scheer, said that fans’ energy could be harnessed to advance the club’s climate mission.”
Which has, of course, that unmistakeable red tinge:
“’Soccer is the conduit to building this community, and the community is what allows the climate, and antiracist social mission, to speak to all these people who will show up because of soccer,’ Scheer said. ‘I don’t think people come here for the climate mission,’ they continued. ‘I think they come for the community and the fun and the game and the event. I think that’s the Trojan horse for the climate mission.’”
The Trojan horse? Say. Wasn’t that the trick that fooled people into letting their city be destroyed and their people ravaged, slain and enslaved? Oh heh heh that Trojan horse. No see ours is a totally cool gift. Pay no attention to those Cassandras over at CDN.
Remember also Winston Churchill’s definition of the fanatic as “one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” Roger Pielke Jr. recently reposted an older item from his archives “Top Five Climate Change Narratives in the Media” that underline the grinding sameness of their conversation. (Which has nothing, we hasten to add, with our having been right about things years ago and reminding you. That really is fun… for us anyway.)
Thus bring up ticks and they growl “climate change”. Maple syrup? “climate change”. European defence? Climate change. (As in “Defense Budgets Need to Fight War and Climate Change, Experts Say”.) Christmas? Climate change. It turns your tree brown. Oh, the times they have. Just as back in Stalin’s day it was capitalism ruining everything including the weather. Oh wait. Still is, they snarl grimly.
P.S. At least a recent Canadian Conference of Defence Associations email didn’t try to pretend it was fun: “The CDA Institute's Climate Security Programme is pleased to launch its new Special op-ed Series on The Role of Climate Change in Evolving Canada-U.S. Relations. The series aims to explore the interplay of climate change and the bilateral relationship, and will feature a range of authoritative Canadian and American perspectives on this critical intersection.” Or at any event the kind of fun where kids squirt one another with water bottles. More the kind where adults eat stale Danishes under artificial lights while discussing the journalistically infamous “worthwhile Canadian initiative”. There’s a very Canadian joke about going to a fight and having a hockey game break out. But these days go to a soccer game and a climate conference breaks out. It’s not the same.
