Boston Globe guest columnist, Allegra Goodman writes today:

My son's fatalism amazes me, but he's not alone in worrying that time is running out. Recently, one of my friends told me that her son can't sleep because he is so anxious about global warming. Other friends try to shield their children from watching storms on the evening news. Was it so long ago that weather was the safe subject for conversations? For our children the forecast evokes the horsemen of the apocalypse: Conquest, War, Famine, and Death. It's not clear to me that global warming causes every natural disaster, but in a child's mind, climate change and horrific weather go together. Icebergs are melting. The sea level is rising. Entire island chains are disappearing. Tsunamis wipe out villages.
"I take out books on global warming from the library," my friend told me, "and I always turn to the back and show my son the section where it says 'How you can help.' But he doesn't find any of the suggestions comforting."

No, our children are not easily comforted, and our attempts - Reduce, reuse, and recycle! - don't speak to their profound fear. During the Cold War, children worried about nuclear annihilation. Today they believe we will destroy the planet before we have a chance to destroy each other. I'm impressed by the time frame of their nightmares. My son is convinced that in his lifetime he will see the world thawed, warmed, and thoroughly cooked.

Goodman asks:

Where does environmental awareness come from? The Internet, Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," lessons about ecology at school. Yes, all of these play their part, and I'm proud of my children for knowing and caring about the planet. But where does environmental anxiety come from? That's a more complicated question. Storms and sudden earthquakes are terrifying in themselves, but I think it's the aftermath that really frightens children. Tsunamis drown families in Indonesia. Classrooms bury students in China. Levees fail. The evacuation plan doesn't work. Billions in federal funds cannot fix New Orleans, where the mayor admitted to citizens that there were no safeguards in place against Hurricane Gustav. Apparently the best recourse for natural disaster is to run for our lives. Our government proves ill-prepared. The junta in Burma looks downright evil - refusing international aid after a cyclone, and starving its own citizens. Watching the resulting chaos erodes our children's belief that adults will protect them.

She seems to be on the right track here. I mean, she mentions An Inconvenient Truth for creating this "environmental awareness" that has terrified these children, but it doesn't quite compute with her that there is something obviously wrong here with the message being conveyed, and the messenger conveying it. Does it not occur to her that the environmental alarmist's over-the-top predictions of doom and Gore's "over-representation of factual presentations..." has manifested itself into a form of child abuse? Gore should be held legally responsible for his actions.

There's a fairly simple solution for Ms. Allegra to calm down her son and ease his eco-anxiety. She should inform her son that the world has not warmed since 1998, and has actually cooled a bit. When I told my 10 year-old (who was somewhat worried about global warming) this, her reply was:

Really? Then why is everybody so worried about global warming?!

Problem solved.

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