The issue of climate change continues to dominate the political discourse, with the ban on wood-burning stoves in new-builds claiming many column inches over recent days.
Last week a report published for the Scottish Parliament’s net zero committee called for compulsory lessons on climate change in all Scotland’s primary and secondary schools.
Today one of our readers expresses his concern at the suggestion.
Allan Sutherland of Stonehaven writes:
"I read your article about the Scottish Climate Change People's Panel report and its recommendation that lessons on the topic should be compulsory in all schools.
I'm naturally sceptical about all this; it seems a bit like indoctrination, not education, especially at a time when basic education standards are slipping. I'm also a bit suspicious of the boast that the members are randomly selected members of the public with little knowledge of the subject before participating and therefore perhaps not equipped to evaluate the objectivity of their briefings.
I don't suppose there was or will be much discussion about how much climate change is actually man-made, or whether Scotland, which only produces 0.1% of global warming, would be better preparing for the effects of global change, such as flood, coastal erosion and mass immigration from countries devastated by the looming disaster.
Having said that, much of the content on the panel website raised some hope that at least the Scottish Government's policies, performance regarding missed targets and job creation and botched legislation may be scrutinised.
It's also reassuring that the eminently sensible MSP Edward Mountain is convener of the Net Zero, Energy & Transport Committee that will discuss the panel's report. Commenting on the report he reminded us that “just last month the Climate Change Committee said that Scotland’s 2030 climate goals are no longer credible".
Hopefully, however we will have moved on from a previous attempt to influence young minds when Al Gore's since-discredited "Inconvenient Truth" film was shown in schools across the UK."
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