As news of climate change projections go from bad to worse, it’s natural to wonder and worry about what the future will hold.
As NASA outlined , global temperature increases, rising ocean levels, increasingly acidic oceans, declining ice stores, and a spike in extreme weather events like hurricanes all have major implications for our future way of life.
And given that these problems started ramping up during the Industrial Revolution and continue to accelerate with each passing year, it’s become increasingly hard to deny the impact of global human-engineered developments on this process.
Yet, this evidence hasn’t convinced everyone of the human role in these observable changes, nor that they will lead to the drastic projected impacts. One Australian dad seems to be among them, and he saw something insidious about a school’s decision to teach his son otherwise.
Back in September, 10-year-old Max Karlos’ teacher at Bilambil Public School had a special day planned.
As The Daily Mail reported , all the kids were asked to dress like hippies so they could come together and sing the Joni Mitchell song, “Big Yellow Taxi.”
A lot of Max’s classmates were excited about the chance to dress up, but he felt differently.
He had said, “What’s so good about that? There’s nothing good about that,” at the time and later went on to say, “We shouldn’t be worrying about the end of the world.”
Max’s father, Matt, agreed and told the principal that he thought the idea was inappropriate.
He told The Daily Mail that he didn’t like the idea of his son’s class dressing as “a bunch of dole-bludging, drug-taking hippies who strap themselves to roads and do nothing with their lives.”
It’s important to note, however, that Matt’s experiences while battling his city council over water mining on his family’s property might some some influence on his opinion.
As he said, “There are about 50 of them on our road all the time, protesting against my family’s water company — we go past them everyday so Max knows what they’re about, and he’s not interested.”
That said, Matt added that it was Max who wished to change schools after the Dress Like A Hippy Day.
As he put it, “Max is pretty head-strong and sure of himself — a lot like me — and after the hippy thing he was done, and wanted to change schools.”
Although the family have yet to find a replacement school, Matt figures that one in Queensland, Australia might prove a better fit for his son.
In addition to his expressing his distaste for hippies, Matt also took issue with what he saw as fear mongering.
He said, “The teachers are making the kids terrified of the future — they’re scaring them by telling them mankind caused climate change — the ideologies were in his face all the time.”
In response, a representative from the New South Wales Department of Education told The Daily Mail that no political content is being taught to students.
h/t: The Daily Mail
