Holy Joules. What does drive the Government’s Climate Change Office? Well, of course we all know energy drives everything. There’s a thought. What cosmic images of energy does the Office evoke? Do they fill our children with a vision of the abundance of energy and a sense of choice of the forms of it they can use. Or do they preach the deprivation and despair evoked by certain commerical sectors.
JOURNEY index Look back to 3 Next: Chapter 7
Teachers: The Principle of the Conservation of Energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, neither conserved nor wasted. It also states that energy can be transformed. The Climate Change booklet confuses energy and the forms it takes. It is more helpful to teach that energy comes in many forms and we should think about conserving those forms that are particularly useful to us.
Also be mindful that the language used in the booklet evokes images of energy that work to further the interests of the fossil-fuel/main-grid sectors at the expense of the environment. Check out Chapter Two via JOURNEY index where Bonus Joules attempts to make sense of the concept that humans can conserve or save energy.
Cosmic Joke? Bad Message?
New Zealand Minstry for the Environment -Climate Change Office Resource for Primary Schools
See how many flaws you can find in this cartoon.
Warning:
This is a very potent cartoon and will make a lifelong impact on students. The image it generates will be almost impossible to erase..
HINTS re flaws
Human induced Climate change = Increased thermal flows and activity, not a state of reduced convection as in a blanket.
NZ is an oasis of blue-green cool?
(Fact: We are a very high level net emitter of Warmer Trace Gases and have the
highest methane emissions per head of population in the world. A large
proportion of these are from industries that have taken the place of the
national forests burned down in the last 150 years i.e. destroyed carbon sinks.)
Earth gets sick if humans destroy the balances that sustain us?
Does the sun care not whether we live or
die?
(We can use solar energy to enhance and to destroy our lives.)
Where is the mention of by far the dominant
Warmer Trace Gas?
(Water Vapour).
The cartoon evokes images of the atmosphere as
a greenhouse. How does this impact on students' understanding of best uses of
air in insulation and its use in our dwellings?
(Blankets suppress air movement by thermal transfer by convection and exploits
airs low capacity for thermal transfer by conduction.)
This is an education resource attempting to communicate human’s role in the global thermal balance. (Should not the focus be on our behaviour and the impact of our activities on the biosphere balances that sustain us?)
This is just a cartoon?
Chapter Six - Land of the Lost Trace Gases -Is Life a Cosmic Joke?
Bonus Joules and the Knowledge Economy: All images on this site are copyright.