Eco-Terror

"I was very happy to get blown up to save the world." British schoolchild exposed to an 'environmentally sound', "satirical video.

Now that's getting right down and serious about the environment. Where else but in Britain? Which happens to be the source of some very dodgy conclusions coming out of academia, but which the United Nations in its own campaign to battle climate change has used to their fullest extent. Even while many of the conclusions have been questioned and debunked, their appropriateness sent into the garbage heap of necessary disposal.

Nothing daunted, a new propaganda arm of the U.K. government has come up with a really novel idea of insisting that by the end of 2010, Britain will effectively cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 10%. The program is fittingly titled 10:10. That's just fine for Britain, of course. Of course, there is also a quite inconvenient fact that the country remains reliant to an uncomfortable degree on coal-fired energy.

So what's this all about? Why simple enough, a hilariously amusing bit of coercion. Some, on the other hand, might not find it all that amusing, truth to tell. But the producers of the video (written by Richard Curtis; shopped around by Franny Armstrong whose movie The Age of Stupid, seemed to impress the impressionable).

The video exposes, among others, schoolchildren to the dire consequences of man-made global warming. And it asks the children who have watched the video how they personally think about the situation. Do they believe that global warming is occurring and that people should be invested in ameliorating activities?

Clearly, children respond in a manner that most likely reflects the opinions of their parents, when dinner-table discussions go the round. And clearly there must be some parents who don't agree with the theory of man-made pollution imperilling the Planet. That climate change appears to be occurring is beyond debate; that what humans do to produce energy may be causing the change not so much.

So the children who respond negatively to the message, stating they don't quite believe what the video is stating stand the risk of being blown to smithereens. Don't agree with the carbon reduction program: well you deserve what's coming to you kiddo, you're going to be blown up, and there'll be blood and guts (ugh) everywhere. That's your fate, you've chosen it.

One imagines that this little trial of amusing consequences does enhance second thoughts in the minds of the young and impressionable. On the other hand, as stated, many people thought the concept outrageous. And that to pursue schoolchildren in this manner and threaten them with this kind of reprisal wasn't all that side-splittingly funny.

"With climate change becoming increasingly threatening, and decreasingly talked about in the media, we wanted to find a way to bring this critical issue back into the headlines whilst making people laugh. " 10:10 organizers.

Amazing, people have no sense of humour nowadays have they?

"Doing nothing about climate change is still a fairly common affliction, even in this day and age. What to do with those people who are together threatening everybody's existence on the planet? Clearly we don't really think they should be blown up, that's just a joke for the mini-movie, but maybe a little amputating would be a good place to start?" Franny Armstrong

Sounds like someone in charge suffered amputation of the frontal cortex.