sawyl | Fear, uncertainty, doubt and climate change (Reply)

Among the kerfuffle surrounding the release of the UKCP09 predictions, I noticed this from Björn Lomborg on the Guardian's blog:

But the worst cost of exaggeration [of climate change], I believe, is the unnecessary alarm that it causes – particularly among children. Recently, I discussed climate change with a group of Danish teenagers. One of them worried that global warming would cause the planet to "explode" – and all the others had similar fears.

While I agree with Lomberg that there seems to be a lot of sloppy thinking and reporting surrounding climate change — although this is more a feature of science reporting in general than climate reporting in particular — and I agree that the level of the debate should be raised, I don't think that his "won't someone please think of the children" argument cuts any ice.

If, as he claims, Danish teenagers believe that climate change will destroy the world, then the solution is clearly to improve education, not to pretend the issue doesn't exist. If children aren't taught to consider the evidence when considering the validity of a particular scientific claim, is it any wonder that they're quite so willing to accept truth by authority?