Compassion for the Children

The world of climate change activism is a funny place. My husband (and guest blogger a couple of weeks ago), Dr. Peter Carter, creates educational movies on the science of climate change. Every time he posts a new one or even an updated one, some denier/skeptic/crank is there within half an hour with an idiotic comment.

Turns out that this commenter (I'm sure it's the same guy) found Dr. Carter's post on my blog, so now we know for sure that he (not sure why I assume it's a he) is trolling for my husband's contributions and targeting them. This is my blog, of course, and so I don't have to publish this fellow's comment (it's so illogical and dorky), but I'd like to use part of it as a jumping off point for this week's blog. Here's an excerpt:

"I think compassion is highly desirable for the children who have been scared by unscrupulous alarmism such as can be found in [name of famous climate change movie] ...."

Now, I find it interesting that this person can find it in his heart to feel compassion for children who have been scared, but not for children who have lost their loved ones or their own lives, their food security and water sources, their homes or entire homelands due to the ravages of the climate change emergency. How can one's compassion be so circumscribed? How can one's view of the world be so limited? How can one be so attached to one's position that one is not willing to look/see beyond it?

Those who know me know that I do not "alarm" children about global warming and climate change (I don't even talk to them about it), and frankly I have little success alarming those who should be alarmed: their parents and grandparents. But let us not, Mr. Troll, EVER mistake where our compassion should be aimed. Not when hundreds of thousands of children have already truly suffered and continue to suffer. Raising the alarm about something alarming is not alarmism. And what is unscrupulous is that multitudes of people like yourself refuse to make changes today for the sake of the children's future.