EPA is Putting Together a Youth Council (theverge.com) 46
The EPA is assembling its first-ever National Environmental Youth Advisory Council, a group of young people to weigh in on issues that affect their communities. From a report: "We can't tackle the environmental challenges of our time without input from our younger communities, who've long been at the forefront of social movements," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a press release yesterday. The worst effects of climate change are still ahead as greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels keep building up in Earth's atmosphere. The actions policymakers take today to curb that pollution will decide what kind of planet younger generations will inherit. So it makes sense for the EPA to create seats for them at the table.
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meh, they both completely out of touch with reality
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I love this line of reasoning and the whiplash it results in. "Let's give teenagers the right to vote! We need the Wisdom of Youth to guide us!" followed the next day by "OMFG, will you please STOP eating Tide Pods?!"
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Or...
Translation: we've already decided what we want to do, this will give us air cover because we think we can get the useful fools to agree with us.
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^^^^ +1
Just what we need- to scare and confuse children EVEN MORE. Haven't we done that enough already? And people wonder why there are so many cases of youth "anxiety" disorders.
Oh, you might really be a boy if you like to play with legos. Oh, the planet is going to die from global warming in (now + arbitrary number) years if you don't do X, Y, and Z. Oh, you are going to die from a virus that kills 0.000001% of children if you don't stay home and wear this mask. Oh, if you don't get what you want, i
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Masks were very ineffective. Especially on children. Only thing that was effective was a properly fitted N95-type respirator. Good luck getting that for/on a child.
US Teenagers Doing Constructive Stuff? (Score:1)
How will you get teenagers, especially US teenagers, away from their phones and TikTok long enough to listen much less comment ?
Imagine the types of US teenagers that decide to participate.
All the Muffys and Buffys and Brittanys and Sylvesters and Oglethorpes that will do it because it looks good on their College applications.
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As if EPA isn't retarted enough already (Score:2, Insightful)
Because, obviously, being young is somehow more important than knowledgeable about the subject.
Re:As if EPA isn't retarted enough already (Score:4, Informative)
Like it or not, those young people are sooner or later replacing you. It's important to engage them now or you have no influence over what they'll be up to when they do.
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I define "replace" here as take over your role when you're retired or dead.
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I define "replace" here as take over your role when you're retired or dead.
I'm fine if today's high school students replace me in 20 years. Of course, they won't be high school students any more.
Perhaps we need to define "youth". I think anyone under 50 is young and naïve. Which leads to a thought: can I join the youth council? If not, isn't that agism?
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Rather than get hung up in an argument over definitions, let's try to envision what we'd like to happen. When it comes time for the next generation to run things, we'd like them to be well-prepared to take responsibility.
Part of that is to be able to work with people with different priorities and values. Sure, sometimes you end up with zero sum game decisions, but a lot of time and energy is wasted, and opportunities are missed, by people talking past each other because they just can't understand someone
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Old and naïve is a thing as well. And moreso now than any previous era in human history. It used to be the world you were born in was the same world you died in. Human minds evolved to think within the framework of a static world across one lifetime. With rapid advances (and regressions) in society and technology, that's no longer the case. What you learned 80 years ago might no longer be valid.
Add to that the tendency of older people to get stuck in their ways - cutting off the possibility for an upda
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I'm fine if today's high school students replace me in 20 years. Of course, they won't be high school students any more.
Exactly, which is pretty much how, and why, it mostly works. Not like we are going to put high school students in charge of anything important ever.
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More like EPA is giving them a seat at the table given that the old farts have totally fucked up the Earth. Even then, it is only an advisory council, it isn't like they are being given the reins. But I suppose, whatever hobgobblins turn you on....
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What's more important is having a large, easily manipulated group to parrot whatever agenda you have. It's the same reason why there's a push to lower the voting age. Teenagers are very impressionable and swayed by peer pressure. They're the perfect group to mobilize and push political agendas.
Recent teacher strikes in the news were a perfect example. Students marching for their teachers to get paid more. They don't know much about the background, or about government funding, or paying taxes, but when
Easier to manipulate and indoctrinate (Score:1)
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And "Think of the children" will now also have a voice and a face to sell bullshit better. Greta was a puppet show, and it looks like we're up for season 2.
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Yes. If you think old white men run India and China.
National Environmental Youth Advisory Council (Score:2)
As long as mom can drop them off and pick them up from meetings in the Land Rover.
Danger. History calls. (Score:1)
Putting youth into what appears to be an important "have a voice" role is very dangerous, as is clearly shown in history. They're easily controlled and easily pushed into the role of shock troops. Examples include: Hitler Youth, Brownshirts, Blackshirts, and the assorted youth groups used by Lenin, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. I shouldn't need to remind anyone of such groups active in the 21st century.
Greta can be their leader (Score:1)
The government will hire a group of young people who know nothing about science or the environment and ask their opinions on how the world is being run. They can hire Greta Thunberg to be the overall sponsor for the group. It sounds like a perfect woke enterprise for the government.
Wisdom (Score:2)
If you want to really know how to run things, be sure to put children in charge. Morons.