Essay by Eric Worrall

“… if parents do nothing, they fail their children …”

What makes a good parent? Is acting on climate change as important as love and bedtime stories?

Craig Stanbury, Monash University
Published: May 2, 2023 6.00am AEST

What makes a good parent? Most would say a good parent loves and nurtures their child with the ultimate aim of helping them flourish – now and into the future. A good parent will feed their child, give them space to play and time to use their imagination, make sure they get an education and medical care, listen to their troubles, and teach them to one day be autonomous adults. 

However, does being a good parent involve anything more than this? 

In her book, Parenting on Earth, philosopher and mother Elizabeth Cripps argues that to do right by their kids, parents must also attempt to do something about the problems caused by climate change.

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Cripps does not claim that it will be possible to do this all the time. (Climate action needs to be balanced against other duties involved in raising a child.) It may seem futile at times. But, if parents do nothing, they fail their children.

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Read more: https://theconversation.com/amp/what-makes-a-good-parent-is-acting-on-climate-change-as-important-as-love-and-bedtime-stories-202349

The suggestion that climate activism is as important as love is not only absurd, in my opinion it is dangerous.

If climate activism is as important as love, then parents who don’t show the expected level of commitment to climate activism are unfit parents.

The following was written by Tim Flannery in 2019;

Why ‘predatory’ climate deniers are a threat to our children

Tim Flannery 17 September 2019

In this age of rapidly melting glaciers, terrifying megafires and ever more puissant hurricanes, of acidifying and rising oceans, it is hard to believe that any further prod to climate action is needed.

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My children, and those of many prominent polluters and climate denialists, will probably live to be part of that grim winnowing – a world that the Alan Joneses and Andrew Bolts of the world have laboured so hard to create.

How should Australia’s parents deal with those who labour so joyously to create a world in which a large portion of humanity will perish? As I have become ever more furious at the polluters and denialists, I have come to understand they are threatening my children’s well-being as much as anyone who might seek to harm a child.

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Read more: https://reneweconomy.com.au/why-predatory-climate-deniers-are-a-threat-to-our-children-39767/

Flannery shies away from articulating the logical conclusion of his suggestion that “predatory” climate deniers are harming their own children and the children of others, but it seems pretty obvious where this is headed.

Unless we challenge this outrageous narrative, it is only a matter of time until some deep green politician advances a plan to “rescue” children from those unfit climate denier parents, by placing “predatory deniers” into the same legal category as pedophiles.