Climate Change for Kids!

I chose the EPA's climate change for kids site. I thought it would be interesting to see how the government presents this "debate" to the younger generation:

http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/kids/change.html

In "State of Fear" Crichton presents the reader with, to use the term very liberally, science. He claims that he has no agenda but instead just wants to inform the reader of the hard facts behind climate change/global warming. What I found interesting when the viewing the EPA's climate change site for kids was that the "science" used was very similar in wording to Crichton's, which is to say that it was simple, straight to the point and exciting! Of course I'm being a little bit simplistic here, but the point is that neither of the two are actually written for scientists, but instead a less educated and fundamentally simpler crowd.

Like we've been talking about this entire class, the science cannot escape the politics. The fact that much of the evidence of climate changed can be viewed as ambiguous makes it easy to hijack and use to promote a politics. In this case simple illustrations of a surfer cresting a large wave is used to show rising sea levels. See, isn't learning about global warming fun! Along with illustrations there are interactive games and quizzes. These are obviously designed to not only inform children but also to be used as resources for teachers. Here we can see that by using all of these tools to inform the idea and science behind global warming will begin to spread. By making these resources available and easy to use, it makes it that much easier for our youth to understand global warming and begin making easy simple changes. Like: "turn off your tv when you're done" or "Make sure all the lights are off when you leave". These messages have been around for awhile, but now they've been attached to the idea of global warming.