Listened to the What Bitcoin Did episode with @petermccormack and @dsbatten today. Very interest points were made, and I have a great deal of respect for the work both of them do.

The one red flag that went off in my mind was when Daniel mentioned that he had been interested in climate activism from as early as age 4, and had been a participant as early as age 10 or 11.

All children should care about the world they live in, but it undermines some of the credibility of the viewpoint of climate catastrophe when public schools are teaching it to children at such a young age. I know this because I experienced it. As a third grader, I was ahead of my classmates, and I was instructed to do side projects like create climate change PowerPoints and write a global warming book. I had barely figured out the tooth fairy wasn’t real and I was already being told that:

1. The Earth is being destroyed

2. We are causing it

3. We need to reduce our energy consumption to save it

Not only did this change my perception of reality and cause me a lot of anxiety and depression, but it also led to me forming a bias towards “doom science” where I believed a lot of negative predictions about the future which were not based on data or evidence, but instead based on what my teachers and community leaders would tell me.

Every winter, I would be upset and concerned if it didn’t snow enough, and every summer, I would worry about how hot it was. Not based on any logic, but instead based on the feeling that I still had from my childhood where I had been taught that “the world as we know it is going to end.” This continued up until age 20.

Discovering Bitcoin and the work of @saifedean allowed me to revisit the issue, and approach it again from both a scientific perspective, and a philosophical perspective. The mantra “Don’t Trust, Verify” empowered me to look further into claims of doom and see what was the perspective behind them.

I have since concluded that, no, in fact the world is not going to end. Yes, there are things we need to do to protect the planet we live on, and yes, taking care of the environment and the elements we emit into the atmosphere is a part of that.

But in terms of the problems that an everyday individual faces in our lives, the climate has never been empirical LESS of a problem than it is today. And to reallocate trillions of dollars, the labor of millions, and the focus of the world to climate alarmism has done real harm.

I don’t think it would have happened if it wasn’t for people like myself, Daniel, and many other children in my generation being fed prophecies of doom at a young age. Most people in my peer group simply accept that the world is being destroy and that it’s our fault as a fact of life, and I don’t think that’s right.

It’s incredibly hard to change a perspective one has held for their whole lives. Religions survive by getting children to believe their myths at a young age. Cults survive by getting members to believe their doctrines at young age. Horrible government regimes have historically all functioned by capturing the hearts and minds of the youth and convincing a generation of people to believe something which goes against their best interest, or against a just moral code in order to serve the interests of the state.

There are real problems which need to be studied and solved through the scientific process. I’m not claiming it is all a cult, but I am asking for two things:

1. Do not teach doom prophecies to young children. Even if they are 100% true, these problems need to be addressed by adults. It is horrible for the mind of a child to believe the world is doomed. It reminds me a lot of how certain religions use the concept of hell as a way to scare children into believing their teachings.

2. If you grew up believing a doom prophecy as a child, take some time and seriously examine it. At worst, you will validate the beliefs you’ve already had and waste a bit of time verifying.

Here is an interview I conducted in the Spring of 2009, at age 8, discussing global warming.