New Zealand's school climate-change curriculum vexes farmers
06 May, 2020
A fresh school curriculum in New Zealand that tells students how to tackle climate change deniers and advises them to eat less dairy and meat has upset its farming community, which makes up the backbone of the country's economy.
Farmers say they feel targeted by the brand new course, increasing frustrations over a center-left coalition government push to allow them to reduce carbon emissions and tidy up waterways, part of an idea for the united states to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Launched in January and targeted at secondary school students in a country that celebrates its 100% pure image, the course is founded on material from leading science agencies and explains the impact of climate change and how students can contribute.
It points to intensive agriculture as one reason behind greenhouse gases and includes advice to consume less dairy and meat, have meatless days each week, eat more fruit and veggies, drive less, recycle and buy used when possible.
However, some farmers say the message is unfair.
"If they are going to continue steadily to bite the hand that feeds them, and farming feeds New Zealand, they are going to miss out in the long run," said dairy farmer Malcolm Lumsden from the country's northern Waikato region.
Agricultural goods constitute more than 60% of New Zealand's exports, with demand because of its grass-fed dairy and meat products soaring during the past decade, especially from China.
Tim van de Molen, a parliamentarian with the opposition National Party, said he has no problem with climate change being shown in schools, but the issue goes beyond farming.
"What we are seeing currently around proposals where people should be seeking to have Meatless Mondays or that dairy farming is terrible for the climate, those types of things are very opinionated and do not have a clear scientific basis," he said.
"It's clear that farming has an impact on the climate -- so does everything, therefore that's where we must be clear."
However, Green party member Lourdes Vano said she believed climate change represented a gap in the training system, and including it in the curriculum could also lessen "climate anxiety".
The course isn't compulsory and the training ministry has asked schools to talk to with parents and the city before including it.
The resource has been well received by schools, said Pauline Cleaver, Associate Deputy Secretary Early Learning Student Achievement at the Education Ministry, although she didn't give figures on how many had adopted the program.
The coalition government, which faces an election in September, has defended the new curriculum as important for children growing up worried about how exactly climate change will affect their lives.
"They see the inescapable fact that yearly they have already been alive has been among the hottest on record and they expect us to do something," Climate Change Minister James Shaw said after its launch.
Source: www.thejakartapost.com
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