The belle epoque of environmental paranoia arrives in earnest as an expert witness aged five challenges PBS refusal to extend the Panda Climate Angst franchise to our friend, the Giant Weasel of Sikkim:
Kids’ TV Is Ignoring Climate Change
Shows like Nature Cat and Sid the Science Kid teach children everything about wildlife and the environment—with one glaring exception.
By Melinda Wenner Moyer
A
cheetah can run 70 miles per hour. Venus and Earth are about the same size. Blobfish don’t have any bones.
These are facts I’ve learned from my 5-year-old in the past several weeks courtesy of the science- and nature-themed television shows he loves: Wild Kratts, Nature Cat, Blaze and the Monster Machines, and Octonauts. He is an erupting volcano of scientific trivia right now, so I was surprised the other day when I mentioned climate change and he said: “What’s that?”
After a few more questions, I discovered that he’s never heard any of his favorite science shows mention climate change or global warming. Which is strange, because according to overwhelming scientific consensus, climate change is one of the most important environmental issues of our time. It affects wildlife, natural resources, weather, and human health, all of which are regularly discussed on kids’ shows.
My son can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about red pandas, except for the fact that their very existence is being threatened by the changing climate
The green Wikipedia grinches beg to differ :
The red panda has been classified as Endangered by the IUCN because its wild population is estimated at less than 10,000 mature individuals and continues to decline due to habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching, and inbreeding depression, ... the results of phylogenetic analysis provide strong support for its taxonomic classification in its own family Ailuridae, which, along with the weasel, raccoon and skunk families is part of the superfamily Musteloidea
Though no one could mistake this mighty mustelid for the giant panda of National Zoo, WWF-logo & Kung Fu fame, a local name has made the browsing creature famous. Behold the Firefox!
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| The NY Times reports one of the existenially threatened cratures roams the suburbs of D.C. having escaped a Virginia zoo; while others are on the loose and in active competition with the fauna of Britain & New Zealand. Heaven help the coyote who runs into one. |
