The American Spectator

Special Report

Is there anything funnier to most high school kids than farts? Discomfiting noises accompanied by tear-inducing odors -- nothing induces teen hysterics more easily than flatulence.

So you have to admire the simple genius of the recently formed Alliance for Climate Education, which has concocted an appealing formula to reach youth for their cause: 1. School assemblies that get them out of class; 2. Twenty-something educators articulate in teen-speak; 3. Hip, amusing animation; 4. Farts.

How does it work? You can learn a lot by watching ACE's trailer -- steeped in global warming alarmism -- which includes representative segments of their presentation. ACE promises a "high school assembly experience that will activate, educate, inspire, your school to create a future safe from climate change."

The group has enlisted a battalion of "educators"  to fan out (so far) into schools across five metropolitan areas: San Francisco/Oakland, Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago and Boston. Most of the hires appear to be drawn from the recently graduated and/or eco-activist ranks.

The educator featured in ACE's YouTube trailer is Ambessa Contave, described as "a ten-year veteran of The Bay Area's art, non-profit, environmental justice and activism." He is also half of a rap duo called Fiyawata, and promotes his causes via hip-hop festival called "Grind for the Green." Contave's website explains:

"Our music is high frequency medicinal erotic sorcery that sways humanity into cosmic ecstasy." Indeed, Fiyawata's music is utterly compelling, luring the listener into a transcendent trance. There is fun to be had here, but this is an experience that extends well beyond mere entertainment. For Fiyawata, music is a being that makes the listener feel "ecstatic, energetic, all-powerful, vibrant and like God."

Not surprising, then, that Contave and ACE would have such success inspiring high school students. "This is probably the most amazing forum…introduction…anything that they could see on global warming," said an enthusiastic teen girl struggling for appropriate words. "I' ve never seen anything better than this." Another young fellow said, "I was really inspired by it. Like, it just got me so pumped."

Must be compelling, so let's return to Contave and the ACE alarmism template, which of course demonizes greenhouse gases emitted by fossil fuel combustion (cars, power plants, big factories). Among the propaganda, accompanied by spiffy cartooning:

• "You see, in 2009 we've inherited an America that's all about LIVIN' LARGE!"

• "Do you believe it takes the regular American teenager just like you 23 football fields [presumably the "carbon footprint"] of space just to live?"

• "What nobody can see is living large yanks up that thermostat quickly towards, well, way too high."

• "The heat we're feeling right now is from the carbon that was pretty much produced in the 1950s. And then we changed hairstyles and produced more in the 1960s…(and so on through the 70s, 80s, 90s)…and now it's like a carbon party!"

Then comes the flatulence.

"Who knows about those farting cows?" says Contave. "Give it up for the farting cows. [Animated bovines drop into view and start their "emissions"] Every time a cow farts and burps, which is all the time, it lets out a super greenhouse gas called methane, which is 26 times as powerful as carbon in trapping heat."

This is the prelude to a barrage of lies from the ACE educator, such as "you guys have lived through the ten hottest years ever recorded in history" (not true) and "we're in the middle of this planetary emergency" (a fearmongering statement designed to motivate undiscerning youth).

So if this is truly a collaborative effort as the name "Alliance for Climate Education" implies, you'd think several entities joined forces to fund the effort, right? But that doesn't appear to be the case.

According to a July report in the climate paranoia publication Grist, ACE is "funded solely" by wind energy entrepreneur Michael Haas, president of Orion Energy LLC. In late 2006 Haas hit the jackpot when BP Alternative Energy, a subsidiary of the petroleum refining giant, bought his company and allowed him to continue to operate under their wing. Haas said at the time, "We must all do more to limit our future carbon emissions. This transaction greatly enhances Orion's ability to meet the challenge of bringing wind-powered electric generation to the marketplace."

Haas was a generous donor to President Obama. Records show he gave $4,600 to the campaign in March 2008 and $20,000 to the Obama Victory Fund in October. It shouldn't surprise that Haas would so heavily support the candidate who said last year, "under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket." That holds promise for Big Wind, which stands to reap millions of dollars in government subsidies and mandates thanks in part to higher energy costs.

Now outside an election year, Haas has turned his attention to the next generation. His minions at ACE seek permission from school boards to "build on education to engage and empower students to take action" on global warming. The goal is to reach 140,000 American high school students by December 31.

Last week many parents were upset by the "I Pledge" video shown in a Utah school and by President Obama's planned speech to schoolchildren this week. Add ACE to that indoctrination list.