Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : The Environmentalist Thread -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (34131)	6/28/2011 4:26:52 PM
From: average joe	Respond to of 36921

Environmental Literacy is just another name for sensitivity training. en.wikipedia.org Sensitivity Training is a form of training that claims to make people more aware of their own prejudices, and more sensitive to others. According to its critics, it involves the use of psychological techniques with groups that its critics, e.g. G. Edward Griffin, claim are often identical to brainwashing tactics. Critics believe these techniques are unethical. According to his biographer, Alfred J Marrow, Kurt Lewin laid the foundations for sensitivity training in a series of workshops he organised in 1946 to carry out a 'change' experiment, in response to a request from the Director of the Connecticut State Interracial Commission. This led to the founding of the National Training Laboratories in Bethel, Maine in 1947. Kurt Lewin, who met Eric Trist in 1933, influenced the work of the London Tavistock Clinic, both in its work with soldiers during the second world war and in its later work with the Journal Human Relations jointly founded by a partnership of the Tavistock Institute and Lewin's group at MIT. The nature of modern Sensitivity Training appears to be in some dispute. Its modern critics portray its origins and function in negative terms. Others view the approach as benignly beneficial in many of its historical and contemporary implementations. During World War II, Psychologists like Carl Rogers in the USA and William Sargant, John Rawlings Rees, and Eric Trist in Britain were used by the military to help soldiers deal with traumatic stress disorders (then known as Shell Shock). This work, which required service to large numbers of patients by a small number of therapists and necessarily emphasized rapidity and effectiveness helped spur the development of group therapy as a treatment technique. Rogers and others evolved their work into new forms including encounter groups designed for persons who were not diagnosably ill but who were recognized to suffer from widespread problems associated with isolation from others common in American society. Other leaders in the development of Encounter Groups, including Will Schutz, centered their work at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California. Meanwhile, Training Groups or T-Groups were being developed at the National Training Labs, now part of the National Education Association. Over time the techniques of T-Groups and Encounter Groups have merged and divided and splintered into specialized topics, seeking to promote sensitivity to others perceived as different and seemingly losing some of their original focus on self-exploration as a means to understanding and improving relations with others in a more general sense.

To: longnshort who wrote (34131)	6/28/2011 8:19:36 PM
From: average joe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 36921

Australia academics blast UK lord over Hitler jibe (AFP) – 19 hours ago SYDNEY — Dozens of Australian academics signed a letter Tuesday demanding a lecture by British climate sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton be axed after he compared the country's climate adviser to Hitler. The open letter calls on Australia's Notre Dame University to cancel a lecture by Monckton Thursday, saying he stood for "the kind of ignorance and superstition that universities have a duty to counter". "In hosting this lecture, Notre Dame University is undermining the academic community," the letter, seen by AFP, said. The letter, started by Natalie Latter, a PhD student examining global ethics and climate change, has been penned as Monckton prepares to give a speech targeting the government's proposal for a carbon tax. He is on a tour of Australia at the invitation of the "Climate Sceptics" -- a political party registered ahead of last year's national elections . The speech is entitled "A Carbon Tax Will Bankrupt Australia". The letter said Monckton's appearance was "betraying the integrity of our scientists and those who struggle to communicate the facts about climate change to the public. "It is completely unacceptable for a university to be tacitly endorsing the views of an individual such as Lord Monckton. Our universities must have higher standards than this." Monckton said last week during a speech in Los Angeles that Australia's top climate advisor, economist Ross Garnaut, held fascist views and expected people to "accept authority without question". He then said "Heil Hitler, on we go" in a mock German accent while a swastika appeared on a screen by him. Climate scientists at some of Australia's top universities have had to shift into high-security premises in recent months following death threats and harassment sparked by intense debate over the government's pollution tax. The comments by Monckton, an outspoken former science adviser to former British PM Margaret Thatcher, reinforced the need for a stand against him, the letter added. "We all support academic freedom and the freedom to express our ideas and beliefs," it said. "However, Notre Dame University has a responsibility to avoid promoting discredited views on an issue of public risk. "Notre Dame's invitation to Lord Monckton makes a mockery of academic standards and the pursuit of evidence-based knowledge." Monckton's remarks were also condemned by Prime Minister Julia Gillard as inappropriate and highly offensive, and opposition leader Tony Abbott rejected the comparison as "over the top". google.com