A screen shot from the “calculator.” Click Here to view enlargement.
An ABC website has been accused of portraying farmers and forestry workers as evil and telling kids how much carbon they can produce before they die.
The Planet Slayer website, which can be accessed via the science section on the ABC home page, also demonises people who eat meat and those involved in the nuclear industry, a Senate estimates committee heard.
The site has several features including a cartoon series, Adventures of Greena, and a tool called Prof Schpinkee’s Greenhouse Calculator to help kids work out their carbon footprint.
The calculator lets users compare their own carbon output to the “average Aussie greenhouse pig” and estimates at what age a person should die so they don’t use more than their fair share of the Earth’s resources.
Too much carbon production causes a cartoon pig to explode, leaving behind a pool of blood.
Victorian Liberal senator Mitch Fifield today questioned the accuracy and appropriateness of some of the imagery and content on the website.
“I know there’s a little bit of goth in all of us, but this might be taking it just a little too far,” Senator Fifield said of the quasi life-expectancy calculator.
“Do you think it’s appropriate that the ABC portray the average Australian as a pig and is it appropriate for a website obviously geared towards kids to depict people who are average Australians as massive overweight ugly pigs, oozing slime from their mouths, and then to have these pigs blow up in a mass of blood and guts?”
Comments (2)
This is sick.
Posted by William Wallace | May 31, 2008 10:47 PM
Posted on May 31, 2008 22:47
Wow. What a depressing thing for kids to have to worry over. When I was kid my biggest concern was missing The Dukes of Hazzard or loosing my Star Wars figures.
Posted by Drake | June 4, 2008 4:10 PM
Posted on June 4, 2008 16:10