Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1201983
13 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 19 JANUARY 2020 OPINION Timothy Alden tween music and spatial intelli- gence, i.e. the ability to perceive the world accurately and to form mental pictures of things. This kind of intelligence is valuable for a student (for instance, to pack the school bag needed for the day and to solve advance mathematical problems). Since it is a creative art, music helps students to think in a creative way, like solving problems by imagining various solutions, and rejecting outdated rules and as- sumptions. Music education helps students to understand themselves as well as relate to others, thereby cre- ating links with home, school and the wider world. It provides children with the discovery of other cultures and teaches them to be tolerant towards people of different cultures. This devel- opment of compassion and em- pathy, as opposed to greed and an egotistic attitude, leads to re- spect towards other races at an early age. Music education brings to- gether intellect and feeling, and enables personal expression, reflection, and emotional devel- opment. The students' challenge is to make life meaningful and to reach for a higher stage of development. Self-esteem is a by-product of this self-expres- sion. Music performance teach- es students to conquer fear and to take risks. A little anxiety is a good thing, and something that will occur often in life. Dealing with it at an early stage often makes it easier to handle lat- er on. Risk-taking is essential if students wish to fully develop their potential. Learning about music through a range of styles, genres, and traditions can also help students develop enquiring minds and learn to process in- formation, reason, question, and evaluate. All children should be incul- cated into a musical tradition sometime during their life. The phenomenon of music has tremendous benefit, amongst which it affects the psychosocial and psychophysiological equili- bration of every child. Music education should always be given the necessary importance in the curriculum and its value must not be un- derestimat- ed. WHILE people around the world have been rightfully shocked by the disastrous bushfires raging across Australia, the news is sure to affect Maltese people particu- larly, thanks to our close ties with that country through emigration. Many of us have a direct con- nection to what is happening on the other side of the world, as friends and relatives share their grief at what is so far the loss of 10.7 million hectares of land – an area amounting to the size of South Korea. At present, a megafire spanning 6,300 square kilometres has on- ly just started to spread across New South Wales and Victoria. It is estimated that over a billion animals have so far perished, and 400 million metric tons of carbon dioxide have been emitted by the fires so far, counting for a contri- bution towards climate change worth more than the emmissions of around 116 countries com- bined in a year. Though wildfires are a natural phenomenon across the world, this season's bushfires are histor- ically terrible, fuelled by record high temperatures, long-term drought, and low moisture levels in the soil and air. 2019 was a year of fire, with the Amazon rainforest suffering par- ticularly. As the burning carries over into 2020, I wish to caution Maltese and Gozitans against one of the greatest threats to our existence – propaganda. Surely enough, just as the wild- fires spread, so too did misinfor- mation. Out of the blue, articles began appearing which proposed blaming the disaster on arson. One figure which made the rounds was that 186 arson- ists had been arrested in con- nection with the wildfires, giving the impression that the bushfires were a man- made disaster of another sort. However, as always, propaganda thrives on half-truths. During the season itself, while 24 ar- rests were a c t u a l l y made in connection to arson, most such wildfires are started by lightning strikes. Most of the other arrests had taken place months before the bushfires even started, in dif- ferent parts of the country. However, vested interests who have a financial stake in prevent- ing environmental politics from succeeding have developed in- tricate strategies over the years to prevent environmental action from being taken. One of the foremost weapons of the fos- sil fuel industry in particular is disinformation and fake news, grounded in junk science. A study using bot detection tools has already revealed that the false claim about arsonists being responsible for these bush- fires are being spread by fake accounts on social media. These articles, originating from web- sites which are not to be trusted, are then picked up by regular users and are shared, going viral because of how they confirm a narrative which readers are ea- ger to believe. It is more pleasant to think that man-made climate change is not real. In truth, twelve years ago, a study on the impact of wildfires on the Australian economy by Ross Garnaut predicted accu- rately that climate change would lead to a visibly worse situation by 2020. The Garnaut Climate Change Review's stated that "fire seasons will start earlier, end slightly later, and generally be more intense" and that "This effect increases over time, but should be directly observable by 2020." Tackling the climate crisis in Australia requires citizens to grasp the tools to pick apart mis- information. It is our duty to sup- port and even inform our friends and cousins in Australia of the big picture, and how their trust is being abused by those with mon- ey. Our own politicians have a duty to push environmental policies on the international stage, as the climate crisis will affect us all. When money is allowed to sup- press science, then destructive policies follow. Lies spread like wildfires Timothy Alden is acting leader Partit Demokratiku