at least we can turn up the heat

Yesterday started out warm, but wet, but as the day wore on and I took/picked up each child from their public school classes it got progressively foggier and colder. We didn't light the woodstove, but I kept the house at a relatively toasty 63F. I thought I was being frugal until I read this account this morning of a headmaster at a school in England who, for the sake of curbing imaginary man-made global warming, turned off the heat for a day. 

Pupils shivered in coats, hats and scarves as temperatures fell to just 1°C (34°F).

"Nobody could work properly and kids could not even grip a pen through their gloves." The mum of a 12-year-old at Ansford Academy in Castle Cary, Somerset, said: "She was shaking when she came home. I was absolutely furious."

But Mr Benzie, 52, defended the "successful" experiment last Friday — locally the coldest day of the winter so far — and vowed to stage regular "eco-days" at the 640-pupil school.

He said: "We cut the heat to see if we can lower our carbon footprint. We let pupils wear as many jumpers as they liked.

My favorite line, which is just what I imagine some Occupy XYZ protesters would come up with:

"The idea was actually thought up by a small number of pupils from our student eco-group."