Mixing children and climate change produces a volatile cocktail. Not because children can't readily grasp the complexities and implications of the science per se, but because some parents, given their own prejudices about climate science, will inevitably view such instruction as politicised indoctrination.

Does this mean, as some ideologues/zealots in the US are now arguing, that the topic of climate change, alongside evolution, should be banned from lessons? Of course not; that would be absurd, given the weighting the subject is now accorded by the adult world, not least the scientific community.

But, as I have written before, working out how you go about discussing climate change with children is a vexing debate, given that it inevitably sucks into the discourse issues beyond just the science.

Choosing a strategy for tackling this multi-faceted subject in the classroom is one thing. But schools are only one – albeit a hugely important one – source of knowledge for children. Whether we like it or not, children's television is where many of our kids glean a significant proportion of their learning, too.

It is, therefore, noteworthy that CiTV, the children's arm of ITV (the UK's oldest and most-viewed terrestrial commercial network), is set to feature a new series called Mission: Green Santa, during the run-up to Christmas. This is how the media news site How-do.co.uk is reporting it:

The new 10-part children's show, Mission: Green Santa, has been licensed to ITV and in each 12-minute episode, climatologist and amateur reporter, Dr Maurice Bergs will tell children about the dangers and global warming and encourage them to log onto the Green Santa website to make an environmental pledge. The programmes will include interviews with Santa's helpers and live links to schools taking part across the UK. Dr Bergs is played by newcomer Ben Faulks, who stars alongside Anita Dobson, as Mrs Santa. Mission: Green Santa is produced by Patrick Egerton and directed by its co-creators Danny Brooke Taylor (creative director at MCBD) and Colin Offland, Chief's managing director. Matt Baker is the writer. It was licensed for CiTV by Jamila Metran. The series kicks off on 13 December and will run until Christmas eve.

For those of you who recognise the Green Santa idea, it was originally thought up in December 2008, when Love joined forces with Chief to launch the then web-only initiative to get children interested in green issues.

Over at the website for Chief Productions, the Manchester-based production company responsible for the series, this is how the programme is being described:

Dr Maurice Bergs is a climate scientist and he's discovered something truly shocking that he needs to tell the world. We know the ice-caps are melting, and that it's all our fault. But did we know that global warming is threatening Christmas itself? Why? Because Santa's ice runway is melting too. If it gets much shorter, then Santa's sleigh won't make the take-off on Christmas eve and good children across the world will go without their presents. The objective of Green Santa is to engage kids with the story of Santa's melting runway and then encourage them to make online pledges to save energy in their homes and schools. Kids will be given direct feedback on the positive impacts of their pledges and will be kept up to date on what's going on at Santa's compound. Get involved at www.green-santa.com [not yet live].

This description alone is sure to raise hackles is certain predictable corners. But, for somewhat different reasons, I have to say that I'm also not convinced that this is an entirely sensible way of getting children interested in the topic of climate change.

The three-minute trailer for the programme appeases me a little given that the presentation style is clearly light-hearted and self-mocking, but the central premise that climate change is melting Santa's runway and, therefore, could, if you don't make a pledge, result in a lack of Christmas presents (which, of course, will be advertised to the young viewers in the ad breaks!) is, in my view, an unhelpful blancmange of psychophysical triggers and one that is dangerously close to warrant being labelled emotional blackmail.

Surely, we've learned the lesson by now that scaring people into action has been shown to rarely work in the long term? If any lesson was learned through the Department for Energy and Climate Change's ill-judged Act on C02 "Bedtime Stories" adverts, then this was it.

I asked Adam Corner, a research associate in the Understanding Risk research group at Cardiff University, to watch the trailer and offer his own view. Corner specialises in the "application of psychological and social scientific research to practical questions such as the effective communication of climate change, and the psychological barriers to engaging in pro-environmental behaviours".

This is what he told me afterwards:

Children learn through stories – and so trying to weave climate change into stories that children already understand, like Santa and his sleigh, is an important idea. The danger – as shown by the Act On CO2 "bedtime story" advert – is that scaring children to care about climate change can be counter-productive, not least because their parents resent it. Is threatening kids that their presents won't be delivered unless they save energy at home really the best approach? People respond better to being shown what to do than they do to being told what to do. What if Santa was shown setting a good example for children? Showing a much-loved (and respected) figure being concerned and making changes to his routine because of climate change might be a more palatable message for kids and adults than the threat of no presents.

I also asked Alice Bell, a senior teaching fellow in science communication at Imperial College London, to view the trailer. Her areas of interest include: "Young people's relationships with science, the way science is shared online, public engagement with science/science policy and science in popular culture."

This is what she told me:

Targeting children as an audience for climate change communication isn't new. I have a copy of the 1990 Blue Peter Green Book sitting on my desk right now. Aside from what today looks like a slightly dated obsession with hairspray and graffiti, there's very little between it and similar products today. Indeed, I wonder if the slightly ironic tone of this [trailer] reflects the way in which a climate message has become a well-trodden ground in children's media. The spoof-news story structure of this Green Santa video has been used for years in the Horrible Science books, but in terms of climate change communication it feels very different from something like Captain Planet (which because of the fictional element, we might compare it to). I think it's significant that both Chris Ryan's Code Red series and Saci Lloyd's Carbon Diaries seem to start with protagonists bored by all this green stuff and then go on, through their involvement in a new crisis, to re-discover the issue for their own generation. Also, on the difference between the 1990s and now: I've read some media analysis from the 1990s cynically arguing that directing environmental campaigns at children is just a way of putting the issue off for another generation to deal with. Today, I think increasingly we see children targeted as a way to get adults to think about global warming. The DECC's Bedtime Stories is indicative of this – indeed, it was based on research the DECC did on how to appeal to adults. The Observer ran a magazine cover story on this issue in February 2009, too, suggesting school-based campaigns led to children pestering their parents on environmental issues.

As Bell states, Mission: Green Santa is far from being the first time that environmental issues have been raised by a children's TV programme. CBeebies, the BBC's digital channel for young children, has been featuring the Green Balloon Club since 2008, the year it launched a wider, year-long series of green-themed programming which largely focused on "soft" issues, such as recycling and wildlife conservation.

But, as far as I'm aware, this is the first time children's TV in the UK has explicitly constructed an entire series around the issue of anthropogenic global warming. It will be interesting to see how it is received – by both adults and children alike.