Scientists want climate change in young minds: Teachings to point to human causes

The Washington Times ^ | Monday, January 16, 2012 | Ben Wolfgang

[Hunton Peck]

Climate change subscribers say the fight against global warming will require younger soldiers.

On Monday, the National Center for Science Education, a nonprofit group that denounces intelligent design and supports an evolution-only curriculum in the classroom, will expand its mission. The organization of scientists, anthropologists and others is turning its attention to climate change, and it will mount an aggressive effort to teach the nation’s schoolchildren that climate change is real and is being driven by human activity.

“For 20 years, we’ve helped teachers cope with what we can only describe as societal or political problems in teaching evolution. They’re running into the same opposition in teaching climate change,” NCSE Executive Director Eugenie Scott said. “We worry, because of our experience with evolution, that basic science is going to be compromised as a result of this political and ideological opposition. Good science needs to be taught.”

Critics point out important distinctions between the defense of evolution and the promotion of climate change, since the latter carries more obvious and immediate policy implications. Alarmists call for broad federal policies to combat climate change, such as President Obama’s proposed “cap-and-trade” legislation, which is designed to limit carbon emissions. Although that measure is on hold, a law imposed by the European Union requires all airline companies to pay for their carbon emissions during flights in and out of Europe. Officials at the United Nations have even called for a global tax on carbon dioxide emissions.

Ms. Scott maintains that the NCSE won’t advocate for teachers to push liberal policy solutions to climate change, but others fear that students will be targets of political indoctrination.

“If you say it’s man-made, you must be implying some solutions. [Climate change] is taught to promote a particular political point of view, and that’s the problem,” said Kathleen...

[steelyourfaith]

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[Salman]

They are not even pretending to be objective science any more.

[SuziQ]

It's gotten to the point that if you say that you don't believe in global warming in mixed company, about half of the people will just look at you like you're crazy. Denying global warming is like denying that the sky is blue.

Don't say that you don't believe in Global Warming. The globe DID warm in the 1990s, by a degree or two, and you can acknowledge that. What you DO need to say is that you believe that the climate does change, that it has changed many times over the past hundred millions years or so, but there is absolutely NO evidence that humans have anything to do with it. So any taxpayer money spent by the government to affect climate change is wasted, because nothing we do will have any effect at all.