For some reason, Warmists are very afraid over offering differing views of climate, allowing students to make up their own minds. I wonder why
(National Journal) Senator Roger Wicker wants to make sure that public schools can teach students about “the natural causes and cycles of climate change.”
The Mississippi Republican and skeptic of the scientific consensus on man-made climate change has introduced an amendment to a sweeping Senate education bill updating the No Child Left Behind Act that calls on federal agencies to provide states and local education agencies with K-12 instructional materials outlining “the natural causes and cycles of climate change.”
Wicker’s amendment does not mandate that schools teach climate change in any particular way or even that they teach climate change at all. But the fact that it has surfaced as part of the debate over a much broader education bill speaks to the growing controversy over climate education.
It directs the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to dole out educational materials highlighting “the uncertainties inherent in climate modeling and the myriad factors that influence the climate of the Earth.”
So, of course, Warmists yammer on about “consensus” and Wicker being a big meanie. It’s like they’re afraid to allow debate and put their “science” up against competing views. Kinda like how so many were Very Upset that anyone would go against the consensus that the world was flat, that the sun went around the earth, and that the earth was the center of the universe.
I hope and assume that Earth Science classes are already discussing natural physical forces that influencing the climate. Of course, it would be dishonest to attribute the current period of rapid warming to Milankovich cycles, solar variability or volcanoes. The most likely cause is from human-generated CO2. Teachers should always tell the truth.
It’s telling that to interject your political position into grammar schools, you now wish the federal government to step in and dictate what teachers teach, Teach.
One lie at a time, please.
There was never a scientific consensus that the Earth was flat. The educated consensus that the Earth was a sphere was established by 500-400 BCE. See:
http://ncse.com/blog/2014/02/was-there-ever-flat-earth-consensus-0015426
As early man watched ships disappear hull first over the horizon, and importantly, reappear sail first, they formed a good idea of the shape.
That the Earth was the center of the solar system and the universe was a religious consensus. Sporadically, scientists around the world (Europe, Middle East, India) had proposed heliocentric hypotheses as early as 300 BCE but the tools necessary to resolve the issue were not available until the 17th Century.
The fossil-fuels industry and their supporters may be correct that the consensus on global warming will be overturned like Copernicus and Galileo overturned geocentrism. Copernicus and Galileo conducted careful mathematical modeling and experimentation. All it takes to overturn the consensus on global warming is evidence.