The Houghton Mifflin Company has just institutionalized climate change denial in the new edition of American Government, a popular text used in advanced government and civics classes at the high school level. This volume was written by James Q. Wilson and John J. DiIulio Jr. The chapter on environmental policy could have been written by Exxon-Mobil or the American Enterprise Institute.
Does the name John J. DiIulio ring a bell? Here is a snippet from Wikipedia:
John J. DiIulio Jr. is a political scientist, Frederic Fox Leadership Professor of Politics, Religion, and Civil Society and Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania and served as the first director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives under President George W. Bush from early 2001 to August 2001. He was the first senior Bush advisor to resign and was succeeded by Jim Towey. He has authored numerous studies on crime, government, and the relationship between religion and public policy. He is also the co-author of the textbook "American Government" with James Q. Wilson.
James Q. Wilson has a similar pedigree. He was a member of the Reagan administration and has served on the board of directors for an electric power distribution company (now known as National Grid):
...a member of the Attorney General's Task Force on Violent Crime (1981), the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (1985-90), and the President's Council on Bioethics. He is a former president of the American Political Science Association. He has served on the board of directors for the New England Electric System, Protection One, RAND, and State Farm Mutual Insurance.
He is also in charge of academic disinformation "chairman of the Council of Academic Advisors" for the American Enterprise Institute.
Among his great honors:
He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush in 2003.
Given this background, it is hardly surprising that Wilson and Delulio would produce a slanted presentation of climate science aimed at high school students.
Some of the gems from Chapter 21 (Environmental Policy):
"It is a foolish politician who today opposes environmentalism. And that creates a problem, because not all environmental issues are equally deserving of support. Take the case of global warming. Global warming is enmeshed is scientific uncertainty." (p. 559)
"The earth has become warmer, but is this mostly the result of natural climate changes, or is it heavily influenced by humans putting greenhouse gases into the air?" (p.559)
"On the one hand, a warmer globe will cause sea levels to rise, threatening coastal communities; on the other hand, greater warmth will make it easier and cheaper to grow crops and avoid high heating bills." (p. 559)
"But many other problems are much less clear-cut. Science doesn't know how bad the green-house effect is." (p. 566)
Dr. James Hansen has written a powerful rebuttal to the intellectual dishonesty in Wilson and Delulio's text - Hansen letter (pdf). He cogently summarizes the evidence that climate change is significant, attributable to human activity, and will have profoundly negative effects on human civilization.
Update: (h/t berning) Here is concluding summary from Center For Inquiry analysis of the Wilson/DeIulio text on the environmental policy. (The analysis on five other issues is also worthwhile).
The textbook’s treatment of global warming consists, for the most part, of false and misleading statements. Contrary to the textbook’s assertions, the scientific community is not “divided over the issue” of global warming. Today the scientific community debates not whether temperatures and ocean levels will rise, but how quickly they will continue to do so because of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions.13 It is inexcusable to misinform students of American Government about such an important policy issue. The textbook’s discussion of global warming should be revised immediately to reflect the settled consensus of the scientific community.
Friends of Earth have initiated a letter writing campaign to complain to the publisher. The goals of the campaign are to pressure the publisher to revise the book and alert state governors about the problem.
Although I applaud the efforts of Friends of Earth, vigilance on the local school board level is critical. If your school district has adopted Wilson and Delulio's text, letters to the local school board and newspapers may be far more effective than efforts aimed at the publisher or governors.
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