This is one of those stories that just makes you shake your head and ask, Has it really come to this?
Climate change skepticism seeps into science classrooms
Some states have introduced education standards requiring teachers to defend the denial of man-made global warming.
by Neela Banerjee, Washington Bureau, LATimes -- Jan 16, 2012
Reporting from Washington -- A flash point has emerged in American science education that echoes the battle over evolution, as scientists and educators report mounting resistance to the study of man-made climate change in middle and high schools.
Although scientific evidence increasingly shows that fossil fuel consumption has caused the climate to change rapidly, the issue has grown so politicized that skepticism of the broad scientific consensus has seeped into classrooms.
Texas and Louisiana have introduced education standards that require educators to teach climate change denial as a valid scientific position. South Dakota and Utah passed resolutions denying climate change. Tennessee and Oklahoma also have introduced legislation to give climate change skeptics a place in the classroom.
[...]
How longer before we are revisiting the Scopes Monkey Trial when all that scary new-fangled Science was nearly tossed into the trash heap of History?
Luckily, there is Teacher's Watchdog organization, that has just decided to put on their Watchlist, the teaching of the established science of Climate Change, in response. Right along side the teaching of the science of Evolution.
NCSE's climate change initiative launched
National Center for Science Education, Press Release -- Jan 16, 2012
NCSE is proud to announce the launch of its new initiative aimed at defending the teaching of climate change. Like evolution, climate change is accepted by the scientific community but controversial among the public. As a result, educators trying to teach climate change, like their counterparts trying to teach evolution, are often likewise pressured to compromise the scientific and pedagogical integrity of their instruction. But there was no NCSE for climate -- no organization, that is, specializing in providing advice and support to those facing challenges to climate change education.
With the launching of the initiative, NCSE itself becomes that organization. As NCSE's executive director Eugenie C. Scott explained in a January 16, 2012, press release, "We consider climate change a critical issue in our own mission to protect the integrity of science education." She added, "Climate affects everyone, and the decisions we make today will affect generations to come. We need to teach kids now about the realities of global warming and climate change, so that they're prepared to make informed, intelligent decisions in the future."
[...]
NCSE's climate change initiative, also includes a new web site:
Climate Change Education -- Understanding and Teaching the Science behind Global Climate Change
Has it really come to this?
What century is this again?
For a few minutes, I thought we were back in 1925, when any old theory was as good as another, with or without the evidence to back it up.
You know the bad old days ... They're Back! ... Sorry Kids.