The National Science Teaching Association (NSTA) held its National Conference in Atlanta last week, and because climate deniers jump at every opportunity to embarrass themselves, they invaded the conference and, like unruly and immature students, got thrown out within minutes.
On the first day of the conference, the CO2 Coalition, a climate change denial group, released a report criticizing the NSTA’s Position Statement on The Teaching of Climate Change for its “embrace of the hypothesis of ‘harmful man-made warming’” and “reliance on ‘consensus’ science.” The document argues that “students should be encouraged to review all facts on a subject (in this case climate change) and make up their own minds rather than be indoctrinated into an established political agenda.”
The report then goes on to indoctrinate readers about how we actually need more CO2 in the atmosphere and are also apparently experiencing “slight global cooling,” which, in case you were wondering, are absolute, total, unequivocal lies. To top it all off, the report argues that basically, no one can ever know anything for certain because “scientific consensuses have often turned out to be wrong” and “what is correct in science is not determined by consensus.
The CO2 Coalition “attempted to exhibit” these outrageous falsehoods at the NSTA’s conference but “were asked to leave.” According to a post on Anthony Watts's boomer climate denial blog “Watts Up With That,” CO2 Coalition members “were evicted from their paid and agreed to exhibit just minutes after the show opened.”
CO2 Coalition Executive Director Gregory Wrightstone wasn't quite as eager to broadcast his shame, though, and published an article in RealClearEnergy promoting the Coalition’s report but neglecting to mention his embarrassing failure a few days earlier.
Students have long been a target for climate denial propaganda, and efforts to inject disinformation into schools are actively moving in states like Texas and Ohio. This unfortunate episode at the NSTA’s conference demonstrates once again that climate deniers are not only aggressively pushing harmful disinformation on social media but are also continuing to spread lies in person.
