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Move over evolution: Now you can add climate change to the list of controversial science topics taught in public schools. That’s right, the governor that sued the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over greenhouse gas emissions doesn’t want to mandate California’s children are educated on climate change. Why the apparent contradiction?
SB 908: Global Warming Education in Schools, sponsored by Senator Simitian (D-Palo Alto), would have revised the existing state framework to include climate change as part of children’s environmental education, but unfortunately it was vetoed by Governor Schwarzenegger. Not only did the bill include climate change in public school science curriculum, but also added to the science framework, and thus science textbooks, seven other topics:
- Integrated waste management
- Energy conservation
- Water conservation and pollution prevention
- Air resources
- Integrated pest management
- Toxic materials
- Wildlife conservation and forestry
As quoted by StopGlobalWarming.org, Simitian explained the importance of climate change curriculum:
You can’t have a science curriculum that is relevant and current if it doesn’t deal with the science behind climate change. This is a phenomenon of global importance and our kids ought to understand the science behind that phenomenon.
Republicans were concerned that the discussion on climate change would not be science-based and wanted the views of global warming skeptics to be taught as well. Senator Jeff Denham (R-Modesto) said:
We don’t have complete factual information yet. From what I have seen the Earth has heated and cooled on its own for centuries. I don’t know that there’s anything that is a direct cause of that right now, but we can do a better job of cleaning up our planet.
Seriously, “We don’t have factual information yet”, when the 10 hottest years – ranked by global surface temperature – since 1880 all have occurred since 1995. Don’t our children deserve to learn about climate change and these other important topics? Once again, I am reminded we do have a Republican governor in California who will tow the party line, even when faced with imbecility.
Related posts on education:
Fathers and Homeschooling: Teaching Without A License
Can You Imagine Your Kids Going to School 4 Days a Week?
Schoolhouse Rock: 30 Years Later Still Singing the Energy Blues
Just another case of the government trying to tell us how to live. I want my children to know about global warming because they will have to eventually deal with the problem in their lifetime!
How dare we teach children to take care of the only world they have? This should be as fundamental as reading and writing.
Aaach….
Politicians. Republican, Democrat, what’s the difference?
Popularity is a harsh mistress.
The problem is that historically there’s nothing unusual about our climate change – it’s just doing what its always done. Just looking at graphs of the past 150 years (which show an increase of only 0.8degC) gives a deceptive perspective. CO2 effecting climate is just an hypothesis which is becoming less and less feasible. So exactly what would be taught in schools? What the media and politicians say, or what the scientufuc facts are saying?
The whole space race is very well, the progress of mankind, and intellectually brilliant must move forward, but as far as we want to find intelligent life on other planets, yet we are destroying the only life we know, that is what in our own land, so we are more intelligent that people from three thousand years ago, that we go around the world (often without any purpose), within 24 hours, but in so doing destroy our planet more and more, How ready are we? we do not do anything really effective way to stop this course towards catastrophic environmental consequences, fatal, apocalyptic, does not interest us anything the future of our descendants? But that and we? It began paying the bill of disorderly development, famine is looming as large as those of Ethiopia will appear toy, the heat is rising, the sea saved us some sorpresitas as tsunamis, cyclones and its increased level, the change climate is evident. What? What’s happening to us? We like to borrow money and walk presumably spending and bad, but what should, so we are in this world, and gave us what we’re evil and we will spend more.
I think evil capitalism and consumerism coupled with the bad habits we have acquired will finish destroying the present life on the planet.
Industrialists invent things for the sole purpose of gaining wealth, regardless of the degree of pollution they cause and what is even worse to almost anyone interested us stop emissions of carbon dioxide which is subjecting us to a global warming everybody talks about The low but nobody wants your car or walking or stop buying unnecessary things and industrialized threatening short-term melting sea and the end of the great glaciers of Greenland and Antarctica together with the children of the mountains around the world, bringing this thaw as a result, rising sea levels and the extinction for the collapse of large islands and coastlines in the world with everything and the biggest cities on the planet and who suffer from unbearable heat.
The eyes of all are placed on what happens with these sea ice, as it was last year record of melting in the Arctic and Don Arnold does not want people to know?
Continue to stand idly by watching the destruction of the planet or stop us to do something (to follow it until it is destroyed), is a great attitude of the humans that began to correct this devastation, go our thanks and appreciation for them.
Loss if it means not use a translator.