Is this opinion piece about teaching climate change in schools a balanced approach?
Absolutely it is. It is time though for you to realize that if you believe it is balanced, then all the ignorant grunts are labeling you a “warmest” or “alarmist”. The editorial proposes that a range of beliefs should be taught: from Hansen to Lindzen. That would be a range of, umm, all educated climate scientists. It also proposes to teach that the IPCC predictions represent the mainstream — which they have proven to be. It eliminates any discussion that global warming is not real and that man is not causing it — becasue there are no climate scientists who hold those positions. The editorial is proposing education based on real science. This will not get skeptics and “believers” on the same page. This is the message of the climate scientists and those who follow them. It calls for the ignorant to be ignored. The only reason that Inconvenient Truth is used in schools is because there has been nothing else produced that does such a thorough job of presenting global warming. The world
“In fact, climate change is a model topic for teaching students the complexities and uncertainties that characterize evolving scientific theories, while introducing them to a range of opinion among scholars — from MIT’s Richard S. Lindzen to NASA’s James Hansen — as well as the “consensus” view represented by the scandal-plagued Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.” No – on several counts: 1) It is not a good example of the scientific method because the definition of the method has been corrupted – mostly thanks to the anti-science activism of conservative Christians – but also by the political agenda of most deniers; 2) Science is not determined by a “range of opinion” or public debate; and 3) “the scandal-plagued Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change” is a false assumption / conclusion. ===== “Students could examine a phenomenon often linked to warming, such as natural disasters. Have they become more common and more deadly? Is there a debate about it? Why? And just how do
