Don't Even Mention Global Warming to Kids

by Anne Landman — May 27, 2010 - 11:43am
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Marcia NealColorado State School Board Member Marcia Neal (R-Grand Junction) supports eliminating teaching of global warming in schools.A new group called "Balanced Education for Everyone"(BEE) is rolling out a national effort to stop the teaching of global warming in schools, calling it "unnecessary." The group says global warming is "junk science" and that teaching it scares schoolchildren unnecessarily. BEE initiated its countrywide effort to eradicate climate change instruction from classrooms in Mesa County, Colorado, where Rose Pugliese, a failed school board candidate for the area's last election, presented the District 51 School Board with a petition containing about 600 signatures asking that science teachers stop giving lessons on global warming. At the meeting, an ecologist with a Ph.D. tried to explain to the school board that the subject of climate change "is not just some liberal theory," and a Mesa State College professor drew snickers from the audience when she told the Board that global warming is as certain a scientific theory as gravity and evolution. Balanced Education for Everyone is a project of the conservative group Independent Women's Forum, which promotes a documentary called "Not Evil Just Wrong" as the basis for classroom lesson plans, and for what they consider "scientifically accurate" information about global warming. The documentary was created to counteract Al Gore's Oscar-winning global warming documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth." Balanced Education for Everyone has gained the support of Colorado State School Board member Marcia Neal, a Republican from Grand Junction.

Main Source: 
Denver Post (Technology Section), May 25, 2010

Comments

I live here

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 3, 2010 - 4:24pm.

I live in Grand Junction, and this is very typical of the kind of thinking that goes on in this area. Grand Junction, at just over 50,000 people, is extreme western Colorado and is the largest city between Denver and Salt Lake City, so it is geographically isolated yet large enough for right wing ideas to take root and prosper. The entire western half of the state, save for a few rich enclaves such as Aspen, is so right wing you'd think you're in the south. Not surprisingly, the Tea Party is very, very big around here.

Oh, and the Ten Commandments are inscribed on block of granite in front of Grand Junction City Hall on city property. Surprised?

The odd thing is, you talk to some of the local farmers (each one more ultra conservative than the last) and they'll matter of factly talk about how things are hotter and drier around here than when they they were a kid. But use the words "climate change" and you've got a problem on your hands.

I can't wait to get out of this place.

I live there, too, and concur...

Submitted by Anne Landman on June 3, 2010 - 7:06pm.

...one hundred and ten percent with your analysis.

Anne Landman

Just Wrong

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on June 2, 2010 - 5:31pm.

Should we replace honest and scary with dishonest and funny in our schools? I have a feeling that Colorado State School Board Member Marcia Neal would feel different about scary if we were talking about the 9/11 disaster. Is 9/11 OK to discuss in schools because the bad guys aren't us?? It isn't about "scary to children" as much as it is scary to Colorado oil producers. '

I bet Ms. Neal wants to put global warming into the debate for political correctness. Sorry Ms Neal but scientific facts are just that.

Building awareness of go-greening

Submitted by Goang (not verified) on June 2, 2010 - 4:33am.

Personally, giving a lession about Global Warming to kids would be very necessary today. Because it could build better understanding of how we damage and consume our nature environment and scarce energy resource, also why we need to protect and conserve the environment to avoid such natural pollutions and disasters.