The climate change backlash has hit American class rooms and if nothing else, it shows the deep divisions now running through US society.
The New York Times reports that people who have condemned the teaching of evolution in schools have linked the issue to global warming. They want dissenting views on it. According to the New York Times, it's taken over in Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
The Treehugger blog says that in South Dakota, state legislators have passed a resolution the "urges" schools to stop teaching global climate change as hard science. Instead, they want to pair it with "astrological" and "cosmological" theories. This is similar to the way creationists insist evolution is taught alongside biblical interpretations.
The argument is that the science is not settled yet so it should not be taught in class rooms. But the science on climate change is solid. As scientists write in the Houston Chronicle, scientists agree that the global climate is changing, as documented around the world, that human activities produce heat trapping gases and that these gases have produced most of the warming we have experienced over the past 50 years. It's not just climate change under attack but the science.
And if the science is under attack, the best place to do it is in the class room. That is where you sow the seeds of ignorance.
The really disturbing part about these developments is the way it reflects the polarization and divisions in US society. As a global leader, it's not healthy for the rest of the world.
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