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Frontline - Climate change skeptic group seeks to influence 200000 K-12 teachers

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X

XiaNaphryz

LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/a...tic-group-seeks-to-influence-200000-teachers/

Twenty-five thousand science teachers opened their mailboxes this month and found a package from the Heartland Institute, a libertarian think tank that rejects the scientific consensus on climate change.

It contained the organization’s book “Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming,” as well as a DVD rejecting the human role in climate change and arguing instead that rising temperatures have been caused primarily by natural phenomena. The material will be sent to an additional 25,000 teachers every two weeks until every public-school science teacher in the nation has a copy, Heartland president and CEO Joseph Bast said in an interview last week. If so, the campaign would reach more than 200,000 K-12 science teachers.

Accompanying the materials is a cover letter from Lennie Jarratt, project manager of Heartland’s Center for Transforming Education. He asks teachers to “consider the possibility” that the science is not settled.
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The Heartland initiative dismisses multiple studies showing scientists are in near unanimous agreement that humans are changing the climate. Even if human activity is contributing to climate change, the book argues, it “would probably not be harmful, because many areas of the world would benefit from or adjust to climate change.”

The campaign elicited immediate derision from the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), a nonprofit in Oakland, California that monitors climate change education in classrooms.

“It’s not science, but it’s dressed up to look like science,” said NCSE executive director Ann Reid. “It’s clearly intended to confuse teachers.”
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Last week in Washington, D.C., Heartland held its annual conference challenging the idea that there is a scientific consensus on climate change. The conference focused on the future of energy and climate policy under Trump. Bast opened the meeting by saying, “This is a wonderful time to be a global warming realist,” using the term that those in the movement use to describe themselves.

“Those of us in the room who have been working on this issue for a decade or longer can finally stand up and say hallelujah and welcome to the party,” said Bast. He was met with applause from the 200 or so people in the audience.
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This isn’t the first time the movement has targeted teachers. As early as 1998, a group of fossil fuel officials, lobbyists and conservative think tanks planned to distribute climate-change skeptical curricula for classrooms nationwide. In 2012, an internal Heartland document outlined plans to do the same.

Their message has been embraced by some educators. A survey of 1,500 science teachers nationwide, funded by NCSE and published in the journal Science last year, found more than half taught their students that humans are unequivocally causing climate change. But 31 percent of teachers told their students that the cause of climate change is still being debated. About one in 10 teachers teach children that humans had no significant role in climate change, the study showed.
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But the campaign is not being well received by everyone.

Lori Baker, a sixth-grade science teacher at North Putnam Middle School in Roachdale, Indiana, found the package in her school mailbox and was dismayed by its contents. “I read quite a bit of the book, actually, and it was extremely frustrating. It’s an attempt to sound science literate, but there’s very little actual data,” she said.

Baker pointed to the first paragraph of the foreword, written by Marita Noon, executive director of Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Energy, a nonprofit and lobbying group that advocates for the use of fossil fuels. In it, Noon writes that Obama’s description of climate change as the greatest threat facing mankind is “laughable” at a time when “ISIS is beheading innocent people.”

“That as a foreword to something claiming to be scientific is pretty shocking,” said Baker.
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D

Disxo

Member
Reminds me of a documentary my father used to indoctrinate me:
Think it was "the great global warming swindle"
Edit: Ot- This makes my blood boil
 
K

KernelPanic

Member
What's next? A package on conversion therapy sent to doctors?

They should at least admit it's not about science, it's about their rich fossil industry friends
 
X

Xando

Member
We (as in the world) should start a kickstarter to put a dome on America for the next 10 years



Only half joking :(
 
H

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I think all the scientists should shit into a box after chili night and mail it back to these assholes to show them how much they consider their opinion worthwhile.
 
D

Damaniel

Banned
American conservatives are literally the only group of people in the world who deny climate change. Even the furthest right wing parties of very conservative countries all agree with the near universal consensus. Considering how wrong Republicans and Libertarians are about absolutely everything else, that fact alone should tell you everything you need to know about the validity of climate change.

America is so fucked, and we're going to fuck the rest of the world up along with us.
 
A

Ac30

Member
Their message has been embraced by some educators. A survey of 1,500 science teachers nationwide, funded by NCSE and published in the journal Science last year, found more than half taught their students that humans are unequivocally causing climate change. But 31 percent of teachers told their students that the cause of climate change is still being debated. About one in 10 teachers teach children that humans had no significant role in climate change, the study showed.
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Fuck every single one of the ~41%

“We’re getting a lot of requests for expert opinion from the White House,” said Bast. “That’s very new. We haven’t had those calls for eight years. Even 12 years.”
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Fuck you, too.
 
M

Maximo

Member
science-is-a-liar-sometimes-always-sunny-in-philadelphia-Mac-newton-galileo-13560876209.gif
 
O

Ostrava

Neo Member
The thing I don't understand about climate change deniers is, lets say that global warming isn't caused by man why wouldn't you want cleaner energy sources and less dependence on foreign oil? Why do they oppose the idea that man can ruin the environment
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
The material will be sent to an additional 25,000 teachers every two weeks until every public-school science teacher in the nation has a copy, Heartland president and CEO Joseph Bast said in an interview last week.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Bast said:
He was also involved in the creation of the State Policy Network, and has written several books, some of which challenge mainstream claims about cigarette smoking
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A literal anti-science fuck head. People are actually taking recommendations for an environmental science issue from a guy that thinks "Maybe Cigarettes aren't that bad".
 
B

BlueTsunami

there is joy in sucking dick
They'd openly poison the childrens knowledge well with bogus information just to line their coffers. Thats the type of villainy we're dealing with.
 
Trojita

Trojita

Rapid Response Threadmaker
Literally evil greedy pieces of literal fucking shit. Fuck these people.

In the 1990s, the Heartland Institute worked with the tobacco company Philip Morris to question or deny the health risks of secondhand smoke and to lobby against smoking bans. In the decade after 2000, the Heartland Institute became a leading supporter of climate change denial
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A

Abstrusity

Member
Shut down our trade, rest of the world. It'll hurts us more then it hurts you. I know you'd rather not do so, but my country is not leaving you a choice.
 
N

nintendoman58

Member
Our voices need to be a thousand times louder than that of these people. We mustn't allow our children to be so easily corrupted by this kind of fake science.
 
L

LProtag

Member
I know the teachers in the science department at my school are too smart for this, but I'm really worried it might actually influence some teachers.
 
J

JonnyDBrit

Member
...Honestly, the idea that an independent group would be allowed to try and influence the teaching standards of a country, without the prior consent of the government (yes, I realise the Trump Administration would probably approve if asked), is rather unsettling.
 
N

Nafai1123

Banned
I really don't like the term climate change skeptics. It implies there's some rational skepticism.

I think we should take to calling them Earth Rapists.
 
I

iRAWRasaurus

Banned
As a grad science student, it's important to be open minded and consider any ideas.
as long as you have the data and a lot of backup to prove it. Which they don't.
 
Y

yanipheonu

Member
They do know those kids will still need to know stuff about global warming for standardized tests and future careers in science right?

these are people who seem to think deleting data makes the source of that data not exist. So of course they didn't think that far ahead.
 
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