The Texas State Board of Education has just issued a new decision to require the teaching of arguments against the existence of global warming.
That's right -- global warming deniers on the SBOE are peddling their anti-science propaganda to our children.
Enough is enough.
The science of global warming is nearly as well established as the science of gravity.
Scientists have been probing the issue of the greenhouse effect for more than 175 years -- since before Texas was even a republic.
No fewer than 32 national science academies, including the U.S. Academy of Sciences, have not only warned about the real threat of global warming, but have also advocated for government action to address it.
A 2004 study of more than 900 peer-reviewed scientific articles on global warming found that not one of them questioned the basic science and reality of global warming.
And, just last month, an international conference of climate scientists concluded with the following stern warning:
"Recent observations confirm that, given high rates of observed emissions, the worst-case IPCC scenario trajectories (or even worse) are being realised... There is a significant risk that many of the trends will accelerate, leading to an increasing risk of abrupt or irreversible climatic shifts."
Let's be very clear: There is no real debate on the science of global warming. There is only a political debate about how to solve the crisis.
As part of that political debate, those who oppose global warming action -- and stand to gain financially by continued dependence on fossil fuels -- have vigorously pursued a propaganda campaign to manufacture public doubt.
And our kids are now caught in the middle.
It is an outrage that the SBOE is playing into the propaganda campaign and exposing our children to junk science. This is not fair to our kids, who will be forced to compete in a world where the study of real science is taken seriously.
It's time for the SBOE to acknowledge that the earth is round, Elvis is dead, and, yes, global warming is real.
