Louisiana Coalition for Science

By Barbara Forrest

Most people who have read the 2008 Louisiana Science Education Act know that it seeks to undermine not just the teaching of evolution (although that is the primary target), but it also throws in “global warming” as something that teachers should allow students to “critically analyze” (along with the “origins of life” and “human cloning”). And most of our readers also know that Louisiana is still the only state with such a stupid law. Throughout the effort of the Louisiana Coalition for Science (LCFS) to stop this bill as it sped through the legislature, the National Center for Science Education (NCSE) provided valuable advice and assistance. NCSE is a — no, it’s the — national clearinghouse for assistance in protecting the teaching of science. (Disclosure: I serve on NCSE’s Board of Directors — proudly). For more than a quarter-century, NCSE has come to the aid of parents, teachers, school administrators, and concerned citizens who needed help in fighting off creationist attacks on the teaching of evolution. Now the NCSE has responded to the growing number of attacks on the teaching of climate science.

NCSE is expanding its scope by launching a new climate change initiative to help protect the teaching of climate science in America’s public schools.

Here are some excerpts from NCSE’s press release:

A new initiative in the struggle for quality science education

Science education is under attack—again.

This time it’s under attack by climate change deniers, who ignore a mountain of evidence gathered over the last fifty years that the planet is warming and that humans are largely responsible. These deniers attempt to sabotage science education with fringe ideas, pseudoscience, and outright lies.

But the National Center for Science Education won’t let ‘em get away with it. . . .

In its initiative to defend climate change education, NCSE will:

* Help parents, teachers, and others fight the introduction of climate change/global warming denial and pseudoscience in the classroom.

* Act as a resource center to connect teachers, scientists, and policymakers with the best information available.

* Provide tools and support to ensure that climate change is properly and effectively taught in public schools.

* Aid those testifying before local and state boards of education, and before local, state, and federal legislative committees.

* Connect local activists with one another, and with scientists and other relevant experts.

To help carry out this new initiative, NCSE has brought in two experts:

* Dr. Peter Gleick, president and co-founder of The Pacific Institute, joins NCSE’s board of directors. Gleick is a noted hydroclimatologist, an internationally recognized water expert, and a MacArthur Fellow. Gleick’s research and writing address the critical connections between water and human health, the hydrologic impacts of climate change, sustainable water use, privatization and globalization, and international conflicts over water resources.

* Mark McCaffrey, a long-time climate literacy expert, joins NCSE as climate change programs and policy director. Previously at the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), McCaffrey helped spearhead a number of climate and energy literacy programs, and the creation of the Climate Literacy & Energy Awareness Network (CLEAN), and testified before Congress about climate and environmental education.

It’s important to be clear about what NCSE will not do under this initiative: it will not address issues of policy or make policy recommendations. That is beyond the scope of this new effort.

What We Won’t Do

Climate change necessarily has consequences for policy on the local, state, national, and even global stages. Should something be done to counteract climate change? If so, what? Is slowing down climate change impossible, and should, therefore, efforts be directed toward mitigating and adapting to its effects? Such questions, although important, are beyond the scope of NCSE, which is primarily a science and science education organization, not a policy institute. Some of our topics may touch upon policy issues, but we will not take positions on, for example, the advantages or disadvantages of a carbon tax over a cap-and-trade policy. There is a broad range of solutions; NCSE’s position is that whatever solutions society decides upon, they should be based on sound science.

NCSE will assist in protecting the integrity of the way climate science is taught in public school science classes, just as it has helped protect the teaching of evolution.

NCSE is here to help! You can help us by informing us of any school, school district, or state policy that compromises the integrity of good science, whether the topic is evolution or climate change. We will do what we can to assist those at the grassroots level too. If you are, or know of, a teacher who is feeling pressure about evolution or climate change from parents, administrators, or members of the community, don’t hesitate to get in touch—we can help.

So, Louisiana citizens, please be alert to any attacks on the teaching of climate science in our public schools. Both the LCFS and the NCSE are here to help.