Things might have sounded hopeless Tuesday, with President Trump, in the words of former “green jobs czar” Van Jones, signing “a death warrant for Planet Earth” and inspiring Michael Moore to declare March 28th “the day the extinction of human life on earth began.”
My action today is the latest in a series of steps to create American jobs and to grow American wealth! #MAGA ➡️https://t.co/TEJT8n9nVd pic.twitter.com/YGBzFTkRFf
— President Trump (@POTUS) March 29, 2017
It’s actually much worse than that, however.
Not only did Trump roll back Obama-era climate policies; PBS blew the lid off a plan by climate change skeptics at the Heartland Institute to confuse the nation’s science teachers and persuade them that climate change is debatable.
I got a copy of this in my school mail. It is an unconvincing read and lacks solid evidence, while ignoring the bulk of what we understand. https://t.co/UXLrQbcX0R
— Dave Curry (@CarlSaganRox) March 28, 2017
The science on anthropogenic climate change is settled, as demonstrated by the overwhelming scientific consensus supporting it; and don’t bother asking if the underlying studies that determined this overwhelming consensus are debatable, because of course they aren’t.
READ: The chilling effort to confuse teachers about the science of climate change. https://t.co/6BkD3T6tEe via @katieworth @frontlinepbs
— pamjohnston (@PamJohnston) March 28, 2017
My story on the campaign to persuade every science teacher in the U.S that climate change is debatable @frontlinepbs https://t.co/6xDNNnFs7q
— katie worth (@katieworth) March 28, 2017
Wow. The only thing more shocking than imagining a science teacher open his or her classroom to debate in the face of scientific consensus is picturing 200,000 science teachers checking their physical mailboxes for unsolicited teaching materials.
Frontline reports that 25,000 science teachers have received the packet already. One biology and physics teacher quoted in the piece noted that he wasn’t going to show the packet to a colleague and “borderline climate denier” who was causing tension in the school science department with his dissent. “It’s pretty slick. I think he might use it.”
The thought of an agenda-driven organization like the Heartland Institute trying to influence the debate over climate change is just horrifying, which is why we’re so grateful to PBS and Frontline for bringing this story to light in collaboration with The GroundTruth Project, whose reporting centers on issues of social justice are devoted to “examining climate change and its impact on women and children.”
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Related:
ICYMI –> NEA urges teachers to use #ImTellingMyKids to share what they're telling YOUR kids on this 'tough day' https://t.co/0Ck6wOwe4k
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) November 10, 2016
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