NCSE's Climate Change initiative launched

[glennkoks]

"NCSE is proud to announce the launch of its new initiative aimed at defending the teaching of climate change. Like evolution, climate change is accepted by the scientific community but controversial among the public."

How do you feel about your kids being taught the theory of AGW?

ncse.com/news/2012/01/ncses-climate-change-initiative-launched-007149

[glennkoks]

Should say: How do you feel about your kids being taught the theory of AGW in public schools?

[sigurdur]

Glenn:
I don't have a problem with my kid being taught the theory of AGW.

With that said, she is a bright girl, and we have frank talks about this subject over the supper table. She understands the area's of AGW that are scientifically quantified, and she also understands the areas that are presented as such, but are wishful thinking in reality.

What I would object to is teaching this to a child who does not have the backround, etc to understand how much uncertainty there really is to AGW.

Exposure never hurts any student.......one can hope.

[glennkoks]

sigurdur, I agree. The IPCC places a 90+ percent chance that man is having an effect on the climate. Which means there is a 10 percent chance they are wrong. Anyone who has ever played poker knows what can happen when they have a 90% chance of winning only to get a "Bad Beat" on the river.

As long as it it presented as a theory that the majority of scientists agree with but there is still some uncertainty I don't have a problem with it either.

[curiousgeorge]

Somehow I doubt this will be a balanced presentation. Will they offer proven observations or somebody's video game? Who will be the 'experts' they drag out? Hansen? Gore?, etc.? Will they sneak in various social and political agendas? Demonize fossil fuels, and praise "renewables"? Besiege them with speculations masquerading as knowledge? Drag the kids to "protests"? I don't trust this as far as I could throw it. Just from reading the announcement at the link, it sounds like the propaganda machine is all fueled up and ready to go.

[sigurdur]

glenn:
It has been a few years since I read the last IPCC literature. The 90% does not bear up under scrutiny.
From present knowledge, it would appear that potentially 50% might....maybe.

There is no question that man affects his environment. It is the use of the models to project the future that throws a monkey wrench into the whole IPCC thing. It has become a political movement, rather than a science movement.

I don't mind students being exposed because hopefully it has the same effect on them as it had on me.......a hunger for actual verifieable knowledge. IF it doesn't......then...it says the education system as a whole is failing and that is not a good thing.

[sigurdur]

My nephew, a smart young lad, believed in the models etc till I showed him that they are not verfiable, and that some of the projections have not come to pass, and have missed the mark by a very wide margin.
That created a hunger in him, and since he is going to college, he has access to published papers that I have given him. His whole thinking has changed.

[icefisher]

Jan 18, 2012 1:03:01 GMT sigurdur said:

My nephew, a smart young lad, believed in the models etc till I showed him that they are not verfiable, and that some of the projections have not come to pass, and have missed the mark by a very wide margin.
That created a hunger in him, and since he is going to college, he has access to published papers that I have given him. His whole thinking has changed.

For a kid finding shakey establishment foundations is like discovering gold!

[Pooh]

Jan 18, 2012 1:01:13 GMT sigurdur said:

glenn: .... It has become a political movement, rather than a science movement.

I don't mind students being exposed because hopefully it has the same effect on them as it had on me.......a hunger for actual verifiable knowledge. IF it doesn't......then...it says the education system as a whole is failing and that is not a good thing.

Agreed, and therein lies the rub. A government agency (NCSE), perhaps in concert with the department of education, telling schools what to teach. Then, incorporate the issue as a Standard Of Learning. Indoctrination, anyone?

I suppose it might be useful if it is made clear that the "scientific" effect of a CO₂ doubling is either benign or beneficial, and that IPCC horror stories result from consensus feedback estimates by parties with skin in the game. As sigurdur points out, the horrors have not happened.

P.S. Part of the curriculum should cover the Little Ice Age and the Dark Ages (the end point of the "Progressive" movement with its administration by "experts").