It is no longer the case that science teachers and concerned parents only need to worry about creationists invading US classrooms, via personal intrusion (by parents, students, or creationist teachers) or by legislation or regulation. Increasingly climate change denialism is being shoved into science classes by the usual nefarious forces.

This is not really new. “Academic Freedom” bills in many states over the last decade or so were introduced to try to force college professors to shut up about climate change. In the college setting, I’ve had about the same level of resistance to global warming as to evolution, if not more. But as Neela Banerjee points out, we may be nearing a flash point in American science education:

Continue reading Climate Change Denialism Spreading in US Public Education Related Proposals →

Obviously! But they mostly don’t. Check this out:

New Hampshire scientists call on “all candidates” to “acknowledge” cliamte change

In 2008, one of the little acknowledged political subtexts was how significantly global warming played in the Republican primary process. Both independently and as part of organizational efforts, individuals asked questions at events (and on street corners) and many events has signs about voters’ concerns over the need for climate change action. John McCain stood alone in discussing climate change forthrightly. In terms of impact, John McCain might just have won in New Hampshire (setting him on the path for the nomination) due to statements like these:

Click here to read the post.

One of the authors of Ice Ages: Solving the Mystery (John) himself, Shackleton himself, and Emiliani himself were ushered into the building past the graduate students, the guards, and the members of the public who wandered the halls of the museum blissfully unaware that the powerhouses of paleoclimate research were brushing past them. They were Glynn Isaac’s guests (and friends and colleagues) and were meeting with Glynn in preparation for an impromptu public conference that would be held the next day in the Geology Lecture Hall downstairs. These were the people who had put the climatic theory of Milutin Milankovic together with the sea core data and nailed down, once and for all, the cause of the basic mode and tempo of Earth climate for the last two or three million years, and at some level, certainly, for all time.
Continue reading Would you like some tea with your climate change? →

This week on Atheist Talk Radio, I’ll be interviewing Shawn Lawrence Otto, who has just launched his book, “Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America,” a richly documented and well reasoned analysis of modern science denialism, especially addressing climate change.

We’ll speak about Shawn’s book as well as the current state of climate change research and the related politics. I guarantee a lively and enlightening conversation.

If you are in the Twin Cities, please, join us at Q. Cumbers for brunch. If you bring a copy of Shawn’s book and a pen you can get it signed!

We would also like to note that this Sunday’s Q. Cumbers brunch will be also be a meet-up of a different kind. There will be at least three FTB.com (Free Thought Blogs) bloggers at the brunch, Stephanie (who is also hosting the radio show), Moi, and coming down from Canada with his wife Jodi, will be Jason.

Shawn Lawrence Otto’s Web Site is Here.

He introduces himself as Richard Rothschild. He tells the crowd that he ran for county commissioner in Maryland’s Carroll County because he had come to the conclusion that policies to combat global warming were actually “an attack on middle-class American capitalism.” His question for the panelists, gathered in a Washington, DC, Marriott Hotel in late June, is this: “To what extent is this entire movement simply a green Trojan horse, whose belly is full with red Marxist socioeconomic doctrine?”

Here at the Heartland Institute’s Sixth International Conference on Climate Change, the premier gathering for those dedicated to denying the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is warming the planet, this qualifies as a rhetorical question….

Read the rest

Check it out:

OK, you have fought hard to deny or challenge the realities of climate change, perhaps because you are afraid of the policies that might have to be put in place; or are afraid of the possibilities of increased government intervention; or you don’t think it will be that bad; or you think it will be too expensive to do anything about; or you don’t understand the science; or you don’t trust scientists, including, by the way, every national academy of sciences and every professional scientific organization in the geosciences… or whatever.

Read the rest of this piece by Peter Gleick here.

I’m very excited to have the opportunity to interview Don Prothero this coming Sunday on Atheist Talk Radio. If you are local to the Twin Cities, you can listen in on AM 950. If not, you can get there via the Minnesota Atheist web site (where you will have to pretend you live in a twin cities zip code, such as 55433). Also, AM 950 is available on at least one digital radio station server … I seem to be able to get it on my Roku.

Prothero is a palaentologist who has been featured on the Discovery Institute web site (they don’t like him) as well as several podcasts (see below). He is a prolific writer and has produced numerous books, some widely known and some much more esoteric but among my favorites (I happen to be in to the evolution of Artiodactyls, as are most people who study human evolution).

The number of things Don and I can potentially talk about is huge, but among them will be a few questions I’ve been saving up for him regarding climate change vis-a-vis Polar Dinosaurs, the melting of the Ice Caps, inter-species competition and macroevolution, and of course the magnetostratigraphy of the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. We will also speak, perhaps extensively, of his new writing project which involved another one of my favorite subjects, cryptozoology.

Don is in town for the Geological Society of America meetings, and he is also going to give a talk for Minnesota Atheists on Sunday afternoon (Details here.). I know some of you are going to ask me: Are we going to Q-Cumbers after the radio show? I don’t know. Hopefully we will know before the show starts and if we are, hopefully somebody will remember to mention it. So listen in!

Professor Prothero is Professor of Geology at Occidental College and Lecturer in Geobiology at the California Institute of Technology. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America and the Paleontological Society.

Links of interest:

Donald Prothero – The Psychology of Cryptozoologists on Point of Inquiry
Skeptics Guide to the Universe Interview with Don Prothero
American Museum of Natural History Podcast
Don Prothero on the East Coast Earthquake

Here’s a short list of some of Donald Prothero’s books:

Evolution: What the Fossils Say and Why It Matters
Catastrophes!: Earthquakes, Tsunamis, Tornadoes, and Other Earth-Shattering Disasters
Greenhouse of the Dinosaurs: Evolution, Extinction, and the Future of Our Planet
After the Dinosaurs: The Age of Mammals (Life of the Past)
The Evolution of Artiodactyls

MN 350 is planning an event for September 24th, and would like you to help get it off the ground, or at least, show up!

This September, people all around the world are joining together for Moving Planet–a worldwide rally to demand solutions to the climate crisis. In Minnesota we’ll gather on the State Capitol lawn to send the message: It’s time to move beyond fossil fuels.

We’ll come on bikes. We’ll march with our faith communities. We’ll rally with our neighbors. And we’ll send a strong message that we stand for climate justice.

Details here.

Cool Planet is a community science-oriented organization located in Edina, Minnesota which “… strives to strengthen and empower the community of Edina by providing fun and engaging opportunities for citizens to join together in local homegrown solutions to climate change.”

Interesting idea. If you are in the Edina Area or are just interested in local community organization and science, check out their home page.

… is the topic of discussion on Skeptical Science, a blog that examines AGW denialism. John Cook, the author of that blog, did a recent Skeptically Speaking and the podcast of that discussion is here.

An item from the Union of Concerned Scientists:
Continue reading Understanding Scientific Terms About Climate Change →