Limiting education but ignoring the obvious
by Marcella
It’s another beautiful day in the neighborhood. As I sit in my living room and stare out the window, rivers of condensation run down the outside panes of glass. We’ve had 50 degree temps here all week, and it’s almost Christmas. I rally for nice weather until Thanksgiving each year, and for the past 3 years it has paid off. I like this, but am reminded of how different the weather patterns are now than they were 20 years ago.
When I was a kid I used to build snow tunnels and forts into the banks of snow that drifted up against the north and east sides of my house. These things would reach the roof some years, and since I was never cold back then, I loved playing in that stuff all winter long. I hate being cold now, and am, much of the time, so I don’t miss that snow so much. But seeing just how much things have changed in my lifetime is kind of eerie.
Don’t get me wrong, I know that the earth has undergone several cycles like this: warm, cool, warm, Hot, cool, cold, cold Cold. What’s on my mind today though is the way South Dakota has tried to handle the subject. It’s bad enough that the government tries to limit women’s reproductive rights here, but in the past politicians have also tried to limit what can be taught about climate change, and how.
From a resolution passed by last year’s House (and appearing at the Center for Environmental Journalism website):
BE IT RESOLVED, by the House of Representatives of the Eighty-fifth Legislature of the State of South Dakota, the Senate concurring therein, that the South Dakota Legislature urges that instruction in the public schools relating to global warming include the following:
(1) That global warming is a scientific theory rather than a proven fact;(2) That there are a variety of climatological, meteorological, astrological, thermological, cosmological, and ecological dynamics that can effect world weather phenomena and that the significance and interrelativity of these factors is largely speculative; and(3) That the debate on global warming has subsumed political and philosophical viewpoints which have complicated and prejudiced the scientific investigation of global warming phenomena; andBE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Legislature urges that all instruction on the theory of global warming be appropriate to the age and academic development of the student and to the prevailing classroom circumstances.
I’m not too worried that the earth is going to blow up or melt down completely in my lifetime (and to be honest, what happens after I’m gone doesn’t really phase me either), but I do believe that making kids aware of the changes is important so that as they age and become good like American consumers they can make informed decisions about what to do to lessen their impact on the earth. However, being a good lil’ American consumer goes against the grain of frugality and necessity, which is ultimately part of the problem with the human contribution to climate change.
