Global Warming: Presenting Both Sides

It is good to see when things change in education, even if they can be controversial issues. The Los Alamitos Unified School district trustees recently voted and passed a unanimous decision to update their policy on some controversial issues, in this current case, global warming, and require teachers to present both sides of the discussion.

Jeffrey Barke is one of the board members, and he states "There are two clearly divergent opinions on global warming. There are those who believe that global warming is a fact, created by man's impact on the environment and the consequences will be devastating. There are others on the conservative side who believe it's much ado about nothing. It's overhyped and politically motivated, and the science is not solid, and there's room for more studies."

After news got out on the decision, Barke himself received over 100 emails attacking and criticizing him and the school district. A lot of this type of response is most likely due to ignorance of the depth and issues in the global warming science. One local resident, J.M. Ivler stated "There is consensus in the field that we have global warming happening, it is getting warmer and it is related to what we are doing to the planet," he said. "That is not in dispute in the scientific community. It is in dispute in the political community. This is a science class. Teach science."

Personally, I have heard many scientists and heard of other studies showing global warming is not a scientific fact, something obviously the hundred plus that sent the emails have not. That is why it is a great idea and just makes that much more sense to present the classes with the "evidence" on both sides. If it is a "fact" as some say, then why do they fear presenting the opposing view? In the end, their "fact" would be proven that much more solid, and the opposing view shown to be nonsense. I hope decisions like this can be seen nationwide, and on other issues too.

Jeff McCormack resides in Virginia Beach, VA. where he works as a web designer by day. In his off time he is a husband, father, mail order book store manager, and musician. Aside from being a freelance writer for this Education Jobsite blog, he also seeks to assist in career choices and information by contributing to other Nexxt blog sites.