Texas Proposes Rewriting Textbooks To Deny Climate Change Facts

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Upholding its longstanding tradition of doing pretty much exactly what people expect of Texas, the Lone Star State has proposed revising middle school social studies textbooks to include blatant inaccuracies about the realities of climate change.

The National Center for Science Education recently found that several books contained problems; among these problematic books was the teacher version of “World Cultures & Geography,” published by McGraw-Hill for students in grade 6. It contains, according to the NCSE, “ a deeply concerning section comparing the Heartland Institute with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in relation to climate change. This misleads students as to good sources of information, pitting an ideologically driven advocacy group (Heartland Institute) that receives funding from Big Tobacco and polluters against a Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientific body (IPCC).”

In other words, an “ultra-conservative think tank” funded by the Koch Brothers is having its opinions promoted in school textbooks.

As if this wasn’t rage-inducing enough, several of the new books rejected actual science in favor of the claim that scientists disagree about what is causing global warming. Just to be clear, the majority of scientists do not disagree. In fact, the report points out that 97 percent of climatologists agree that humans are responsible for climate change.

They also do not believe that the Earth’s temperature will “even out” soon, as one of the textbooks claims. The NCSE agrees with the first point of view, stating that the organization is not aware of any climatologists who believe the Earth’s steadily rising temperatures will just “even out” eventually.

One of the people behind these new textbooks is David Bradley, a member of the Texas Board of Ed. A man who is, as the National Journal points out, not a climate scientist, Bradley and the rest of the Board plan to vote yes on the books in November.

Whether global warming is a myth or whether it’s actually happening, that’s very much up for debate,” Bradley said to the National Journal. “Don’t listen to anyone who tells you otherwise.”

A public hearing is scheduled for this week, during which people will get the chance to express their support or disapproval of these newly opinionated textbooks.