THEY'VE GOT TO BE CAREFULLY TAUGHT

My recent article “Two CO2 climate change myths” has generated an unprecedented 4,400+ comments here at CFACT… I want to describe some of the features of the “Two myths” article, as a guide that others can use in their writing. We need a lot more writing that supports teaching that is skeptical of climate change alarmism.

This article is what I call a “gate breaker,” which means it can be used to get around gatekeepers who want to just teach alarmism. In many cases this will be the teacher.

The article is such that a skeptical student can introduce it, in order to create a proper debate.

To begin with the article is short … brevity is important because class time can be very limited. A lot of proposed educational material is far too long to be useful.

Second, the article is focused …it is easy to bite off more that the class can chew on. Each session must be confined to a few very narrow issues. Mentioning a lot of different issues is useless.

Third, the issues focused on are fundamental. In this case, CO2 is often described in the press as “heat trapping pollution” and the point of the article is simply that this is false.

This issue is the starting point for really understanding the science… it is very important to correct the most common alarmist falsehoods.

Fourth, what is said is nontechnical…Which technical concepts you use will tend to determine which readers will not be able to fully understand the article. For example I use the concept of long wave radiation to explain the greenhouse effect and why CO2 does not trap heat. In most states this concept is first taught in middle school physical science, so that may set a lower limit to the readership.

… the new Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) …move a lot of climate change science that is traditionally taught in high school into middle school. This means that many relevant high school level concepts will not yet have been taught when the climate science is.

Fifth, while nontechnical, what is said has to be scientifically accurate. This is something of an art, but it is very important. Since the content is nontechnical, a lot of scientific nuance and special conditions have to be left out.

In sum ... A lot of teachers want to question climate change alarmism and they need good material to help them do it. But many want to teach alarmism and here it is the questioning student that needs support. Either way we need more good stuff in the classrooms of America.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Journalist & PR analyst David Wojick , “scientific advisor” for the now-defunct Greening Earth Society  created by the Western Fuels Association, now works for  the Heartland Institute. His  fossi; fuel clients have included AES Corporation & Allegheny Energy,which  generates 95% of its power from coal. [12], [1] He owns  Climatechangedebate.org. He was a  columnist for the Electricity Daily, a now-defunct electrical industry trade magazine, and a “founding member” of  Clexit (Climate Exit) whose  founding statement says : “Global warming has occurred naturally many times in the past and is not to be feared – it is not controlled by carbon dioxide or humans.”