This weeks’ topic on National Journal’s Energy Insiders: How Should Climate Change Be Taught?
The battle over climate science in schools is heating up.
Earlier this month, a coalition of national science-education advocates released a students bill of rights asserting that students across the country should be taught the scientific consensus on climate change. The consensus view held by 97 percent of scientists, according to reviews of the academic literature, holds that the planet is heating up and human activity is the primary cause.
Currently, however, a patchwork of state science standards exist that do not mandate the consensus view is taught, leaving the door open for controversy over climate change to get equal airtime in many classrooms.
My response:
States should decide how best to teach issues like climate change and climate change policies.
Like any important issue–evolution vs creationism, national defense and health care policy–it is critical that students understand all sides of the debate. It was an honor for me to help present an economic perspective on the climate change debate to a group of middle school students in Atlanta, Georgia. See more about this athttps://www.capitalcorner.org….
For instance, it’s important for students to understand that climate change is a global problem and that developing counties like China are responsible for most of the growth in GHG emissions. Without their participation, nothing the developed countries do to reduce their own GHGs will make much difference, see Figure 3 inhttp://accf.org/wp-content/u…
Students also need to understand that cost/benefit analysis should be used to evaluate government policies to reduce GHGs emission growth in the U.S. For example, the regulation of GHGs by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency should be subject to peer review. EPA’s analysis of the costs and benefits of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments was seriously flawed. See http://accf.org/wp-content/upl…
Last, renewable energy costs substantially more than that produced by conventional fossil fuel or by nuclear power and states with renewable portfolio standards have significantly higher electricity costs than other states, see Table 3 and Figure 2 in
http://accf.org/wp-content/upl…
Today’s students are tomorrow’s leaders, so it is imperative that they understand the full picture of issues like climate change and the solutions to address it. When armed with the facts, rather than one-sided rhetoric, our youth of today are smart enough to make their own conclusions.
