A school district in Washington State has prohibited teachers from showing Vice President Al Gore’s documentary on global warming. Last month, a national organization of science teachers turned down an offer of free copies of "An Inconvenient Truth" citing controversy surrounding the film, but Federal Way public schools may be the first school district to ban it outright. According to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Federal Way School Board enacted the ban after complaints from a local gadfly:
"Condoms don’t belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He’s not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that’s being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is … The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn’t in the DVD." Hardison’s e-mail to the School Board prompted board member David Larson to propose the moratorium Tuesday night.
America simply doesn’t deserve this level of obscurantism and ignorance.
Try as one might to be aloof and dig one’s proverbial Epicurean garden, it’s hard to see reports like this and stay sanguine about the future.
Yeah, I guess there’s climate change. That’s obvious. But how do you know it’s CO2 that’s causing it? The climate has changed loads of times over the centuries. We’ve had several ice ages and probably several massive collisions with meteorites. The world has survived. Have you any idea waht a disaster it would be for the economy if some clown came along and banned our vehicles? But don’t worry… the American oil companies are onto it.