By - - NATIONAL CENTER FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION
Added: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:47:16 UTC

NCSE has long focused upon defending and promoting the teaching of evolution and the nature of science. Why are we now adding climate change to this list?

Although both evolution and climate change are accepted by the scientific community, both topics remain controversial among the public. As a result, teachers trying to teach evolution and/or climate change too often face opposition in their communities. Such opposition is based on ideology, not science, although the ideologies differ: religious ideologies in the case of evolution, economic and political ideologies in the case of climate change. In both cases, the result is that teachers are pressured to downplay these topics, misrepresent them as scientifically controversial, and air supposedly scientifically credible alternatives to them.

There are parallels, then, in the ways these two scientific topics are viewed by the general public, in the reasons for the widespread rejection of them by a substantial portion of the public, and in what happens when teachers try, responsibly, to teach them. So we decided to do what we can to help.

Why NCSE?

NCSE was established to provide information and advice about the creationism/evolution controversy to teachers, parents, school boards, and other citizens. We help the public to understand the consensus view of scientists that evolution has occurred and is occurring, and that although research continues, a great deal already is known about cosmological, planetary, and biological evolution. The heart of NCSE's efforts has been providing assistance at the grassroots level for those struggling to keep good science—evolution—in their schools.

It is well within our mission to assist citizens to keep another form of good science—climate change—in their schools. Scientists overwhelmingly accept that the Earth is warming, that climate change is occurring, and that human activities have made a major contribution to these planetary changes. Nevertheless, despite the scientific consensus on these points, anthropogenic (human-caused) global warming is a politically polarized, confusing, and challenging topic to address in the public sphere.

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TAGGED: EARTH SCIENCES, EDUCATION, SCIENCE