New Jersey high school student Matthew LaClair is crying foul over a college-level textbook that includes ungrounded and highly misleading information about the state of climate change science.
As reported in the Wonk Room, the textbook American Government states that “the scientific community is divided over the issue,” and “activist scientists say that the earth is getting warmer; skeptical ones note that the earth’s atmosphere has been getting cooler.” Environmentalists are portrayed as “elites who often base their arguments on ideology as much as facts” and “raise money with scary statements about the harm global warming will cause.”
Not surprising, the authors of the textbook, James Q. Wilson and John DiIulio Jr., have close ties to the Republican party and right-wing/free-market think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute and the Manhattan Institute.
Here’s some more excerpts from American Government:
Activist scientists say that the earth is getting warmer; skeptical ones note that the earth’s atmosphere has been getting cooler.”
Activists say that the sea will rise because of melting ice caps; skeptics respond that the ice caps are not melting.”
Activists say that a warmer earth will be bad for humankind; skeptics say that a warmer earth will make it easier to grow crops and feed people. Activists say that we should act now, despite scientific doubts; skeptics say that we should learn more before doing anything.”
Friends of the Earth have started an email campaign to pressure the publisher Houghton Mifflin, to correct the misinformation contained in the textbook. Please take a moment to fill out the FOE form and also be sure to pass it on to your friends to sign as well.
