As a believer in the view that human beings are contributing to Earth’s changing climate, it causes me some pain to say the following.
I believe the Portland Public Schools system has made a mistake in banning texts that question the causes of climate change.
Oregon’s largest public school district has issued a directive that bans texts that cast doubt on what many scientists have said: that human activity has created a global warming crisis that threatens the planet’s ecosystem.
I grew up in suburban Portland, Ore., so this decision strikes me close to my heart. I attended Portland schools until the seventh grade; my parents moved us to the ‘burbs in East Multnomah County in 1962.
I have long feared that human activity — deforestation and the emission of carbon gases into the atmosphere — have contributed to the changing climate. Did you see the latest report that said April was the 12th consecutive month of record temperatures worldwide?
That doesn’t mean, though, that we cannot allow our students access to those who doubt the results of such activity.
This isn’t even close to the same thing as teaching the biblical version of Earth’s creation alongside Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theory. One theory is based on a faith-based belief; the other is based on science. Teach the scientific theory in public schools and teach other in church.
Climate change and its causes, though, seems to be fair game for an open discussion in our public schools.
The Portland school system has slammed the door on those who have raised legitimate concerns about the notion that Earth’s climate is changing and that humans are the primary cause of that change.
Do I accept those concerns? No. That doesn’t mean they’re coming from crackpots.
The students would do well to be exposed to competing ideas on this important global issue.
