This never happens -- and why should it?

The United States educational system is in trouble.  When I read the story linked below, I thought of an old 1950’s  car bumping down a rocky hill and crashing into a boulder-strewn riverbed.  That’s  public school science policy in the U.S.  We are not just not making progress on climate change legislation and public awareness here in the U.S., we are going backwards fast.   It’s now been reported that the legislatures of 15 states have passed resolutions pushed together by the fossil fuel companies to deny climate change.  Lobbying is not limited to the U.S. Congress. These companies are pouring cash into local campaigns and using their new-found money power because of the recent Citizens  United  Supreme Court decision to buy or threaten state and municipal elected officials as well as federal officials.  (Info from the Thom Hartmann show.)

One of these states is South Dakota.   They have joined the states that want to pass laws to make it legal and even desirable to teach children propaganda against science, or a variation of religion,  rather than teaching real science in schools.   Of course, parents can already teach their children all the propaganda or lies or whatever they want at home on their own time, but the disturbing trend is for laws to be passed to make that alternate world-view mandatory in public schools, which are funded by taxpayers.  Regular people will now be paying for anti-science, political propaganda in these states.

It’s the conservative states pushing this, of course.  Their arguments against global warming are now being tied to abortion and religion for purely political reasons.  No, the Waxman-Markey bill is not great legislation, but it won’t lead to a rise in abortions or eugenics or end hetero marriage, as many people seem to think.  Here’s what happened, according to the New York Times:

In South Dakota, a resolution calling for the “balanced teaching of global warming in public schools” passed the Legislature this week.

“Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant,” the resolution said, “but rather a highly beneficial ingredient for all plant life.”

No, you did you not read that wrong. The pursuit of a contrary opinion, no matter what the topic, has spread to state law makers.  This boils down to the state legislature of South Dakota denying that science is more important than the unfounded feeling — hope, really  — that All is Well-.  It’s even worse than that; they outright deny established science in the resolution.  In part, the resolution reads:

A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION, Calling for balanced teaching of global warming in the public schools of South Dakota.

WHEREAS, the earth has been cooling for the last eight years despite small increases in anthropogenic carbon dioxide; and
WHEREAS, there is no evidence of atmospheric warming in the troposphere where the majority of warming would be taking place; and
WHEREAS, historical climatological data shows without question the earth has gone through trends where the climate was much warmer than in our [...]