My Daughter's College Earth Science Class On Global Warming & Climate Change

[orleans]

is using a text published in 2001
Climate Change: A Multidisciplinary Approach ~ William James Burroughs

the teacher uses talking points from the book
my daughter says this teacher is talking up "natural" global warming, says there hasn't been "patterns" of floods, heat, etc.

that he minimizes the effect people have on the environment/global warming/basically says it's the normal way of the world--

now..i don't know shit about this book, i've seen excerpts on google (the kids don't have a text book--it never came into the bookstore so the teacher puts points up from chapters) but i'm wondering ... was this book published before there was a consensus from the scientific community that humans are accelerating global warming?

i'm so pissed off about this class. instead of her coming out of it with a greater sense of urgency (like i have) she has grown more indifferent, with an attitude of (more or less) well, things aren't really that bad--we've had heat waves, cold spells, the little ice age in europe, cloud cover is helping to cool the oceans, blablabla.

am i wrong? goddamn! i really thought humans were contributing to global warming. but, according to my kid--it's no big deal.

i asked her how many years before this dick sees a "pattern" and she said probably hundreds of years.

i asked her why the fuck scientists are saying we have about 10 years before we reach a tipping point.

college! jesus! i thought she could learn something there that would increase her interest in the environment instead of kill it.

[villager]

1. part of the campus liberal conspiracy, eh?

n/t

[fenriswolf]

2. alot of people

cannot really fathom that in the long run humans are inconsequential and that the world does not move for us. The fact that our world could turn into an inhospitable fireball does not even register. these people have compartamentilized their minds and can think of worldwide disaster one second then go buy a hummer the next thinking it doesnt matter in the long run.

[Zywiec]

6. Our world WILL turn into an inhospitable fireball

there is no way to stop it. It's a fact that no one can deny.

[Warpy]

9. The only question is how soon

Personally, I'd much rather contemplate the change when the sun exhausts its fuel and turns into a red giant several billion years from now than from human stupidity within the next couple of centuries.

That some fool is teaching denial at the college level is cause for complaint.

[baldguy]

3. The best current observations predict the earth should be in a cooling cycle right now.

Its getting warmer IN SPITE of natural processes.

Also the Kyoto Protocol was drafted in 1997.

[orleans]

11. yes, they covered kyoto--was in a little movie he showed the class

talked about what shit kyoto is--that china doesn't have to follow it, that it means nothing.

i asked my kid: so you walked away with the impression that kyoto is a bunch of crap. answer:yes.

[jpak]

4. The instructor apparently doesn't read Science or Nature or any AGU or climate science journals

The evidence is there, it's been peer reviewed, it's been published and verified independantly...

[Dora]

5. That's a huge failure in teaching. A 2001 text is inadequate in the climate change debate.

Has she seen An Inconvenient Truth?

What kind of school is this? Community college, state school, private two or four-year college?


Your daughter is at the age where she's old enough to learn that just because a teacher is standing at the front of the classroom, that doesn't necessarily mean that 1) s/he's right, and that 2) his/her teaching can't be challenged.

It's time for the students in the classroom to learn how to use their critical thinking skills.

[rawtribe]

7. How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic

Below is a complete listing of the articles in "How to Talk to a Climate Skeptic," a series by Coby Beck containing responses to the most common skeptical arguments on global warming.

http://gristmill.grist.org/skeptics

[CrispyQ]

8. I haven't checked this site out yet, but I did bookmark it.

http://gristmill.grist.org:80/skeptics

Another DUer posted it. There's an entire section on the "it's just part of the natural cycle" believers.

One of the things I point out to those with this belief is we can't afford to take the chance that you're wrong.

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. A 2001 text took some time to write

Either it's a slightly edited version of an older text, or a brand new text that was being worked on for quite some time.

In 2001 Even the Bush administration went along with the IPCC "Third Assessment Report."
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/06/20010611-2.html