The Portland Public Schools Board on Tuesday decided to ban any classroom materials that cast doubt on climate change. The resolution passed unanimously and requires that textbooks and other material purchased by the district present climate change as a fact rather than theory.
Material will also need to present human activity as one of the phenomenon's causes.
In testimony to the board, Bill Bigelow, a former Portland teacher, told district officials that "we don't want kids in Portland learning material courtesy of the fossil fuel industry."
Bigelow said that material that treats climate change as anything other than fact is published by companies making concessions for fossil fuel companies. He pointed to words such as "might," "may" and "could" in educational materials.
Gee textbooks that contain actual facts and to do not promote misinformation. What a truly novel concept.
My understanding is that Portland is the first school board to take such an aggressive stance to protect their students from fossil fuel company propaganda.
Let's hope they are not the last.
"Keep Portland Weird" is the slogan here and, believe you me, it is. Glad to see they finally got something right for a change.
ReplyDeleteEven more proud to be from Oregon!
ReplyDeleteOregon still gets stuff majorly wrong. I'm sure everyone has seen this by now, and infuriated doesn't even come close.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/zwwzkjo
Sorry, Anon@6:04,like the saying goes, "so goes Portland, so goes the rest of the state".
DeleteSo just suck it and get over ur vitriolic attitude.
It's terrible, but what does that have to do with this post?
DeleteWhen someone, in conversation, mentions climate change in a way that makes it clear they are nonbelievers, my first question to them is, "So, you don't believe in pollution?".
ReplyDeleteThis question, invariably, leads to you having reality and the facts on your side in any false argument they try to perpetuate about climate change and the weather.
This question is not accusatory and sounds idiotic for them to answer that they do not believe pollution is real. I always come out on the upper hand.
This conversation, more often that not, takes place with acquaintances I have met while walking in Fort Smallwood Park.
This Park is half way between Baltimore and Annapolis on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Patapsco River and has a bird's eye view of the now abandoned Bethlemen Steels Company at Sparrows Point. I always refer to that monstrosity which is front and center across the River. If you have ever seen photos of how polluted the air can be in China these days, that is what it looked like every day.
Find a photo of the abandoned Bethlehem Steele Mill here.
http://www.cbf.org/about-the-bay/issues/chemical-contamination/sparrows-point
My father retired from this company so I grew up believing in the jobs it provided to the community. During the 1970's no one literally wanted to go to Fort Smallwood Park despite it's locale and the history. Fort Smallwood park played a role in the War of 1812 during the bombardment of Baltimore by the British when Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner.
Fort Smallwood Park is currently undergoing a massive infusion of federal, state and local funds in a revitalization.
Read more about Fort Smallwood Park
http://www.aacounty.org/departments/recreation-parks/parks/fort-smallwood/
Maryland's 2016 Clean Air Progress Report states that, for the first time in three decades, Maryland is “very close” to meeting all federal air quality standards. Air pollution generated in Maryland is reduced by such controls as cleaner vehicles and fuel, multibillion-dollar investments by power plants and reduced emissions from fuels and consumer products. While beneficial weather patterns and cooler summer temperatures in recent years have played a part in reducing air pollution, emissions reductions resulting from Maryland’s air quality regulations have reduced the number of days that Marylanders breathe unhealthy air, the report finds.
Deletehttp://news.maryland.gov/mde/2016/05/02/maryland-department-of-the-environment-releases-annual-clean-air-progress-report-launches-air-quality-awareness-week/
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/05/23/1529864/-Donnie-Trump-doesn-t-believe-in-climate-change-unless-it-s-hurting-his-golf-score?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+dailykos%2Findex+%28Daily+Kos%29
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rawstory.com/2016/05/revelations-about-trumps-immigrant-mom-embarrass-residents-of-village-she-came-from/
SCOTLAND HATES HIM.....
This is no kidding...
ReplyDeletejust a few days ago I was among several people discussing climate change. One of those guys is a hard-core global-warming denier. When another guy asked him why the ice shelf in Antarctica is melting, the first guy said that the Earth has increased it's tilt by a few degrees.
Did you get that?
This guy says the Earth's axis has tilted farther than it used to (23.4319 degrees ...something like that - I didn't look it up but it's been the same for four and a half billion years).
When I asked him WHY? What caused the Earth's axis to suddenly change, he replied "God can do anything."
Sometimes, when I talk with these guys, it makes my brain hurt: how can you argue with that?
Two steps forward by knowledge and ten steps by belief in beliefs. Our brain has a ceiling and when the problem gets too big we hit that ceiling and are unable to go forward. That's when we start to sacrifice our children on alters so the weather god and the sun god can stop persecuting us. Humans, we always want to worship something.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering how long it will take the fossil fuel companies to file an injunction against this action. Along with the other idiotic fools who also deny it - like Congressional repubes.
ReplyDeleteIf portland can do it, so can all other states. The problem is people will push aside science and fact in favor of faith and fantasy.
ReplyDelete