“We found that through language choices, the text portrayed climate change as uncertain along several lines, such as whether climate change was happening, whether humans were causing it and what the effects will be”, K.C. Busch, a doctorate student at Stanford University said.
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Are middle-school students in the United States getting an accurate education about climate change? The other books analyzed were Focus on Earth Science by Glencoe-McGraw-Hill and Focus on Earth Science by CPO Science. Analyzing linguistic variables like types of nominal groups, processes, circumstance and modality system, they found that these major textbooks “framed climate change as uncertain in the scientific community”.
California school textbooks call climate change into question, it has recently been revealed in a new study.
Busch is co-author of the study along with Diego Román, assistant professor of education at Southern Methodist University, Dallas.
So just what the hell is represented in these damn textbooks?
“This authoritative stance is accomplished through the use of declarative sentences, which read primarily as definitions”.
Some researchers suggest industry-hired scientists and successful public relations campaigns by the coal and gas industry may be the reason many people don’t believe climate change is real, despite the fact a majority of scientist globally have backed the theory. “We know temperatures are going up, that humans are the main cause that this is causing climate change”.
Women, especially in developing countries, are at the frontlines of climate change; however, when confronted with social and economic exclusion their vulnerabilities remain hidden and their voices quiet. Since the only basis for fears of unsafe, manmade global warming is the predictions by computer climate models, and since on average the models predict twice the warming observed over the relevant period, and 95 percent predict more rather than less warming than observed (implying that their errors are not random but driven by some kind of bias, whether honest or accidental), and none predicted the complete absence of statistically significant global warming over the 18 years and 8 months through September, and therefore the models are invalidated, what remaining basis is there for any policies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions?
In this new study, researchers aim to determine what is the role of textbooks for sixth graders when it comes to climate change, as their knowledge will stem from these books during classroom discussions and activities.
Another example in the Prentice Hall book read that “places that are too cold for farming today could become farmland”.
For instance, instead of firmly stating that climate change is happening, given that sea levels have risen, ice caps and snowpacks have dwindled, and air temperatures have escalated dramatically, the authors had preferred to simply say that these alterations may be occurring…or not.
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Busch said, “While uncertainty is inherent in science, in this case, the text is not scientifically accurate”. There can be societal debate as to what we should do about climate change, but continuing to portray a scientific debate is dishonest.
