When water expert Peter Gleick released documents about Heartland Institutes campaign to indoctrinate American school children into their Climate Change misinformation denial agenda it seemed like a hopeless situation. That was only 3 months ago.
The reveal of Heartlands internal documents showed not only their plans to discredit science to school children but also their financial backers including a secret $14 million dollar donor. Heartland pulled no stops in accusing Gleick of fraud and deception and Gleick was forced to take a leave of absence from his position as President of Pacific Institute. Heartland also went beyond the pale in a an attempt to portray those who believe in climate science to the Unabomber and called Bill McKibben and Michael Mann madman
Since then much has changed. There's nothing like embarrassing your financial backers and employees by showing your true colors and Heartland has faced a mutiny of it's employees and financial backers. And now they face an uncertain future as cash dries up and their staff depart.
It's been a difficult couple of months in the science education world but in a complete reversal there seems to be a silver lining with the news from desmogblog that new National Standards is recommending that schools teach Climate Change.
The Next Generation Science Standards lay out core ideas K-12 students should understand about the basics of science – from biology, to physics and chemistry, to earth science. The last national standards were released back in 1996, and manmade climate change wasn’t mentioned. However, the new standards recognize that students need to know human activities are changing our climate. They also recognize that schools are training the next generation of engineers and scientists who can help solve the problem.
The good news is that the Standards are open for public comment and will be finalized late this year. The decision to adopt the Standards will be up to the states. A much better resolution than having Heartlands science disinformation campaign in our schools.
You can make your comment regarding the teaching of climate change in our schools right here