Global warming deniers win one in Montana

The forces of ignorance and Big Oil have conspired to deny high school students in one Montana town the opportunity to hear from a world-class, Nobel laureate expert on climate change.

Professor Steven Running, a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, was scheduled to speak to high schoolers in Choteau, Montana. Running was a lead author of the panel's global warming report.

But some residents of Choteau complained to the school board that Running's presentation would not include an opposing view, so board members pressured the superintendent to cancel it.

So, the superintendent cancelled it.

Running was surprised.

"Disbelief was the primary reaction," he said in an interview by telephone. "I've never been canceled before. But it was almost comical. I had a pretty candid discussion with the superintendent and the school board, and they said there were some conservative citizens who didn't want me to speak."

[Superintendent Kevin St. John] said that numerous residents had complained to school board members and that they in turn had suggested that the program be called off.

Those who complained misunderstood the content of the talk, St. John said, but there was no time to explain to all of them that Running was a leading scientist rather than an agenda-driven ideologue.

"It was my failure to articulate who he is and what he was here for," the superintendent said. "He's a Nobel scientist, highly distinguished, but people thought he was something else. Academic freedom is very important here, and science education is very important here."

That last part of St. John's quote is, of course, laughable. Academic freedom and science education are clearly not the priorities of a school district that will cancel a presentation by a Nobel Laureate climate scientist because it lacks an opposing view to global warming. There is no opposing view to global warming. At least, there is no opposing view based on peer-reviewed science. A responsible educator would understand that, and would tell the deniers not to attend, if they felt that strongly about it. What he would not do is let ignorance and corporate propaganda compromise the quality of education in his school district.

This is the same phenomenon that leads school boards throughout the United States to adopt policies requiring science classes to teach "opposing views" to evolution. The theory of evolution is the foundation of modern biology, yet many education officials are willing to force science teachers to stress that it is only one theory as to the origin of life. And of course, the opposing view that evolution deniers demand equal time for is the biblical story of creation. Never mind that the venue in question is science class, and that belief in creation is a matter of faith, not of science. Through sheer volume and repetition, creationists have managed to intimidate elected officials and educators into accepting this fraudulent "both sides" argument.

Similarly, the conservative echo chamber has succeeded in creating the perception that there is scientific doubt about the existence of, and nature of, global warming.

All is not lost, however, in Choteau. The forces of reason are fighting back.

The controversy here intensified when a local student's article criticizing school officials was published Monday on the student-created "Class Act Page" of The Great Falls Tribune, a statewide daily.

The student, Kip Barhaugh, 17, said in an interview that she had been insulted by the idea that "as a high school student prepared to enter the world I need to hear both sides of the story."

"I don't feel there is another side," she said. "Global warming is not a controversial issue, it's a fact. We need to be prepared to deal with it."

Amen.