As most people know, I took APES and am a strong supporter of environmental protection. That is why after reading this article, I was stunned. I do not understand why there are people who think that climate change is just an idea that was made up.
In the New York Times article, it discussed how after seeing some leaked documents, it was found that the Heartland Institute had been planning to "undermine the teaching of global warming in public schools." The Heartland Institute is a company that is dead set against global warming. I find this completely ridiculous as global warming is something that needs to be dealt with and clearly apparent. It is companies like the Heartland Institute that block reform through their lobbying and sketchy funding. According to the New York Times article, Heartland is funded by many drug and oil companies. In one of the documents, it is said to have enclosed a plan to create a curriculum that would protest whether or not humans really are the cause of climate change. I feel that this plan of creating a curriculum to teach something that has been proven false is quite evil (for lack of a better word) as the Heartland Institute seems to be targeting newer generations as they will be the ones that will get this lesson, if they ever get it. These newer generations are really the ones that need to know that the human race's habits are unsustainable. Obviously, I don't think that Heartland will cause any change, but the idea that they thought to do this is quite disturbing.
So what do you think? Am I just overreacting? Is this something that we should just forget about? Is the environment worth it? Thoughts? Feelings?
I find it repulsive that there are groups like the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change who meet every year to just say that Climate Change does not exist.
2 comments:
I agree with Dustan on this; I find this entire issue enormously disconcerting. While interest groups can be good for representing the public interest and gaining coverage/consideration for issues that might otherwise not get any, it's scary to see to what uses that freedom can be put. Having seen Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," I think it's nothing short of frightening that there are people determined that global warming is simply a matter of belief. What's even more concerning is that this group's supporters all have self-interest (for their business) in opposing climate change. "Opposing climate change" sounds ridiculous. It's global warming, not politics.
Oh. Except it is.
While it is terrible that an organization would attempt to mislead the public on global warming, it really isn't a surprise. In many controversial issues, there are people / groups that supports one side while others argue the other side. Thus, if (as Dustan points out) the heartland institute is unlikely to be able to sway public opinion in the wrong direction, there really shouldn't be much reason to worry about it. Much like the proponents of manual focus...
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