US education advocates prepare to take on climate change skeptics

New Scientist : After decades of fighting over the teaching of evolution in classrooms, US science education advocates are bracing themselves for the next battle—concerning the teaching of human-caused climate change. Over the past few years, several states, including Texas, Louisiana, and South Dakota, have introduced legislation that requires teachers to include the views of climate change skeptics. “Climate change education is kind of where evolution education was 30 years ago,” says Steven Newton, programs and policy director for the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), a nonprofit organization based in Oakland, California. Whereas creationism is a religious belief, however, climate change denial is mainly political and therefore may be harder to fight in court.