Background Briefings for Climate Teachers and Concerned Parents - SEPP's weekly compilation

The flood of materials about climate that comes out every week is liable to swamp anyone trying to keep up. The Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP) does a weekly email highlighting scientific papers, blog posts or materials in the mass media. You can scan this to find items of particular interest. For example, this week there is an item about the insertion of climate alarmism into English comprehension tests in the new and controversial 'Common Core' curriculum in the United States ( I have added the italics and bold):

'The eighth grade English test included several short written pieces that students had to read and respond to in order to demonstrate English mastery. One such piece was an article originally published on NASA’s website, “The Summer of 2012 –Too Hot To Handle?” The article discusses the high temperatures and drought during the summer of 2012 and looks at whether ordinary weather fluctuations or CO2-driven global warming are to blame.

After reading the article, students were asked to cite the article to describe the overall effect of increased CO2 emissions on the planet’s atmosphere. While the article included input from climate scientists John Christy, a climate change skeptic, the students’ answers were directed to focus exclusively on claims in favor of CO2-driven climate change.

“A response receiving full credit will describe the effect of increased CO2 emissions by explaining the relationship between higher temperatures and increased CO2 in the atmosphere,” says an annotation provided for teachers afterwards. Several sample answers were included, with top-scoring answers describing CO2′s effects as including rising sea levels and higher surface temperatures.

“The effect of increased CO2 emissions is that the atmosphere becomes a heat source itself… Also the average surface temperature of the entire Earth increases,” reads one answer that was awarded a perfect score.

Common Core standards cover only math and English, and do not concern science standards. Nevertheless, critics of the standards have frequently asserted that the standards will be used to push liberal political causes, and questions like that on the New York exam are unlikely to appease them.'

Source: http://dailycaller.com/2014/08/08/new-york-common-core-test-quizzes-kids-on-global-warming/

[In the US, the word 'liberal' has been hi-jacked and now denotes 'left-wing' - and, given left-wingers' determination to control the lives and thoughts of others, that is quite a switch.]

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