Why don't students learn both sides of Global Warming?

Question

I am a student, and every year, after year, after year, I get "facts" about how Global Warming is happening and the consequenses it may have. Why don't teachers give students information on both sides?

Answer 1

I presume you are not yet in college.  Elementary and secondary school education is a very watered down introduction to knowledge and how it is acquired.  Subjects of great complexity such as science, history, or economics are glossed over.

As you get older and if you choose to seek knowledge rather than simply have it spoon fed, you will discover that what you are being told is not the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Teachers, like other professionals, such as  scientists, are prone to group think.  What is established wisdom is repeated, often uncritically.   Furthermore teachers have to be credentialed.  They are not free to speak their minds in challenge of established orthodoxy.

The center of gravity of the global warming debate has long since passed from the scientific to the political community.  Real scientists, who are generally very busy and as such don't have time to make movies or post cut-and-paste answers on Yahoo, are still researching and learning about the climate.  They don't pretend to have the answers.  There is however a active political community with an agenda, who seek to advance their ideas and to dissuade others from seeking further information.  Unfortunately those people have a lot of sway over the education in this country.

These people have an agenda.  Some are looking to make money.  Some want power and control over our lives.  And some have this irrational fear of the modern world and a romantic misplaced notion about nature. They wish to roll back progress to what they view as a more idyllic age.  Most of these people, were they to be faced with the nature they so love, would be quickly exterminated by nature, which is quite brutal.  

Ultimately it's up to you to learn for yourself.  Global warming, like a great many other topics is not a complete body of knowledge.  There are plenty of people ready to sell you their bag of baloney.

Answer 2

Only things that are politically correct are taught in schools today. So global warming based on Humans are the only cause, is the politically correct reason so that would be the only version taught.

Answer 3

the "debate" is more about politics than science... cirriculum writers seem to have this funny idea that the focus in science classes should be science. where to put it? if it was in 'social studies', the prerequisite science to understand the debate couldn't be assumed. school can't teach you everything. you need to take responsibility for your own learning.

Answer 4

Because we go to a liberal school where they teach us everything but the truth.

Answer 5

I am a student and doing my own research and have found that there are a lot of skeptics who say global warming is a natural cycle and you don't hear about that on the new, you only hear about how scientist say humans are the cause of global warming!!

Answer 6

Great the more I think about it the more easier it gets to lump global warming skeptics with creationists.

Answer 7

90% of teachers are politically left wing (Democrat voters in the US) - this is no exageration - just ask your teacher.  They can get away with teaching left wing political stuff in schools, but see how much they hollar if someone wants them to teach something politically conservative.  

The education system is not balanced - it never was.

Answer 8

Do you think students should be taught "both" sides of geocentrism (the ancient view that planet earth was the center of the universe and the sun revolves around it)?  Of course not.  In science, once theories are well established and accepted by the scientific community it doesn't make much sense spending time on things known to be false.  While a history of science class might touch on old rejected theories, most classes barely have time to cover what we actually do know.

In spite the efforts of a handful of people to give the impression that global warming isn't a well established and widely accepted theory in the scientific community, it really is.

Answer 9

Most teachers and professors are liberal loons and are more interested in indoctrinating their young charges into their faith to ensure their political influence will grow over time rather than giving them a well rounded education with people able to think critically on their own.

Look at how well it worked on the "master", she/he drank the kool-aid and it doesn't look like she/he will ever come back down.

Answer 10

What "both sides"?  There are no 'sides', there are only scientific facts.  It's your teachers' responsibilities to provide you with the scientific facts, not with the political garbage.

It is a fact that global warming is happening

http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs...

And it's a fact that it's going to have consequences.  Sounds to me like your teachers are doing their job.

If you really want to hear someone babble about how it's all a massive hoax, go turn on Rush Limbaugh.  That garbage doesn't belong in schools.

*edit* again, there is no debate on this issue.  Virtually all climate scientists agree that humans are the main cause of the current warming, and the few who disagree have no evidence to support their position.  There is no 'other side' to teach.

http://www.logicalscience.com/consensus/...

School isn't about teaching opinions, it's about teaching facts.  All the scientific evidence points to humans causing the current warming.

Answer 11

To be totally honest, I believe as another said school is about indoctrination not education. They said the same thing about cooling in the 70s. I also believe that our society and humans by nature have a love and fascination with everything doom and gloom. If its not a asteroid, global warming, famine, starvation, death, destruction, or any other fatal incident its not covered. Political Correctness has overrun an education system lacking in every sense of the word. They have an agenda and you will hear it.

Answer 12

For the same reason they don't teach Creationism.  

"Skeptics" of global warming don't have scientific arguments.  Their actual arguments require that scientists be either stupid or dishonest.

"It's the Sun", "it's a natural cycle", "the data is wrong",  "we can't predict climate", it's a hoax", "all the scientists are lying", etc.  All of these actually require disbelief in science.  Should disbelief in science be taught in public schools?

Answer 13

It's very simple it shouldn't even be taught. It's all lies and if you believe in it then i hate to say it but your a fool.

Answer 14

Because schools are about indoctrination, not education.

Answer 15

Here's how I take it:

Scientists say that we are all going to die because the ozone layer is being eaten away by carbon. They say that parts of Antarctica are melting.

What they DON'T say is that parts of Antarctica are expanding. 50 years ago, the big topic was that the Earth was going to enter another Ice Age. Then it was Y2K...

The thing is, scientists tell the media the BAD things to try to get us to do something about it. Do you think if an important scientist said that the Earth would get a little bit hotter for a few years then cool back down, then we would spend thousands upon thousands of dollars buying fuel efficient cars and even efficient LIGHTBULBS?

Answer 16

There aren't two sides to global warming, just like there aren't two sides to evolution. There is simply a small and very vocal minority outside of the scientific community who want you to *think* there is.

Global warming is no more controversial among scientists than the theory of gravity.