Further to “More on Darwin lobby’s foray into climate change,” Susan Young reports for Nature (January 17, 2012) “Evolution advocate turns to climate”:
In a 16 January announcement, the NCSE says that it will offer support to educators facing ideological opposition when teaching climate change, providing advice on how to present the underlying science. The strategy mirrors its approach to evolution, which includes clarifying for students why science is an appropriate tool for understanding the natural world. “This perspective is also important in helping people to understand the reasons why scientists overwhelmingly accept climate change,” the NCSE says in a mission statement describing the new effort.
But the fact is that they never got very far with convincing the public about Darwinian evolution (and make no mistake, that is the only kind they are interested in). So it isn’t clear what they are bringing to the climate change lobby. Massive funding? Unlikely. No-holds-barred litigation? But that buccaneer approach hasn’t gone so well for them recently.
The statement also says that the NCSE will not take a position on what, if anything, should be done to counteract global warming or mitigate its effects. “What to do about it ranges widely and gets outside of the strict science and into policy issues in which many, many variables are going to have to be considered,” says Scott. “We are not a policy think tank; we don’t have expertise in this area.”
So they plan to dilute their Darwin message by taking on climate change, without offering any suggestions about what to do about the latter? They didn’t have that problem when they were defending Darwin myths in the textbooks.
One senses some kind of cultural weakness here. Thoughts?
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