NCSE Evolution and Climate Education Update for 2016/11/18
Submitted by Peter Burns on Fri, 2016-11-18 14:36.
National Center for Science Education
(by NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch)
Dear friends of NCSE, A preview of Joseph Romm's Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know. And a creationist lawsuit against Kansas over the state's adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards is at a definitive end.
A GLIMPSE OF CLIMATE CHANGE: WHAT EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW NCSE is pleased to offer a free preview of Joseph Romm's Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know (Oxford University Press, 2016). The preview consists of chapter 7, "Climate Change and You," which offers to "explore some of the more personal questions that climate change raises for individuals and their families," including "What is the best way to talk to someone who does not accept the growing body of evidence on climate science?" The reviewer for the Guardian writes, "Climate Change, What Everyone Needs to Know is a must-read for those who want to become climate literate and join the growing conversation about the greatest threat humanity faces today," and the reviewer for The Daily Beast adds, "Given the pressing need for action, Climate Change is the right book at the right time: accessible, comprehensive, unflinching, humane." For the preview of Climate Change: What Everyone Needs to Know (PDF), visit: https://ncse.com/files/pub/evolution/excerpt--romm.pdf For information about the book from its publisher, visit: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/climate-change-9780190250171?cc=us&lang=en& THE END OF COPE V. KANSAS On November 14, 2016, the Supreme Court declined to review COPE et al. v. Kansas State Board of Education et al., thus bringing the case to a decisive end. At issue was Kansas's adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards, which, according to the plaintiffs-appellants, "establish[ed] and endorse[d] a non-theistic religious worldview" in violation of the Constitution. "This is a case that was frivolous from the get-go," commented NCSE's executive director Ann Reid, noting that the federal courts have consistently recognized (in the words of McLean v. Arkansas) "that evolution is not a religion and that teaching evolution does not violate the Establishment Clause." She added, "It's a shame that Kansas was forced to devote resources to fighting this case instead of educating its schoolchildren." The lead plaintiff COPE, Citizens for Objective Public Education, is a relatively new creationist group, founded in 2012, although a number of members of its board of directors and attorneys representing it in the case -- including John H. Calvert, the founder of the Intelligent Design Network -- have a history of creationist activity. The remaining plaintiffs were a handful of children in Kansas's public schools and their parents. Originally filed in 2013, the case was dismissed by the United States District Court for the District of Kansas in 2014 on the grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing to assert any of their claims. After the court's ruling was appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, the decision was upheld in April 2016, whereupon the plaintiffs appealed to the Supreme Court in August 2016. By now, nineteen states -- Arkansas (so far for primary and middle school only), California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and West Virginia -- plus the District of Columbia have adopted the NGSS, with New Hampshire the latest to do so, in November 2016. For the Supreme Court's order (PDF, p. 2), visit: https://www.supremecourt.gov/orders/courtorders/111416zor_4fci.pdf For NCSE's collection of documents from the case, visit: https://ncse.com/legal/cope-v-kansas-state-boe And for NCSE's previous coverage of events in Kansas, visit: http://ncse.com/news/kansas WHAT'S NEW AT NCSE'S BLOG? Have you been visiting NCSE's blog recently? If not, then you've missed: * Glenn Branch pursuing the claim of Darwin's eight-hundred-fold uncertainty: https://ncse.com/blog/2016/11/we-may-well-suppose-redux-0018352 For NCSE's blog, visit: http://ncse.com/blog Thanks for reading. And don't forget to visit NCSE's website -- http://ncse.com -- where you can always find the latest news on evolution and climate education and threats to them. -- Sincerely, Glenn Branch Deputy Director National Center for Science Education, Inc. 1904 Franklin Street, Suite 600 Oakland CA 94612-2922 510-601-7203 fax 510-788-7971 branch@ncse.com http://ncse.com Check out NCSE's blog, Science League of America: http://ncse.com/blog Read Reports of the NCSE on-line: http://reports.ncse.com Subscribe to NCSE's free weekly e-newsletter: http://groups.google.com/group/ncse-news NCSE is on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter: http://www.facebook.com/evolution.ncse http://www.youtube.com/NatCen4ScienceEd http://twitter.com/ncse NCSE's work is supported by its members. Join today! http://ncse.com/join
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