Climate change deniers censor scientist from speaking to high school

From Galileo to Darwin and beyond, the greats of science have always found themselves the targets of skeptics who argue with their findings because they challenge their views.

The science of climate change has faced the same obstacles. Global warming is denied daily by Flat Earthers who trot out the same industry-backed reports over and over in an attempt to counter the reams of scientific evidence that proves climate change is real and created by human activity. Climate change denial is like a religion to them, and they take it to the point of fanaticism.

Steven Running is an ecology professor and is known as a climate change expert. He was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with none other than Al Gore (following Gore's interest in the subject). He helped write that panel's report on global warming.

Running was supposed to speak to high school students in Choteau, Montana. But then the spittle contingent - which is always influenced by corporate Bushiganda - got wind of this and cried that Running's presentation would not include an opposing view.

Maybe the reason the presentation didn't include an opposing view is that it was about facts and science. Once something is proven to be a fact - which climate change has - how do you counter it? Every time a school teaches that 2 plus 2 is 4, is the school supposed to have someone come in and try to "prove" that it's 5?

Climate change is a fact. Period. End of discussion. I wish it wasn't true, but it is.

But conservatives hate facts. So their echo chamber was upset not only at the facts presented by Running not being countered by industry dogma. The rightist noise machine wanted their own side to be the only side presented. As a result, the school superintendent canceled Running's appearance.

You read that right: A leading scientist was barred from speaking to a high school all because conservatives claim his scientific findings are wrong because they don't agree with the conservatives' dogma.

However, most folks in Choteau agree with science and want Steven Running to be allowed to speak there. The Great Falls Tribune published an article by a student supporting the forces of reason, and 7 of the 9 letters to the weekly Choteau Acantha about the matter blasted the school board for censoring Running. Only the town's right-wing Republican Establishment opposes letting Running speak.

It amazes you that a handful of wingnuts can argue with an ecology professor about climate change and the school system just gives in. It's kind of like when some Bush appointee who never got a degree in anything kept fighting with that NASA guy about it.

(Source: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/17/12817/8556/30/438315;
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/17/america/montana.php)