Climate Change, Evolution Linked as Lawmakers Urge Teaching of Dissenting Views

Disbelievers in human evolution are taking a new tack in several states, linking evolution to the on-going dispute over global warming and insisting that students should be exposed to dissenting views on both subjects.

A bill recently introduced in the Kentucky legislature encourages teachers to discuss "the advantages and disadvantages of scientific theories" such as evolution, "the origins of life, global warming and human cloning," the New York Times reports.

That bill hasn't passed, but in Louisiana, a 2008 law advises that the State Board of Education may assist teachers in promoting "critical thinking" on such subjects as evolution and climate change. And in Texas, the state Board of Education has embraced a requirement that teachers present all sides of the debate on evolution and global warming. Legislation introduced in Oklahoma City last year has similar goals.

The Times says the linkage of the two issues is part of a legal strategy to bypass consistent court rulings that say singling out evolution for criticism in public schools violates the constitutional separation of church and state. By expanding the discussion to include global warming, creationists and advocates of intelligent design can assert that they are merely championing academic freedom.

But the strategy also appear to be an attempt to capitalize on strong conservative resistance to the case for global warming -- widely accepted in the scientific community -- and the costs associated with controlling it. On Capitol Hill, momentum for restricting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases -- blamed for a gradual warming of the planet -- has slowed.