Submitted Written Testimony of Marc Morano, Publisher of Climate Depot & former staff of U.S. Senate Environment & Public Works Committee
Presented to West Virginia Board of Education Meeting
Charleston West VA on January 14, 2015 –
West Virginia’s changes to the National Next Generation Science Standards
Children deserve to have open scientific debate in school and allow dissenting views
Submitted Testimony of Marc Morano – Publisher of Climate Depot – Morano also appeared and addressed the board in person
Listen to Audio of Morano’s Oral Testimony Here.
Charleston West VA, – January 14, 2014 – Morano: I want to thank the school board for hosting this public hearing on the changes to the climate curriculum in West Virginia schools. (Media coverage of Climate Depot here, here, here, here & here.)
These changes are accurate, factual and should not be controversial. I will proceed point by point on each revision. (National Journal Features Climate Depot’s Morano warning of ‘indoctrination’ in testimony to W.VA Board Of Education Meeting – Board Votes To Reconsider Standards That ‘Cast Doubt’ On ‘Climate Change’)
First, I am here to applaud the West Virginia (skeptical) changes to the curriculum. Even if you are not a global warming skeptic, these changes are basically fostering an open debate and they are against indoctrination. We must not tell kids there is no debate and no dissent is allowed. So even if you believe the UN and Al Gore, these changes made by the West Virginia board are accurate and scientifically valid. The proposed (climate skeptical) changes by this board were perfectly reasonable.
With regards to the alleged ‘97% consensus’ – a lead UN author Dr. Richard Tol testified to the U.S. Congress that the 97% figure was “pulled out of thin air.” The 97% claim is a nonsense figure meant to intimidate when we have thousands of scientists out there openly dissenting – including Nobel Prize winners like Dr. Ivar Giaever, who actually endorsed President Obama, but he is a major global warming skeptic now. Every day more and more scientists are speaking out…scientists who used to believe that are changing their view.
The science on virtually A-Z at this point is failing and in many instances the claims are moving in the opposite direction. The global warming movement is suffering the scientific death of a thousand cuts.
We are going on 18 plus years with no global warming according to satellite data. You may hear about 2014 being the ‘hottest year’, but it is based surface data and hundredths of a degree difference between years.
There were three basic changes that West Virginia made to the curriculum,
1) Changing it to read ‘rise AND Fall of temperatures. That is perfectly valid revision made by West Virginia. We have actually had a rise in temperatures since the end of the Little Ice Age in 1850, but temperatures fell from 1940-through the 1970s then we increased from the late 1970s to late 1990s. Now we are in a standstill. Temperature go up and down. Studies show the Earth has probably seen a temperature drop since the Medieval Warm Period.
2) In terms of the West Virginia changes adding the language to the curriculum about the accuracy of climate models, A study in Nature. (See: Study in journal Nature Climate Change: 114 out of 117 climate model predictions from 1990′s wildly overestimated global warming)
So the West Virginia revisions on models questioning their accuracy are valid.
3) In terms of natural factors the revisions were accurate as well. All three of West Virginia’s revisions should be embraced even by those who agree with the UN and Al Gore. Even if you are not a global warming skeptic, the proposed changes by this board were perfectly reasonable and scientifically valid.
There is nothing controversial here except the idea that we should allow open debate and not tell kids that they have to think a certain way. The original standards teach no debate. I urge you to keep the revisions, let science win out here in the end and do not suppress dissent.
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Submitting statements for the record:
Prominent scientists have weighed in on in support of West Virginia rejecting one-sided climate education standards.
Princeton University Physicist Dr. Will Happer who has authored 200 peer-reviewed scientific papers, urged West Virginia to stand up to the global warming establishment and keep the revisions allow dissent.
“You should not let yourself be deceived by those who claim that you are opposing “science.” Science has been badly hurt by the global warming cult, and it will be hard to repair its reputation,” Happer wrote in a January 13, 2015 letter to the West VA school board in support of their state’s revisions to allow debate.
“Thanks for your courage. There are thousands of scientists who feel as I do,” Happer added. (Dr. Happer’s full letter to the West Virginia School Board is reprinted below.)
Another scientist urged West Virginia to stand strong against the climate activists who want children to be taught there is no debate on global warming.
“The science is NOT settled at all, and it would be a great disservice to children to indoctrinate them with one currently-fashionable theory,” wrote Dr. Thomas P. Sheahen on January 13, 2015 to the West VA school board. Sheahen is an MIT educated physicist and author of the book “An Introduction to High-Temperature Superconductivity.” Sheahen is the writer of the popular newspaper column “Ask the Everyday Scientist.” Sheahen is featured as one of the more than 1000 dissenting scientists from man-made global warming.
“The assertion that the ever-changing climate is dominated by CO2 simply does not hold up to numerically accurate scientific measurements,” Sheahen wrote.
“Concerning science education for children, the most accurate phrasing is ‘Children should be taught HOW to think, not WHAT to think.’ The science curriculum should retain great flexibility and openness,” Sheahen wrote.
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Climate Depot analysis of the revisions made by the Department. The revisions were made to the draft standards before they the Board placed them on public comment, and subsequently adopted them.
Original Version put forth by the National Next Generation Science Standards:
S.6.ESS.6 | ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century. |
West Virginia School Board Revised Version:
S.6.ESS.6 ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise and fall in global temperature over the past century.
Climate Depot Analysis: Global temperatures did fall from about 1940-1970s, culminating the global cooling scare of the 1970s. Temperatures then rose until late 1990s and currently we are going on over 18 years with a temperature standstill. Overall, the Earth has warmed since end of Little Ice Age in 1850.
But depending on your time scale, the Earth temperatures have remained stable or cooled since the Medieval warm period from about 900-1300 AD. We have warmed since the Roman warming period.
Geologically speaking, Earth is in one of the coolest periods on record. Rarely had the Earth been so cold as to support ice at both poles.
So the West Virginia revisions adding ‘rise and fall in global temperatures’ are scientifically valid and should remain.
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Original Version put forth by the National Next Generation Science Standards:
S.9.ESS.14 | analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems. |
West Virginia School Board Revised Version:
S.9.ESS.14 analyze geoscience data and the predictions made by computer climate models to assess their creditability for predicting future impacts on the Earth System.
Climate Depot Analysis: This West Virginia revision is scientifically valid and represents a great improvement over the original standards. Students need to know that climate models are failing and they are not supporting the dire man-made global warming narrative.
Climate models are not ‘predictions’. UN Lead Author Kevin Trenberth has called them ‘emissions scenarios’ (LINK)
UN scientist Jim Renwick said models do not account for half the variability in nature
And lead forecasting expert Dr. Scott Armstrong rejected the climate models. See: Ivy League forecasting pioneer Dr. Scott Armstrong “Of 89 principles [of forecasting], the UN IPCC violated 72.”
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Original Version put forth by the National Next Generation Science Standards:
S.HS.ENV.17 | debate climate changes as it relates to greenhouse gases, human changes in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, and relevant laws and treaties. |
West Virginia School Board Revised Version:
S.HS.ENV.17 debate climate changes as it relates to natural forces such as Milankovitch cycles, greenhouse gases, human changes in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, and relevant laws and treaties.
Climate Depot Response: The idea that CO2 is the tail that wags the dog is no longer scientifically tenable. In the peer-reviewed literature we’re finding hundreds of factors influence global temperature, everything from ocean cycles to the tilt of the earth’s axis to water vapor, methane, cloud feedback, volcanic dust — all of these factors influence climate as well as CO2. New studies are countering the simple story we’ve been told of our SUVs creating a dangerously warm planet. In the proceedings of the National Academy of Science, there was a study blaming Chinese coal use for the lack of global warming. So, in an ironic twist, global warming proponents are now claiming that that coal use is saving us from dangerous global warming.
Ivy League geologist Dr. Robert Giegengack, former chair of Department of Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania, spoke out in 2007 against fears of rising CO2 impacts promoted by Gore and others. Giegengack noted “for most of Earth’s history, the globe has been warmer than it has been for the last 200 years. It has rarely been cooler.” (LINK) “[Gore] claims that temperature increases solely because more CO2 in the atmosphere traps the sun’s heat. That’s just wrong … It’s a natural interplay. As temperature rises, CO2 rises, and vice versa,” Giegengack explained. “It’s hard for us to say that CO2 drives temperature. It’s easier to say temperature drives CO2,” he added. (LINK) ”The driving mechanism is exactly the opposite of what Al Gore claims, both in his film and in that book. It’s the temperature that, through those 650,000 years, controlled the CO2; not the CO2 that controlled the temperature,” he added. (LINK)
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Morano further comments on West Virginia Standards:
It is ironic that several speakers here today referred to alleged fossil fuel funded climate skeptics doing the bidding for industry. What has not been mentioned is that the education group Achieve, which is writing these Common Core educational standards is an Exxon-Mobil and Chevron funded group. See: Achieve.org: ‘Our Contributors…have enabled Achieve to strive toward ensuring that all students succeed.’ Contributors include: ExxonMobil…Chevron…DuPont’
It has also been reported that “the ACHIEVE standards were not authored by experts and are being advocated by climate activists. Looking at the 41 people who drafted the ACHIEVE standards, NONE are recognized climate experts. How can they develop climate science standards when they have no expertise?”
Furthermore, it has been reported that “One ‘critical stakeholder’ of ACHIEVE is the National Center for Science Education — an activist group that Michael Mann and Bill McKibben are advisers to. NCSE has been leading the charge against the balanced WV curriculum.”
The group Achieve is not beneath bullying and intimidation. The group reportedly told the West Virginia State Board of Education that if they did not follow word-by-word their standards on global warming, that they would throw West Virginia out as a member state. (Note: The leader of Achieve is Michael Cohen. Email: [email protected])
My Background:
I am not a scientist, although I do occasionally play one on TV :). My background is in political science, which happens to be an ideal background for examining man-made global warming claims. I have been passionate about environmental issues since I began my career in 1991, having produced a documentary on the myths surrounding the Amazon Rainforest in 2000 and I was a fully credentialed investigative journalist who reported extensively on environmental and energy issues such as deforestation, endangered species, pollution and climate change. I am currently producing a new global warming documentary, Climate Hustle, which will present a skeptical view of the alleged man-made climate crisis.
In my capacity as Communications Director for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee under Senator James Inhofe from 2006-2009, I was speech writer and hosted the award-winning U.S. Senate blog. I released the first ever U.S. Government “Skeptic’s Guide To Debunking Global Warming Alarmism” in 2006. I also authored the 255-pageSenate report of over 700 dissenting scientists on man-made global warming originally published in 2007 and updated in 2008, 2009. In 2010, the number of dissenting international scientists exceeded 1000. I am now the publisher of the award-winning Climate Depot and work daily with scientists who examine the latest peer-reviewed studies and data on the climate.
Related Links:
Watch: Morano & other skeptics featured in TV News in WVA on school curriculum
“Global warming is far from settled science,” said Marc Morano, publisher of Climate Depot. ”Every day more and more scientists are speaking out…scientists who used to believe that are changing their view.
Morano: ‘We come to stand up for science today and scientific dissent. Even if you are not a global warming skeptic, the proposed changes by this board were perfectly reasonable and completely scientifically valid. So what happened here today was political correctness and pressure beared down on West Virginia and West Virginia folded,’ said Marc Morano, Climate Depot publisher.
About 20 people spoke up at Wednesday’s meeting, and there were strong opinions from both sides. “Even if you are not a global warming skeptic, the proposed changes by this board were perfectly reasonable and scientifically valid,” Marc Marano, publisher of Climate Depot, said.
Morano testifies in WVa: WV Board of Education removes controversial climate standards – “Global warming is far from settled science,” said Marc Morano, publisher of Climate Depot. ”Every day more and more scientists are speaking out…scientists who used to believe that are changing their view.”
W.Va. state school board moves back toward original climate change standards
National Journal: At West Virginia’s Board of Education meeting Wednesday, activists on both sides of the education debate pleaded their case…
Marc Morano, a former staffer for the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and a prominent climate-change skeptic, was on hand to argue that the altered standards should be kept in place. “I’m here to applaud the West Virginia changes … these changes are basically fostering an open debate and they are against indoctrination to tell kids that there is no debate and you cannot dissent,” Morano said.
West Virginia decides to teach global warming propaganda to kids
Common Core Curriculum: A Look Behind the Curtain of Hidden Language: “They were developed by an organization called Achieve and the National Governors Association, both of which were generously funded by the Gates Foundation. There was minimal public engagement in the development of the Common Core. Their creation was neither grassroots nor did it emanate from the states.” Instead, Common Core is being driven by policymakers in D.C. Common Core is set up in such a way that it can hardly be called voluntary.
Common Core’s Little Green Soldiers
New Science Standards Draw Some Criticism
Morano at West VA Capitol
Being interviewed by TV News