Posted on 11/14/2016 7:04:38 PM PST by Phillyred
My son is a high school freshman and has a leftist teacher for environmental "science". He is pushing man made climate change and ozone depletion. Any recent book recommendations for his age? Web sites?
Also, any suggestions on how to take his tests and answer the way he is "supposed to" but making it clear he doesn't agree?
Thanks!
“There is no value in antagonizing the instructor. It won’t end well for your son.
Just have him regurgitate what ever is required, and move on. It’s your job to make sure he knows the truth.”
That’s what I tell my kids. Regurgitate, but know inside it’s all Bullshiite.
My daughter has her AP “Commie English teacher” completely fooled. She laughs at all the A’s she receives.
And I tell her how proud I am of her!
Look up Bjørn Lomborg. He has an active website and some older books.
More recent is this very good anthology of articles: https://www.amazon.com/Climate-Change-Facts-J-Abbot/dp/0986398306/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=YCCY5HPRDD5R4WGA45CS
Ping
If your son has to regurgitate a bunch of leftist lies to get an A, maybe he should just regurgitate the lies.
Academic Rule #1: Always get the A.
He can ASK thoughtful questions. He could ask for example, what kinds of things might hinder global warming?
If CO2 is the problem, how have the CO2 levels changed? What were they 50 years ago and what are they now?
How do plants affect CO2? Would more trees help?]
What are the sources of your information about global warming? Keep asking that everytime a fact is pumped out...well, within reason.
Use science and physics to show why CO2 CAN’t be the cause of global warming, how about particulates?
How do rockets, space station launches and air planes affect the atmosphere? How long would it take for the air to cleanse itself if these things were stopped? (About 1 week produces a noticeable difference...think back on when planes were grounded during 911)
If global warming/climate change is man made, why are the other planets in the solar system also experiencing it?
Make sure he can cite sources for his questions in case he’s asked such as the one about the other planets also warming.
Do you think sunspot activity has an effect on climate change? Why or why not? What might those changes be?
If he’s asking questions, it shows interest in the subject, it shows he’s thinking, especially if he learns how to phrase his questions.
Dr. So and so says that the CO2 levels in 1918 were...xyz, and that they are the same today. What other factors might be contributing to climate change?
Climate Change is actually more appropriate because the climate on the earth is always changing, always has! From tropics at the North Poles to ice ages in mid continent, Climate change can’t be disputed. But the causes of it can be many!
“Watts up with that” is a great website
That.
Skeptics Handbook (download PDF parts 1 and 2).
The Most Comprehensive Assault On 'Global Warming' Ever
Another Study Exposes NOAA Temperature Fraud
NASA Shock Study: Antarctica Is Growing Not Shrinking
I've talked with Happer and he's a good guy. The forumulas may be too much for your kid:
Happer’s Statement: CO₂ will be a major benefit to the Earth
I've talked with Tony Heller as well:
Global Warming Hoax
Gore Lied Blog
No Trick Zone
Ditto for “Climate Change: The Facts” Some parts may be too technical for a HS freshman, but everything is well-presented.
Dr. Tim Ball, Ph.D.
http://drtimball.com/
I am also a fan of Michael Crichton’s “State of Fear” but it is a novel.
I think you have to recognize the power inequities in the situation and advise your son to play along - at least until he has is college acceptances in his hip pocket. In the mean time I would say simply keep asking for the publicly available observational data to support whatever the teacher says and look at it for himself especially if he is comfortable working with numbers and putting together his own simple graphs.
More important, in my mind, is the developing of a skeptical mind-set. Bjorn Lomborg’s is a great overview and an easy, if voluminous, read. It is also an invaluable and monumental source of references. The entire premise of the book is simply, “what they say is not reflected in the data!” I would add one more book, my personal favorite, Aaron Wildavsky’s “But Is It True?” It is a bit more dense but it is a superb introduction to addressing public policy issues with skepticism. Both Wildavsky’s and Lomborg’s book are older so there is a need for one more suggestion.
With the right skeptical mind-set there is nothing wrong with going to the one resource that his teacher will have the hardest time refuting and is the one source with which his teacher is unlikely to be familiar. The IPCC’s 2013 Technical Reports (AR5). They are massive but they are all on line and actually not very difficult to read. Reading them with a skeptical mind-set, i.e., paying attention to all the qualifiers and differentiating between observations and model output, leads to very different conclusions. The teacher will have a hard time arguing with any statement on the form, “In chapter x of the AR5 page y, they show a chart where ....”
Good luck to your son.
Anything by Ray is great. Also, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Global Warming and Environmentalism by Christopher Horner is very good reading for a high school reader.
ask one hypothetical requiring a yes\no answer.
Take humans out of the equation: does climate change ?
Below is a link to the book. I started reading the book at this on-line location and found it to be very interesting, and feel it is one of the most important books I've ever read. The online book doesn't have all the graphs and tables that the original book does, so I ordered myself a copy of the book from Amazon.
This book offers all sorts of information/references that support the different arguments about the scarcity of energy and natural resources. Puts the "big green monster" in the political light and reveals the rumors that are spoken as if they are facts.
http://www.juliansimon.com/writings/Ultimate_Resource/
I recommend Michael Crichton’s 2004 novel: “State of Fear.”
He knew and presented the science, exposing the HOAX . . . and it’s a great read.
Have you chikld ask the teacher how just 0.00136% of the atmosphere can possibly trap and release enough heat back towards earth to wamr the whole planet- Ask the teacher for specific numbers (ie: the weight of heat trapped and back radiated compared to the mass volume of earth’s air... I’m betting the teacher won’t wanna look foolish by showing how insignificant the amount of trapped heat is compared to total volume of air)
If the teacher asks where that 0.00136% comes from you child can say “The atmosphere is comprised of 0.04% CO2 and other heat trapping sources- of that 0.04% man is responsible for just 3.4%- so 3.4% of 0.04% = 0.00136% of the total amosphere- that is the amo0unt of atmosphere that has CO2 in it as a direct result of all of man’s CO2 production
Then have you child say “If I dump 0.00136% of a pool’s total volume of 100 degree water into the pool of water that is 95 degrees- will that cause ‘catastrophic warming’ of the pool? In other words- if i dump roughly a 5 gallon pail of 100 degree water into an olympic sized pool of 95 degree water- will that raise the temperature to a catastrophic level?
Then have the child ask “Since ice core samples show that CO2 rises 8000 Years AFTER temperatures rise- how is it possible that CO2 causes temperatures to rise?
“In their seminal paper on the Vostok Ice Core, Petit et al (1999) [1] note that CO2 lags temperature during the onset of glaciations by several thousand years but offer no explanation. They also observe that CH4 and CO2 are not perfectly aligned with each other but offer no explanation. The significance of these observations are therefore ignored. At the onset of glaciations temperature drops to glacial values before CO2 begins to fall suggesting that CO2 has little influence on temperature modulation at these times.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/12/27/vostok-and-the-8000-year-time-lag/
(Just be aware that your child’s teacher may have some cockamamie explanation which defies actual science-)
I am also a fan of Michael Crichton’s “State of Fear” but it is a novel.
I think you have to recognize the power inequities in the situation and advise your son to play along - at least until he has is college acceptances in his hip pocket. In the mean time I would say simply keep asking for the publicly available observational data to support whatever the teacher says and look at it for himself especially if he is comfortable working with numbers and putting together his own simple graphs.
More important, in my mind, is the developing of a skeptical mind-set. Bjorn Lomborg’s is a great overview and an easy, if voluminous, read. It is also an invaluable and monumental source of references. The entire premise of the book is simply, “what they say is not reflected in the data!” I would add one more book, my personal favorite, Aaron Wildavsky’s “But Is It True?” It is a bit more dense but it is a superb introduction to addressing public policy issues with skepticism. Both Wildavsky’s and Lomborg’s book are older so there is a need for one more suggestion.
With the right skeptical mind-set there is nothing wrong with going to the one resource that his teacher will have the hardest time refuting and is the one source with which his teacher is unlikely to be familiar. The IPCC’s 2013 Technical Reports (AR5). They are massive but they are all on line and actually not very difficult to read. Reading them with a skeptical mind-set, i.e., paying attention to all the qualifiers and differentiating between observations and model output, leads to very different conclusions. The teacher will have a hard time arguing with any statement on the form, “In chapter x of the AR5 page y, they show a chart where ....”
Good luck to your son.
Serbian Astrophysicist Milankovitch explained ice age and warming cycles dating back 400,000 years.
When he posited his theory in the 1920s, his peers initially scoffed, until 50 years later when deep-sea sediment samples proved he was correct.
Global warming is a naturally occurring phenomena and has been occurring for hundreds of thousands of years. Mankind has nothing to do with it.
It is amazing how simple math can show just how false the arguments are for human caused global warming.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.