Editor:
Re: Support our students (Aug. 23)
A letter writer begs the School Board to “support our students’ urgent need for real, relevant, and revolutionary learning around [climate change].”
He says “revolutionary,” but he urges the opposite. He would have students adopt the consensus that the “climate crisis” is scientifically proven. But to adopt the conventional wisdom is the most unrevolutionary thing a student could do.
A revolutionary education would begin with the caveat that science doesn’t prove anything. “Proofs are possible in mathematics but not in science,” says climatologist Judith Curry. “In science, we discuss the available evidence and theories, and draw provisional conclusions. With time and additional evidence, our confidence in the conclusions may increase or decrease.”
A revolutionary student would distance herself from the climate crisis bandwagon. Why? Because she rejects premature theories. Why? Because of the important questions that don’t get asked. And the investigations that aren’t undertaken.
A revolutionary scientist does not denigrate other scientists who disagree with her. She does not inoculate climate science from scrutiny. She sees how the climate community has prematurely elevated a scientific hypothesis on human-caused climate change to a ruling theory through claims of a consensus.
On the first day of school, a revolutionary student will delight in hearing that “for every complex problem there is an answer that is clear and simple – and wrong” (H.L. Mencken).
Revolutionary learning – bring it on!
P. J. Reece, Gibsons
