Book rejecting climate science sent to teachers

Kendrick High School science teacher Eric McDowell is one of thousands of teachers to receive a copy of “Why Scientists Disagree on Climate Change,” a book being distributed nationwide through the mail by a conservative, Illinois-based think tank, the Heartland Institute.

Approximately 200,000 copies of the book – which denounces the claim that 97 percent of scientists believe climate change is manmade and dangerous as false and “an insult to science” – have been distributed to K-12 teachers and college professors across the country, according to the Heartland Institute’s website.

The book was mailed out with a cover letter that asked teachers to “consider the possibility that the science in fact is not ‘settled.’ ”

“I got a copy but didn’t bother reading it as it is a waste of my time,” McDowell wrote in an email to the Daily News. “Thus, it got sent to the recycling center for their employees’ perusal.”

In addition, the mailing includes a copy of an 11-minute DVD titled “History of Climate Change in Greenland.” The film was previously released under the title “Unstoppable Solar Cycles: Rethinking Global Warming.”

The book was first released in December 2015, at the time of the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Paris.

The second edition of the book, which is currently being distributed, includes a foreword by Marita Noon, executive director for Energy Makes America Great Inc. and the Citizens’ Alliance for Responsible Energy. She is also listed in the book’s preface as a columnist for Breitbart.com and other conservative publications.

Noon writes, “The global warming movement is the most extensive and most expensive public relations campaign in the history of the world. Nearly every government agency in the United States and many more around the world are promoting the manmade-climate-change-scare scenario.”

On Monday, Pat Blount, a physics and math teacher at Moscow High School, wrote in an email to the Daily News that he had not heard of or received a copy of the book.

As the publication largely rejects mainstream climate science, Blount, who has taught for 29 years, gave his viewpoint on the topic, referencing a 2007 YouTube video titled “The Most Terrifying Video You’ll Ever See,” posted by climate change author Greg Craven.

In the video Craven explains four possible outcomes of climate change. There are two worst case scenarios, Blount wrote, summarizing the video: The world plans for climate change and it turns out to be false, leading to a possible global economic depression, or the world denies climate change and it turns out to be true, leading to catastrophic collapses of economies, environmental and health systems and society.

“So, we have a choice between two outcomes – financial stress to the max or stresses that far exceed our imaginations. I choose the former,” Blount wrote in an email to the Daily News. He added the argument does not predicate either on political affiliation or blame for the causes, and he does not see how the publication from the Heartland Institute would influence anything he taught in class.