Omaha.com reports on the school board that made this decision here. This book has been around since 2007. Since she’s married to Seinfeld producer Larry David, so it fits right in with the rest of the Seinfeld saga. For example, did you know NASA GISS is over “Monks restaurant” from the show? No, really.
An SPPI report on David’s book in 2007 said:
On page 18 of Laurie David’s new children’s global warming book, there is a glaring scientific error. David tells children:
Deep down in the Antarctic ice are atmosphere samples from the past, trapped in tiny air bubbles. These bubbles, formed when snowflakes fell on the ice, are the key to figuring out two things about climate history: what temperatures were in the past and which greenhouse gases were present in the atmosphere at that time. The more the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the higher the temperature climbed. The less carbon dioxide, the more the temperature fell. You can see this relationship for yourself by looking at the graph:
David adds:
What makes this graph so amazing is that by connecting rising CO2 to rising temperature scientists have discovered the link between greenhouse-gas pollution and global warming.
What really makes their graph “amazing” is that it’s dead wrong.
In order to contrive a visual representation for their false central claim that CO2 controls temperature change, David and co-author Cambria Gordon present unsuspecting children with an altered temperature and CO2 graph that falsely reverses the relationship found in the scientific literature.
The actual temperature curve in the chart was switched with the actual CO2 curve. That is, the authors mislabelled the blue curve as temperature and mislabelled the red curve as CO2 concentration. The real data show that the red curve represents the temperature changes over geological time, followed (lagged) by changes in CO2 concentrations represented by the blue curve. Thus, children tracing the properly labelled curves from right to left (from past to present) can easily see the real, science-based relationship (particularly clear in the interval between 500,000 and 150,000 years ago).
The David-Gordon manipulation is critical because the central premise of the book argues that CO2 drives temperature, yet the ice core data clearly reveal temperature increases generally precede increasing CO2 by several hundred to a few thousand years. This fact may have been too inconvenient for David, who instead presented young readers with an astoundingly irresponsible falsehood. Parents and teachers of these children should be concerned.
More here in the SPPI report
============================================
From Omaha.com:
By Joe Dejka
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Millard Public Schools will stop using a children’s book about global warming — but only until the district can obtain copies with a factual error corrected.
A review committee, convened after parents complained, concluded that author Laurie David’s book, “The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming,” contained “a major factual error” in a graphic about rising temperatures and carbon dioxide levels.
Mark Feldhausen, associate superintendent for educational services, this week sent a letter to parents who complained, including the wife of U.S. Rep. Lee Terry of Nebraska, outlining the committee’s findings.
…
Three parents, including Robyn Terry, complained to the district. The Terrys’ 12-year-old son attended Beadle Middle School last year. Mrs. Terry said that the materials used in his class portrayed global warming as fact when scientists disagree.
In the video, DiCaprio attributes global warming to mankind’s “destructive addiction” to oil. He says “big corporations” and politicians gained too much money and power “on our addiction,” making them “dangerously resistant to change.”
…
Corrected versions will continue to be used in Millard’s sixth-grade language arts curriculum, he wrote.
However, the district will cease to use a companion video about global warming, narrated by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, he wrote.
The committee found the video “without merit” and recommended that it not be used.
More here.
h/t to Dr. Leif Svalgaard
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GeoFlynx,
You are misrepresenting the situation.
SPPI has never taken the position that there is no AGW. On the contrary, SPPI regularly points out that human activity may raise the temperature as much as 1°C [over half of that has already occurred]. Such an increase would be hugely beneficial for the biosphere, and poses no threat.
And how can anyone be “anti global warming”? The planet has been naturally warming since the end of the LIA. We already know that, so why go on an anti-Monckton rant? Does he really derange you folks that much?
Dave Wendt says:
June 18, 2010 at 10:50 pm
Given the growing numbers of children being presented for treatment with stress and anxiety problems related to fears generated by their nearly constant exposure to CAGW propaganda, perhaps rather than trying to get the green loons at EPA, the kleptocrats in Congress, and Obama’s collectivist mafia to recognize the weaknesses of CAGW science, it would be more productive to launch child abuse complaints against every school district that still features this terrorizing propaganda…..
______________________________________________________________________
All it takes is a really smart lawyer and a grand jury. Citizens in the USA really need to find out what their rights and duties are.
“The primary function of a jury is not, as many think, to dispense punishment to fellow citizens accused of breaking various laws, but rather to protect fellow citizens from tyrannical abuses of power by government….” http://fija.org/
Grand Jury
“The U.S. Attorneys Manual states that prosecutors “must recognize that the grand jury is an independent body, whose functions include not only the investigation of crime and the initiation of criminal prosecution but also the protection of the citizenry from unfounded criminal charges” (USAM, Section 9-11.010). The Manual recognizes that targets of investigations have the right and can “request or demand the opportunity to tell the grand jury their side of the story” (USAM, Section 9-11.152).
The Supreme Court states that the independent grand jury’s purpose is not only to investigate possible criminal conduct, but to act as a “protector of citizens against arbitrary and oppressive governmental action,” and to perform its functions, the independent grand jury “deliberates in secret and may determine alone the course of
its inquiry” (United States v. Calandra, 414 U.S. 338 (1974)). An independent grand jury is to “stand between the prosecutor and the accused,” and to determine whether a charge is legitimate, or is “dictated by malice or personal ill will” (Hale v. Henkel, 201 U.S. 43 (1906)). The grand jury is to protect citizens against “hasty, malicious and oppressive persecution” and to insure that prosecutions are not “dictated by an intimidating power or by malice and personal ill will” (Wood v. Georgia, 370 U.S. 375 (1962)). The independent grand jury is described as “a body with powers of investigation and inquisition, the scope of whose inquiries is not to be limited narrowly by questions of propriety or forecasts of the probable result of the investigation” Branzburg v. Hayes, 408 U.S. 665 (1972)). “Without thorough and effective investigation, the grand jury would be unable either to ferret out crimes deserving of prosecution, or to screen out charges not warranting prosecution.” (U.S. v. Sells Engineering, 463 U.S. 418 (1983))….” http://www.fija.org/docs/JG_on_the_grand_jury.pdf
“GeoFlynx says:
June 19, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Yes, of course the Science and Public Policy Institute, one of the most vehement anti-global warming “groups”, would come out against any book about AGW.”
Your solution? Don’t correct the error and hope the kids won’t notice?
For a specific description of Viscount Moncton’s position, see here.
I think they just used some smoothing function that artificially distorts the time axis of both Temperature and CO2 (they didn’t switch them, they just artificially smoothed them). Smooth CO2 over 25,000 years (or 1000 datapoints) and you could get a chart like the book has shown above. (That is part of the reason I don’t like smoothing any data unless it is too variable to see properly).
There is really no time period in the 800,000 years of data where CO2 leads temperature. Zoom-in to any period and CO2 always changes after Temperatures.
http://img707.imageshack.us/img707/5052/last800k.png
For example, here is a Zoom-in on the Interglacial at 335,000 years ago where the chart from the book seems to show a 20,000 year lead-in period for CO2 before Temperatures increase. Nope, there is the usual 800 year lag for when CO2 rises after Temperatures start increasing.
http://img576.imageshack.us/img576/3559/interglacial335k.png
The above is just one example of the utter crap fed to our kids today. Textbooks that cost the earth are riddled with errors. I could not find the website I was actually looking for that had some absolutely hilarious examples, but I did run across this:
None Dare Call It Education
As usual it is a mix of truth and religion, but it does document some of the problems in our education system
“….official state Outcome-Based Education guidelines instruct teachers to encourage children to guess at words and meanings from pictures printed with the stories rather than teaching them to sound out words phonetically.
…”new-new math” books tell students that math isn’t too important anymore because computers do the work and then instructs them to “guess and check” until they get right” answers.
Chapter 1 also gives the details on how when Massachusetts started testing incoming teachers in 1998…
…56% of the college graduates being tested for teaching jobs flunked. To help more pass, the State Board of Education lowered the “passing grade” for the eighth-grade level test. The governor was outraged. He expressed concerns that “perhaps thousands of teachers in the classroom today are not meeting the standards.” Similar alarming reports are documented from other states…..”
Talk about “It is worse than we thought!”
A big problem today is in most families both parents have to work to make ends meet so Mom is not as available to closely supervise her children’s education. I can certainly remember my Mom raising Cain about various problems but that does not seem to happen as much now.
Gail Combs,
I just ran across this. Figured it might be right up your alley.☺
‘The Children’s Book of American Birds’, dedicated to Alexander Worple.
H/t Plum
==============================
Di Caprio? What does he have to do with this? Sure he’s a good and well paid actor but has he any science qualification? Or does his good looks beef up the argument? It’s a bit like saying I think I may have a serious medical problem. Now, who should I consult? Robert Redford or my doctor. When they bring in the celebrities, you know the argument is running pretty weak (no pun intended).
I am sorry, but the curves are actually not mislabeled. The biggest error is, in fact, that the current level of CO2 in the atmosphere is not visible. It would show up as a vertical red bar reaching the top of the chart on its far left side.
Anders L. says: June 21, 2010 at 5:42 am
I am sorry, but the curves are actually not mislabeled. The biggest error is, in fact, that the current level of CO2 in the atmosphere is not visible. It would show up as a vertical red bar reaching the top of the chart on its far left side.
Apparently you haven’t seen the original graph from the literature, indicating that CO2 levels were higher in the past. So, who’s the real denier here.
GeoFlynx says:
June 19, 2010 at 4:15 pm
Yes, of course the Science and Public Policy Institute, one of the most vehement anti-global warming “groups”, would come out against any book about AGW. Is not the Lord Monkton 3rd Viscount of Brenchley and former Science Advisor to Margaret Thatcher a charter member?
REPLY: So are you interested in accuracy in the education of our children or do you just want to play anonymous rant-o-matic? Sheesh. SPPI was right. The school board is right to pull the book, and your foaming won’t change that. Take a time out. – Anthony
GeoFlynx – Yes, It looks like children in Omaha won’t be learning about “Cross Correlation” anytime soon thanks to the good works of the SPPI. Leads and Lags aside, the correlation is obvious and is the larger point being made. As to our children’s education, I find the prospect of intellectual censorship by private interests chilling.
GeoFlynx says:
June 21, 2010 at 8:57 am
“I find the prospect of intellectual censorship by private interests chilling.”
Now, are you implying that the (deliberate?) misrepresentation of factual data is an intellectually protected educational tool?
Maybe you should consider that the truly chilling prospect is public education indoctrinating our children to believe what is ‘correct’ as opposed to following the facts where they lead.
Your side is sick. Your logic is as sick as your science.
This was pulled from the school because of a factual error. One which is quite clear and obvious to the world. To refer to that as intellectual censorship is very disgusting.
Now, go sit in timeout.
Wow. I’m really surprised that the WUWT crowd has still not gotten past the 800 year lag. This is really basic stuff folks.
Many of us are aware that the warmists have come up with a way of explaining it away, but we’re unconvinced.