By john van becay

Climate Change is not fear-mongering.  It is science—Time magazine

Durango School District 9R could learn a lesson in courage from Greta Thunberg, the 16 year old Swedish student activist who was awarded Time Magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year.   Ms. Thunberg, who has Asperger’s syndrome, has spoken before the U.N. and many other international conferences on climate, calling out world leaders who are jeopardizing her generation’s future by ignoring the seriousness of climate change.   That climate change seems debatable, that there exists both pro and con positions, that it could become the next evolution/creationism schism in schools, with deniers demanding equal representation from politically manipulated school administrators, is a horrifying possibility.  Climate change has been steadily accelerating since the advent of The Industrial Revolution with its vast increase in energy consumption.  Moreover, since the mid 20^th century, the rate of change has rocketed forward at an unprecedented rate.  Forty billion tons of CO2 are currently pumped into the atmosphere by human activity every year.  Climate change’s connection to burning fossil fuels is not casual.  It is cause and effect, a direct and clear connection.  There is no “alternate” version; deniers do not have a right to their own set of facts.  We, all of us, the world, are falling off a cliff.  District 9R claims there is no curriculum that does not present both sides of climate change.  Then make your own curriculum.  There is plenty of source material.  Kudos to 9R for allowing students to make up their own minds on this critical issue.  Thumbs down to any suggestion that climate change is not human driven or deadly serious.  Courage is facing your fear.  Courage is also speaking truth to power.  Greta Thunberg’s courage is humbling.  District 9R needs to borrow a little of her backbone and teach climate change for what it is, the 21^st century’s greatest global challenge.  It is a challenge we cannot leave for the future, but one that must be confronted today.  It is a challenge not to be faced by our children, but by us.  John Van Becay

Greta Thunberg Vs School District 9R was originally published in the Durango Telegraph Jan, 2, 2020

https://www.durangotelegraph.com/opinion/soap-box/only-one-side-to-climate-change/