Revolation

As if providing a postscript to the previous entry (see below), The Week provided this blip under its weekly so-appropriate banner "Only in America":

"A Seattle school district has temporarily banned schools from screening Al Gore's global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth after complaints from parent Frosty [sic.!]Hardison, an advocate of creationism. "The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD". School officials say the ban will be lifted for any teacher who accompanies Gore's film with another film representing an 'opposing view'."

Where to start. Well let's not get into the obvious criticisms of "political correctness" this boob on the part of the school board represents, and simply ask what an opposing view to Gore's really is. I have seen the movie, and as much gloom and doom as it predicts, I do not recall Al predicting "the end times" (although it may well be for anyone who lives at around sea level). Al's argument is not about nor does it depend on evolutionary theory, but rather is based on straight measurements of temperature and other current physical events, such as the breaking up of ice sheets. You then extrapolate the data into the future and predict that it could lead to a warming effect that increases sea levels dangerously. There's no theory here, but there there are opposing views. Some think that the climate may be changing but humans could not possibly put enough CO2 into the atmosphere to make a measurable difference. Some think the climate isn't even changing. But both Al's view and his opposition are based on scientific data and differ only in how to interpret that data in the context of what we know about climate and weather. So what's Frosty's point? I can understand why people would want to counter Evolution with Creationism, but countering GM with Creationism makes about as much sense to me as countering Calculus with Creationism. Perhaps Frosty would like the math teachers to present an opposing view - like the social science teachers, they'll have a job understanding what it could be!