Writing in the Austin American-Statesman (November 6, 2014), Camille Parmesan and Alan I. Leshner called on the Texas state board of education to insist on the correction of scientifically inaccurate material about climate change in social studies textbooks currently under consideration for state adoption. "Texas educators should reject the new textbooks unless they are edited to address the serious concerns outlined by the National Center for Science Education," they argued.
Along with the Texas Freedom Network, NCSE previously charged that "an examination of how proposed social studies textbooks for Texas public schools address climate change reveals distortions and bias that misrepresent the broad scientific consensus on the phenomenon." A number of errors about climate science were present, as well as a quotation from a notorious climate change denial organization presented in rebuttal of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
"Children cannot compete in the global marketplace of the future unless they achieve science literacy," Parmesan and Leshner concluded. "Students deserve to know the true scientific facts about human-caused climate change." Parmesan is a professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas, Austin, and a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; Leshner is the chief executive officer of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
The Texas state board of education is expected to hold a final vote on the social studies textbooks on November 21, 2014. As NCSE previously reported, petitions calling for correction of the errors on climate science in the textbooks signed by over 24,000 Texans were delivered to the board and the publishers on October 20, 2014. It isn't too late for concerned Texans to add their voices in support of the integrity of science education by signing the petition cosponsored by NCSE and the Texas Freedom Network.