Climate change language removed from proposed Utah science ... - Deseret News

Climate change language removed from proposed Utah science standards - Deseret News

Will climate change be purged from the new science standards for Utah’s public schools?

A mom of teenagers, a state lawmaker and pediatric emergency room physician urged State School Board to restore climate change to Utah’s state standards for science instruction
J.E. Cosgriff Memorial Catholic School students look over pieces of quartz during Earth Science Week at the Utah Geological Survey’s Core Research Center in Salt Lake City on Oct. 9, 2019.

Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

Community members urged the Utah State Board of Education to restore climate change language to proposed state science standards after it was removed by a board committee earlier this week.

A mom, a pediatric intensive care physician and a state lawmaker were among a number of Utahns who addressed the State School Board on Thursday expressing concern about the removal of climate change language from the proposed standards, among other amendments.

The committee, on a 3-2 vote, struck the final strand of the proposed standards on high school meteorology instruction, which calls for students to be taught how to evaluate proposed designed solutions intended to reduce the impacts of climate change.

Christi Leman of Provo, the mother of two teenagers, said the amendments “send a message to students that the state does not acknowledge evidence widely accepted by climatologists worldwide as well as by our own Legislature, our Department of Public Safety and our Division of Fire, Forestry and State Lands.”

Leman said the changes would deprive students “of a safe place to learn and discuss their living environment as well as critically think about possible solutions to environmental problems which would be detrimental to our children as citizens of Utah and of the world.”

Dr. Robert Cheatham, a pediatric intensive care physician, said he had never before addressed an elected body but he came to the board meeting “to express my extreme dismay at this new standard that’s going to replace the word climate change with cataclysmic events indicating that it’s more of a natural phenomenon that’s occurring.”

The full state board has not yet adopted the supplemental science standards but is expected to address them later in the day.

Cheatham said amendments to the proposed standards represent a departure from what is widely accepted science.

“I just ask that you consider the change as something that will affect our students’ ability to handle the world as it is in reality, and it’s going to become more and more of an issue for the generations facing us ahead,” he said.

Rep. Gay Lynn Bennion, D-Cottonwood Heights, said she was particularly concerned about students being able to analyze and interpret data that can help them learn about the interactions between society and the climate.

“Regardless of where you live, the Great Salt Lake is of international concern. This is true for all saline lakes throughout the world and this is because of higher temperatures year after year that are drying up these lakes. It is important that our students have a science background to understand these changes,” Bennion said.

The board has scheduled an extended session to consider proposed supplemental science standards.

The board’s Standards and Assessment Committee, which is comprised of elected State School Board members, has met twice in recent weeks to consider dozens of amendments to the proposed science standards and sent the amended standards to the full board for its consideration.

Some changes purged mentions of climate change from the document while others sought to include alternative theories about how rocks formed, such as the impact of the Great Flood described in the Book of Genesis. The latter did not receive committee approval.

During a committee meeting April 25, State School Board member Natalie Cline said she speaks for “many” people who do not agree with the “climate change agenda or narrative.”

Member Sarah Reale said students are aware of the impacts of climate change and conditions due to the groundswell of public attention on the depleted Great Salt Lake, or that on occasion they do not get to have recess outdoors when the air quality is poor.

“I don’t want to make it political. It’s facts. It’s evidence that they’re (students) seeing in front of their eyes, and I want to make sure that that’s included in our standards,” she said.

The proposed standards were written by a committee of educators, scientists and parents.