20990308
submission
Layzej writes:
In 2007 weatherman Anthony Watts set up the Surface Stations project at http://surfacestations.org/ . More than 650 volunteers nationwide visually inspected (and rated) 1007 of the 1221 USHCN stations. About two thirds of the stations were found to be poorly sited. Some expected that much of the warming over the last century could be attributed to poor station siting. The results are now in and may surprise many of the participants. Maximum temperature trends are underestimated at poorer sites, minimum temperature trends are overestimated at poorer sites, but these are of about the same magnitude and so the mean trend is not affected.
20937610
submission
Layzej writes:
Instead of ensuring that teachers portray science as understood by America's national academies, the Los Alamitos district school board is requiring that the classes be more politically balanced.
“I believe my role in the board is to represent the conservative voice of the community and I’m not a big fan of global warming,” said board member Jeffrey Barke, who led the effort.
The new class will be the first for which district teachers must prove political balance to the school board. The course also covers topics such as population dynamics, evolution and biodiversity, pollution, ozone depletion and human health and toxicity.
19944554
submission
Layzej writes:
On March 15 Professor Bill Cronon posted his first blog. The subject was the role of the American Legislative Exchange Council in influencing recent legislation in this state and across the country. Less than two days later his university received a communication formally requesting under the states Open Records Law copies of all emails he sent or received pertaining to matters raised in the blog.
Remarkably, the request was sent to the universities legal office by Stephan Thompson of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, with no effort to obscure the political motivations behind it. In a recent editorial the New York Times notes that demanding copies of e-mails and other documents is the latest technique used by conservatives to silence critics.
