It was probably only a matter of time until another school district, somewhere in the U.S., decided to start trouble over the teaching of climate science–an issue that I believe is destined to become nearly as contested as the teaching of evolution. As it happens, the district is in California, the Los Alamitos Unified School District, where board members decided that “different views” on global warming must be included in an environmental science class.

The driving force behind the board’s position is reportedly a libertarian medical doctor and board member, one Jeffrey Barke. Here’s an interview with him, in which he comes off as pretty…fired up:

…anybody who challenges global warming comes under a firestorm of criticism and demagoguery from those who are true zealots. So it’s almost impossible for a scientist to come out with facts and evidence against global warming without being personally attacked and demagogued. Plimer and Lomborg are just two examples of very prominent, reputable scientists who are unfortunately just getting hammered by the media and quite personally at times. I’m not good at remembering names and details, but those two stand out because they are in the media and I’ve read some of their work. I read through the literature all the time – both from those on the right and the left – and, to me at least, it’s fairly clear that the science is not settled. And the fact that I’m being attacked personally for my beliefs is really kind of sad.

Not for your beliefs–for imposing them.

Based on the interview, Barke strikes me as an intelligent, well informed, and intellectually confident conservative–one who has made the mistake of thinking that his individual reading of some contrarian material is a sufficient basis not only for questioning mainstream science, but for altering public or educational policy on that basis:

I’m not motivated to question global warming because I’m a libertarian or conservative. I question it simply because I’ve read opinions. I’ve read science. It’s just my personal belief. I’m a medical doctor. I’m not an environmental scientist, but I’m smart enough to read articles and decipher opinions from fact.

It is a good thing Dr. Barke is so objective–unlike the rest of us.

What’s really interesting here is that if this were evolution, this school district could presumably be sued on First Amendment grounds. But it isn’t evolution, and last I checked, libertarianism does not qualify as a religion that cannot be imposed due to the separation of church and state. So what I’m wondering is, when a school district acts this way, what can one do?