A school director in Pennsylvania is demanding that an environmental science textbook used in high schools be supplemented with a pamphlet about the “true science” of global warming.

[Editor’s Note: This story has been updated. Please see below.]

Saucon Valley School Director and Tea Party Republican Bryan Eichfeld claimed “there’s a lot of clear propaganda…based on bad science” in the chapter, the point of which “is to teach our students to fear the future and to hate our modern industrial economy.”

ADVERTISEMENT

He urged his fellow school directors to reject the textbook.

In a letter, Eichfeld claimed that Environmental Science “utterly fails to present the well-founded science of man-made Global warming skeptics,” and urged them to adopt “an attachment to the book that provides students with the excluded scientific evidence and data that challenge the global warming claims made in the book.”

The supplement would be prepared by Paul Saunders, “a local expert on the deceptions of global warming alarmists” who does not live in the district.

In a presentation of his eleven page report on the topic, Saunders said that the textbook’s assertion that carbon-dioxide emissions were driving global climate change was mistaken. “The temperature is driving [carbon dioxide] emissions, not the other way around,” he testified. “The Environmental Science textbook does not adhere to the scientific method. It delivers one-sided advocacy.”

Superintendent Sandra Fellin reminded Eichfeld that “the books here match our curriculum,” and that the textbook in question had been vetted by the science department. She also stated that the board was voting on textbooks, not issues.

ADVERTISEMENT

Fellow school director Sandra Miller was taken aback that a board member would attempt to directly shape the curriculum based on a his own beliefs. “It’s not appropriate for us to be going down this road,” she said, before reminding Eichfeld that the textbook aligns with state standards and district educational policy.

“I trust our science department to maintain our department and to do the right thing,” Miller said. “The science curriculum has been reviewed by the curriculum committee. I believe we have to rely on our experts and our school to provide that curriculum.”

Update, 10:53 p.m. EST: Think Progress reported that the board rejected Eichfeld’s proposal.

ADVERTISEMENT

[“Man at Tea Party rally” via theqspeaks on Flickr, Creative Commons licensed]