Essay by Eric Worrall
I wonder if there is a case for challenging mandatory climate studies on the grounds that belief in catastrophic climate change is the state religion?
‘Face it’: Connecticut mandated to study climate change
Curriculum inclusion in law protects the subject from budget cuts and culture wars related to the climate crisis
Saturday, December 17, 2022 19.00 AEDT
Starting in July, Connecticut will become one of the first states in the US to mandate climate change studies in public schools as part of the science curriculum.
The new law passed earlier this year is part of the state’s effort to address concerns over short-term — and in some cases absent — classroom climate change studies. learn. This requirement follows in the footsteps of New Jersey, which in 2020 became the first state to mandate climate change education from kindergarten through 12th grade in its school districts.
Present, almost 90% of public schools across Connecticut incorporate climate change studies into their curricula. However, by making it part of state law in grades 5 through 12, Climate education will be effectively protected from budget cuts and climate denialist politics at a time when education in the United States has become a serious cultural battleground.
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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2022/dec/17/climate-change-studies-connecticut
There is legal precedent for making belief in catastrophic climate change a religion.
In 2009, a judge in the UK ruled in favor of plaintiff Tim Nicholson in an unfair dismissal. The judge found that Tim’s climate beliefs enjoy the same legal protection as a person of religious faith. Tim is suing his employer for firing him on the grounds that he believes in catastrophic climate change. “…In an important decision today, a judge found Nicholson’s views on the environment so profound that they were entitled to the same protections as religious beliefs and ruled that employment courts should adjudicated his claim that he was fired for his beliefs. …”.
Although Tim’s case occurred in England, U.S. courts sometimes refer to legal precedent from other countries with similar legal systemswhen such foreign legal systems are considered by the courts of the United States to be legitimate sources of jurisprudence.
How will a court ruling that CAGW is a religion help children in Connecticut?
There is another precedent that might be helpful. In the early 2000s, there was a push in Kansas to teach Smart design next to or instead of evolution in biology classes. In 2005, Bobby Henderson founded the Church of flying pasta monsterand use this alleged religion to demand equal access to Smart design course curriculum, on the grounds that teaching only a religious perspective in Smart Design courses violates the separation of church and state.
A court ruling that CAGW is the religion of the state could similarly be used by climate skeptics to demand equal access to the syllabus of climate religion studies courses. in states like Connecticut.
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