JESSE WATTERS: One city school district is closing the book on any materials in the classroom that question or deny climate change. The board in Portland, Oregon unanimously approving a resolution that calls for removing books and course materials that suggests climate change does not exist or that people are not at fault for it.
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Do you know what climate justice is first off, Sandra? Does anyone know what climate justice is? Am I going to get locked up for something like that?
LISA KENNEDY MONTGOMERY: All you do is slap the word “justice” onto any politicized term, and it's a dog whistle for the left. I mean “economic justice,” and now we've got “climate justice.” And that's exactly what it is. And it's so anti-scientific. Are you really teaching kids about science and the scientific method? Are there skeptics?
WATTERS: Aren't students supposed to learn how to ask questions? And now we can't read a book that ask questions.
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JESSIE WILLIAMS: But even if there was no book at play, I still have a problem with it although I was taught around climate justice issues and things like that, and I have my beliefs. What is wrong with encouraging dialogue, questioning, intellect? People don't know how to disagree in this country anymore, and we're not teaching kids to know how to do that either.
SANDRA SMITH: Because those are the words he had a problem with, Jessie, words like “might” and “may” and “could.”
WATTERS: Really, and, like, you can't say “he” or “she” anymore.
MONTGOMERY: Well, I mean, he talks about climate change and climate science as though it's universal, as if it's an objective fact, when there are still scientists, believe it or not, out there who say, “No, we still have to look at the data.” And it's impossible to predict how the climate is going to change over hundreds or thousands of years. I mean, that's been one of the biggest issues.
WATTERS: So getting out of the ice age, how did the Earth warm up after the ice age? There were no humans there with cars and factories. I mean, how did things warm up? These are questions that only I have the answer to. I should be teaching these courses. These aren't that hard. It gets hot, it gets cold, this spring has been freezing. It's not getting warmer, it seems like it's getting colder. Am I wrong?
WILLIAMS: Well that's the problem, though, right, it's we want a conclusion around this thing on both sides so bad that we are willing to forego letting it really run its course and doing our due diligence to find out what's going on.
WATTERS: I don't think they want a conclusion. They want to just shut people down.
