Nova Scotia says "NO" to The Great Global Warming Swindle

In posts last week at Officially Screwed and on this blog readers were asked to send an email to the Ministers of Education in the Provinces across Canada to request that they show the British Channel 4 movie, The Great Global Warming Swindle to all students who were shown Al Gore’s movie An Inconvenient Truth.

While I would like to thank Ann Blackwood, Director of English Program Services at the Nova Scotia Dept. of Education for her prompt reply, I am sad to report that The Great Global Warming Swindle won't be approved for viewing in schools in that province anytime soon.

Thank you for your email to Minister Karen Casey who has requested that I respond directly to the concern you express.

Those who are promoting the film, An Inconvenient Truth, have not followed Department of Education procedures requiring comprehensive evaluation of education media first for bias and then for curriculum relevance and other criteria specified by the Department.

Consequently, the Department of Education has not authorized use of the film as an educational resource and does not endorse decisions made at the school level to show this film to students during instructional time.

With reference to your request that students who have seen An Inconvenient Truth also be shown the British Channel 4 documentary entitled The Great Global Warning Swindle, the same requirements apply regarding evaluation procedures.

It is certainly a tenet of the Nova Scotia public school program that students be provided with opportunities to think critically and engage in disciplined inquiry. Learning experiences that help students understand the impact of media texts in their lives, consider diverse perspectives, and become critical viewers are an important component of the program.

For these reasons, it is my hope that school administrators and teachers in Nova Scotia themselves think critically and analytically about the media texts they select to support student learning and to influence students’ thinking.

Thank you for articulating the importance of ensuring that students have access to more than one perspective on the global warming debate.

Yours truly,

Ann Blackwood
Director
English Program Services
Department of Education
Halifax NS B3J 2S9

If you would like to send an email to all the Ministers of Education, here's an easy link that will open your mail client (you can edit the message before sending)

Update: I wish we had more young students like Andrew Marshall.