S. Dakota legislature passes bill calling global warming a hoax

A non-binding resolution passed in South Dakota last week that denies the existence of global warming is just the latest example of the wide communication gap separating scientists from the average American. The aim of the resolution is to urge public school teachers to give students a better understanding of the climate science debate and was crafted in response to the showing of Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" to local high school students, said its sponsor, State Representative Don Kopp. "They're showing Al Gore's video with no recourse," Kopp told South Dakota Public Broadcasting. "And these kids are being taught that this is a fact. So when they graduate from school they're coming out of school believing that by virtue of their very existence they're destroying the planet to some degree," he said. It's a gap that leads to honest misunderstandings of how science works, as well as to deliberate exploitation by special interests that see threats in what scientists are discovering about the nature of our world.