Friday, November 23, 2007

How to Teach Evolution

The national battle over how to teach evolution. In Dover, Pennsylvania, where the school board had voted to teach both evolution and competing theories, eight of the nine board members were up for reelection, and all eight were defeated. Meanwhile, in federal court the trial over the issue ended, with a decision expected by early January. In Kansas, a different course. The conservative majority on the state board of education opened the way for teaching intelligent design along with evolution. Evolution, the theory that all organisms descended from a common ancestor, is widely accepted as a cornerstone of biology. Kansas will now also permit other ideas, including intelligent design. It holds that some biology is so complex that it could only be the result of design. No designer is mentioned, but critics say intelligent design is disguised creationism, a religious view.

2 comments:

Mary Scott said...
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Mary Scott said...

Kyoto Protocol
After the treaty in 1994 the members of UNFCCC realized that still more needed to be done. With the growing threat of green house gas emission, they developed a separate part to the already existing treaty. They called this a protocol. It was still apart of it, but would stand alone.
The Kyoto Protocol is said to be the largest agreement of environmental issues ever. It was a difficult idea because not only is there the science part of it and making sure everything in it is really helping the environment, but you also must make sure that it goes along with political views. Politics always play a role, which can sometimes be a big obstacle. You will always have people that will not even listen to you because their political views are different, even though it might save our lives as a human population.
The Kyoto Protocol came into effect on February 16, 2005. It says that developed countries must lower their levels of GHG emissions. And that target must me met within a time frame of 5 years, between 2008 and 2012. That means by next year we should have already been able to lower our levels of GHG emissions. This seems funny to me because I watch the news and read the paper, and I really have not heard much about this at all. This seems odd considering that it is supposed to take place in a few months.
The reason that this is for the developed countries is because they are the ones that are hurting the environment the most, and because they need to set and example for the rest of the World. Also they are showing that we can all unite for a greater cause. After the year 2012 rolls around, then a new set of frameworks will take place, and phase two will begin.

Mary Scott