Prof Tears Apart Official Texas Textbook Review, Pt. 2

Yet another Texas science professor has stepped forward to challenge one of the inaccurate textbook reviews prepared by an SBOE-appointed science review panel (see last week’s installment here). This one comes from Dr. Rick Hammer, a professor of botany, ecology, and environmental ethics at Hardin-Simmons University, and he zeros in on the misleading claims about climate change made by Ray Bohlin in his official review of  the Pearson/Prentice-Hall biology textbook:

“In his critique, Bohlin states that ‘No mention is made of the benefit to plants of higher CO2 concentrations’ and that ‘plants always grow better under higher CO2 levels.’ This is an uninformed generalization. Plant biologists have only begun to study the effects of elevated CO2 levels on plant growth. Given our understanding of plant physiology and ecology, we can confidently predict that plants in general will find environments with elevated CO2 levels more favorable for growth.”

There’s plenty more — read his full rebuttal of Bohlin’s anti-climate change propaganda here.

I’d like to call attention to another interesting thing about Dr. Hammer’s article. It was written for the Christian magazine Sojourners, and Hammer identifies himself as a Christian who supports honest, accurate science textbooks that reflect the consensus in the field.

I can’t speak for Ray Bohlin, but perhaps his attempts to edit out sound science are based on fear that I’m threatening his view of Christianity. As a Christian, I don’t want to be prevented from telling the truth to our children about what we are doing to God’s creation. Our textbooks need to provide students with the complete scientific discussion, rather than being a political pawn for the anti-science crowd to block education.

I think Dr. Hammer speaks for a lot more Christians working in science-related fields than Bohlin. But these scientists who are faithful to both science and Christianity don’t always get the headlines.

And a big thank-you to Dr. Hammer for speaking out. (And from one Hardin-Simmons alum to another, go Cowboys!)