More solid evidence of the politicization of everything, including the truth.
A damning report on the state of science education in America, especially regarding climate change.
As background for her concise and rigorous analysis of climate education, Frontline investigative journalist Worth developed a nationwide, state-by-state database and reviewed dozens of textbooks. As she notes, there are roughly 50 million children enrolled in 100,000 public schools across the country, taught by 3 million teachers—and there are no national standards. The result, not surprisingly, is a sharp red-blue divide. The red side is bolstered by ample investments from fossil fuel producers and strict controls from conservative activists, and red states, notably Texas, are fitted with textbooks that cast doubt about the concept of human-caused climate change. Overall, Worth writes, “classrooms have emerged as a battleground in the American political war over climate change because what kids learn about climate change now will directly impact the speed and ambition of action taken for decades to come.” It stands to reason that in the red states, that action will be nonexistent. Worth writes of an AP science teacher in Oklahoma who refuses to teach anthropogenic climate change because her family is in the oil and gas business—were she to want to teach it in the first place, since many districts and states forbid its inclusion in the curriculum. The divide widens: As Worth notes, “we know that as lawmakers in some red states have worked to shrink what their children learn about climate change, lawmakers in some blue states have worked to expand them.” It may depress some readers to hear of this “crude two-tier system” as well as to learn of the author’s investigations into textbook publishing and reviewing, with editors rewriting commissioned science pieces to fit political formulas. “These patterns are no accident of history,” Worth concludes. “Rather, they are the product of successful disinformation campaigns, animated not by science but by ideology.”
More solid evidence of the politicization of everything, including the truth.Pub Date: Nov. 9, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-73591-364-3
Page Count: 150
Publisher: Columbia Global Reports
Review Posted Online: Sept. 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.
A warts-and-all portrait of the famed techno-entrepreneur—and the warts are nearly beyond counting.
To call Elon Musk (b. 1971) “mercurial” is to undervalue the term; to call him a genius is incorrect. Instead, Musk has a gift for leveraging the genius of others in order to make things work. When they don’t, writes eminent biographer Isaacson, it’s because the notoriously headstrong Musk is so sure of himself that he charges ahead against the advice of others: “He does not like to share power.” In this sharp-edged biography, the author likens Musk to an earlier biographical subject, Steve Jobs. Given Musk’s recent political turn, born of the me-first libertarianism of the very rich, however, Henry Ford also comes to mind. What emerges clearly is that Musk, who may or may not have Asperger’s syndrome (“Empathy did not come naturally”), has nurtured several obsessions for years, apart from a passion for the letter X as both a brand and personal name. He firmly believes that “all requirements should be treated as recommendations”; that it is his destiny to make humankind a multi-planetary civilization through innovations in space travel; that government is generally an impediment and that “the thought police are gaining power”; and that “a maniacal sense of urgency” should guide his businesses. That need for speed has led to undeniable successes in beating schedules and competitors, but it has also wrought disaster: One of the most telling anecdotes in the book concerns Musk’s “demon mode” order to relocate thousands of Twitter servers from Sacramento to Portland at breakneck speed, which trashed big parts of the system for months. To judge by Isaacson’s account, that may have been by design, for Musk’s idea of creative destruction seems to mean mostly chaos.
Alternately admiring and critical, unvarnished, and a closely detailed account of a troubled innovator.Pub Date: Sept. 12, 2023
ISBN: 9781982181284
Page Count: 688
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Sept. 12, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A straightforward, carefully detailed presentation of how ``fruit comes from flowers,'' from winter's snow-covered buds through pollination and growth to ripening and harvest. Like the text, the illustrations are admirably clear and attractive, including the larger-than-life depiction of the parts of the flower at different stages. An excellent contribution to the solidly useful ``Let's-Read-and-Find-Out-Science'' series. (Nonfiction/Picture book. 4-9)
Pub Date: Jan. 30, 1992
ISBN: 0-06-020055-3
Page Count: 32
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1991
© Copyright 2023 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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