Learning and Teaching Climate Science: The Perils of Consensus Knowledge Using Agnotology

Agnotology has been defined in a variety of ways including ‘‘the study of ignorance and its cultural production’’ and ‘‘the study of how and why ignorance or misunderstanding exists.’’ More recently, however, it has been posited that agnotology should be used in the teaching of climate change science. But rather than use agnotology to enhance an understanding of the complicated nature of the complex Earth’s climate, the particular aim is to dispel alternative viewpoints to the so-called consensus science. One-sided presentations of controversial topics have little place in the classroom as they serve only to stifle debate and do not further knowledge and enhance critical thinking. Students must understand not just what is known and why it is known to be true but also what remains unknown and where the limitations on scientific understanding lie. Fact recitation coupled with demonizing any position or person who disagrees with a singularly-derived conclusion has no place in education. Instead, all sides must be covered in highly debatable and important topics such as climate change, because authoritarian science never will have all the answers to such complex problems. D. R. Legates (&) Department of Geography, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716-2541, USA e-mail: [email protected] W. Soon Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA W. M. Briggs New York, NY 10021, USA 123 Sci & Educ (2013) 22:2007–2017 DOI 10.1007/s11191-013-9588-3