Cravaack wants climate science teaching funds cut

Global warming
An iceberg melts in Kulusuk, Greenland, near the Arctic Circle in a file photo.
John McConnico/ASSOCIATED PRESS

Some federal funding for education on global warming would be cut under an amendment sponsored by Minnesota U.S. Rep. Chip Cravaack.

The freshman congressman successfully attached the language to a science spending bill. It calls for cutting $10 million out of a National Science Foundation program to teach students about climate change.

Cravaack says a report by the Government Accountability Office said the program duplicated other science programs and he called the program a waste of money.

"You've got a school, and then you're giving a teacher an additional amount of money to teach science. Well, they're already teaching science," he said.

While Cravaack says his amendment isn't about whether or not global warming is a human-caused phenomenon, he counts himself among skeptics of that position.

Almost all scientists involved in climate research do believe that human activities are heating the planet.

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