E2 Round-up: Evolution and global warming debates merge, the fight over stimulus dollars, and more

Critics of teaching evolution to students are “gaining ground” in some states by tying the issue to climate change, reports the New York Times.

“The linkage of evolution and global warming is partly a legal strategy: courts have found that singling out evolution for criticism in public schools is a violation of the separation of church and state. By insisting that global warming also be debated, deniers of evolution can argue that they are simply championing academic freedom in general,” the Times account notes.

“Yet they are also capitalizing on rising public resistance in some quarters to accepting the science of global warming, particularly among political conservatives who oppose efforts to rein in emissions of greenhouse gases,” it adds.

The debate over climate change has already become an emotional one. Apparently that’s why Utah Governor Gary Herbert (R) has shelved a planned forum on climate science, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

From their story: “Emotions are too high to have a good debate,” said Ted Wilson, the governor's environment adviser, in explaining the move.

This is a couple of days old, but Dan Kennedy has a provocative piece in The Guardian about Al Gore – the column argues that Gore can no longer be an effective crusader on climate change. Gore, he writes, “is no longer in a position to convince anyone who isn't already convinced.”

Elsewhere, there’s plenty more on the effort by four Senate Democrats to prevent stimulus dollars from supporting overseas manufacturing of wind turbines. (We looked at the dispute here and here.)

The Washington Post notes that the scrum “marks a rare public split among Democrats over the $862 billion stimulus package, which the Obama administration and party leaders have defended as crucial to saving jobs and easing the recession's impact.”

On the oil front, Bloomberg looks at the return of majors like Exxon and BP to Iraq after decades.