The teaching of climate change is under attack in some U.S. public schools. This week, South Dakota’s Legislature passed a resolution calling for the “balanced teaching of global warming.”

“Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant but rather a highly beneficial ingredient for all plant life,” says the resolution, which passed with mostly GOP votes. It also says global warming is “a scientific theory rather than a proven fact” and a variety of “astrological” and other “dynamics” affect weather.

In other states, critics of teaching evolution are gaining ground by linking the issue to global warming, arguing that dissenting views on both subjects should be taught in public schools, according to a story today in The New York Times.

In Kentucky, a bill was recently introduced that encourages teachers to discuss “the advantages and disadvantages” of both “scientific theories.” In Texas last year, the Board of Education adopted language requiring teachers to present all evidence on both topics. Oklahoma introduced a bill with similar goals in 2009, but it wasn’t enacted.

The story says linking evolution and global warming is partly a legal strategy because courts have found that singling out evolution violates the separation of church and state.

Yet it also capitalizes on growing public skepticism about global warming, resulting from recently admitted errors by climate scientists and efforts by political conservatives to thwart legislation that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Readers: What should schools teach?