In case you hadn’t noticed, a lot has happened scientifically since 2001.

The birth control patch and Braille Glove were invented in 2002.

Hybrid cars hit the market in 2003. Thanks, Toyota!

In 2005, YouTube let you broadcast yourself. Almost a third of all the people on the planet do.

The iPhone was born in 2007. In 2008, a personal, retail DNA testing kit came along.

Since 2001, a planet the size of Pluto was discovered, scientists figured out how to control a biomechanical hand just by thought, and Mars gave away her secret of the presence of water.

What hasn’t changed since 2001 are Idaho’s public education science standards. For every exciting new scientific door that’s opened since then, Idaho’s Legislature has kept the science standards door vacuum sealed. Late last week, the House Education Committee voted to approve new science standards, but only if they don’t reference the impact of human activity on ecosystems and climate change.

There is some dispute even in the scientific community about the degree to which burning fossil fuels and other man-instigated actions affect global warming. What every rational human being seems to agree on, though, is this: Reducing mankind’s carbon footprint can’t hurt the environment and might, in fact, assist it. Where’s the danger in teaching that to our children?

Science is like building blocks. One theory is tested, disproven and discarded. Another theory is tested, proven, and that knowledge is the basis of further discovery. Who’s to say that, given a foundational understanding of potential impacts on the environment by man’s use of fossil fuels, an Idaho science student won’t one day indisputably prove or disprove man’s impact on ecosystems and climate change?

From the times of Copernicus, Galileo and Newton, science eventually prevails, but not without setbacks and sacrifice at the hands of religion and politics. Idaho’s proposed new science standards, the first in a decade and a half, represent a big step forward.

But it’s still a little like marching through Neanderthal mud.