CLIMATE FEED | Political battles over climate change are increasingly taking place in the classroom.
Conservative activists and state politicians across the country are trying to limit or distort the teaching of climate science to schoolchildren, marking a growing front in the culture war against social movements over race, gender identity and the environment.
State education officials, local school board members and Republican lawmakers in states from Florida to Montana have tried to reshape climate curriculum over the past year, with more or less successful.
In Ohio, lawmakers are expected to pass a bill that could require colleges and universities to teach “both sides” of climate change. A member of a local Pennsylvania school board sought to block the use of a climate-themed novel in middle school because, he said, it was “propaganda.” Meanwhile, academic content from a far-right group that produces animated videos disparaging climate action is being approved for use in schools in many states.
“Climate change education is an integral part of the ongoing culture wars,” said Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education.
The increase in inaccurate school materials occurs in a context summer of climatic extremesincluding the hottest temperatures ever recorded over a three-month period worldwide. There have been deadly wildfires in Hawaii and Greece, devastating floods in Vermont and Libya, and dangerous smoke along the East Coast from unusual wildfires in eastern Canada. On Monday, NOAA said there have been more billion-dollar disasters in the United States this year than ever before.
Perhaps nowhere are climate lessons rehashed by conservative politicians more than in Texas, where board of education members have tried in recent years to block programs that teach reducing greenhouse gases greenhouse, emphasizing instead the benefits of fossil fuels. The State Board of Education is deciding whether to will block the manuals that accurately describe climate science.
In Florida, state officials approved for the first time the classroom use of PragerU content, a conservative group partially funded by members of the fossil fuel industry that produces partisan videos for students from kindergarten through high school. Some Texas officials are considering a similar approach.
Last week, Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters announced that his state would also use PragerU content in the classroom. It will be widely used in social studies classes, Walters said.
“It is also content that will be based on facts, without left-wing indoctrination. We always want our children to know the facts,” he said in a video announcing the decision.
These and other measures contradict climate science, which shows that humans are warming the Earth at an unprecedented rate by burning fossil fuels. Public opinion among some conservatives has slowly shifted to accept these conclusions. Polls show that young people, including Republicans, are far more concerned about global warming than older Americans.
Yet climate science is a relatively new subject for schools that was not taught a generation ago, the Center for Science Education arm said, adding that there are regional skirmishes over how and opportunity to teach climate science, but they are uneven and unlikely. find ground in much of the country.
“The arc is moving toward more and better climate change education nationally, and it’s going to be uneven and incremental and scattered, but that’s the trend line,” he said. declared.
This may be why plans to restrict climate education have failed in some states.
In Montana, a “scientific fact” bill that would have described climate science as a theory died in the state legislature earlier this year. In North Carolina, lawmakers failed in their bidreplace earth sciences with a computer science course. In Utah, the Board of Education narrowly defeated an effort to suppress the teaching of climate science in schools. And in Indiana, students returned to a school in recent weeks with new standards requiring stronger climate education.
Yet in some parts of the country, efforts to restrict climate education are moving forward.
In Pennsylvania, the Kutztown school district opted out earlier this year of having students read “Two Degrees” by Alan Gratz. The young adult climate novel focuses on the lives of children and the dangers they face in a world already warmed to 2 degrees Celsius. School board member Jason Koch complained that the book was “propaganda” that would make students feel guilty about living in a society powered by fossil fuels. according to Reading Eagle.
“It is not the purpose of a school to promote a particular political agenda,” he told the newspaper.
In Ohio, lawmakers passed the Higher Education Improvement Act, which could require colleges and universities to teach “both sides” of issues deemed controversial, including climate change. The Republican senator who sponsored the bill, Jerry Cirino, said it is important to teach climate denial because there are “different views on the extent of climate change and solutions to try to modify climate change”. The bill passed the Senate and was sent to the state House, which has a Republican majority.
At a Texas State School Board meeting last month, some members questioned why climate change mitigation was a topic taught to students. Some of them misrepresented climate science and falsely claimed that researchers were evenly divided between those who said climate change posed a threat and those who said it did not.
“It’s just wrong to say that all the scientists agree that climate change is the problem and all that kind of stuff,” board member Patricia Hardy told E&E News. “A lot of scientists don’t believe that, and here are some of your best researchers.”
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican, is giving away free copies of his recent book, “A Kid’s Guide to the Truth About Climate Change.”“. This departs from the conclusions of climatologists.
“Parents, your children may have told you that Earth will soon become an uninhabitable hellscape,” Huckabee said in a promotional video for the book that aired on Fox News. “Well, that’s because some of their teachers and the media have an agenda, but is that really what kids should be learning?”
One of the nation’s largest climate denial groups, the Illinois-based Heartland Institute, has for years sent teachers materials that attack climate science. The organization sent 8,000 books to science teachers this year, up from about 25,000 six years ago.
In Texas, the efforts of the Republican majority on the board of education may prove to be the most lasting. Recent revisions to the science curriculum are causing teachers to skip talking about climate change mitigation and instead focus on the carbon cycle. These lessons won’t be revisited for another decade or so.
That concerns Aicha Davis, a Democrat on the board.
“I don’t want students graduating from Texas public schools to not even understand how their actions can have long-term effects on the climate,” she said. “When we take away that knowledge, we take away so much.”
Davis hopes students will overcome these obstacles.
“We have amazing teachers across Texas who know students need this information,” she said.
Reprinted from E&E News courtesy of POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 2023. E&E News provides essential information for energy and environmental professionals.
