Teachers avoid climate change in classroom

Climate change isn’t a topic frequently studied in middle and high-school classrooms, a new study indicates, according to a report, and schools are teaching misinformation about the phenomenon. The first national survey of public middle and high school teachers discovered that only 30 percent of them said they emphasize that humans are the culprit for burning fossil fuels. Another 12 percent didn’t even mention human involvement, and 31 percent reported that they about the controversy in the scientific community.

In an earlier survey of climate scientists conducted in 2009, found that 97.4 percent agree that burning fossil fuels were the cause, but U.S. teachers were also unaware of the consensus, according to the National Center for Science Education, in coordination with Pennsylvania State and Wright State University on Feb. 12 reported in the journal Science.

Political pressure did not seem to be the reason for global warming’s lack of attention. Only 4.4 percent of teachers indicated pressure not to teach the about the controversy. And a majority of teachers, approximately 68 percent believe that climate change to be the reason. But the findings suggests that a combination of ignorance about the scientific consensus and current research might explain issue’s lack of coverage in classrooms.

Study author, Minda Berbeco, a climate change policy specialist at NCSE, said in a statement,”It’s clear that the vast majority of surveyed teachers are hungry for additional professional development,” and adds, “Even half the teachers who deny the scientific consensus on climate change say they would take this training.”

Global warming is such a heated subject, documents leaked in 2012 revealed that the conservative think tank, The Heartland Institute schemed to create school curricula that would minimize the impact of climate change. In 2014, the Texas Board of Education wanted to circulate textbooks that dissembled evidence for global warming. But under pressure from various educational groups, including the NCSE, publishers that denied climate change revised their texts.