Make climate science part of curriculum
As if we needed any more evidence man-made climate change is real and no longer an issue to set aside for future generations, scientists have said Earth recorded the second-hottest September on record.
It’s likely 2020 will be one of the hottest years on record. This fits a broader trend. The 10 warmest Septembers on record have occurred since 2005, with the seven warmest over the past seven years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has reported. But what’s surprising is that 2020 is a La Niña year, which means cooler ocean temperatures near the equator should lead to a slight cooling of global temperatures.
We could go on at length: How 2019 was the second-warmest year on record, or how the world’s five warmest years have occurred since 2015, or how 2020 might be the year of extreme political debate (vote!), but it was also the year of extreme weather as wildfires raged and hurricanes churned.
At this point, polls and surveys show wide consensus among Americans that the Earth is warming, climate change is real, greenhouse gas emissions are the culprit and solutions are needed. The effects of man-made climate change are no longer some future challenge for our children and grandchildren to contend with.
When we discuss climate solutions, the conversation is often framed around policies and innovation. Think of carbon sequestration technology; a reduction of flaring and venting of natural gas; development of battery storage to boost solar and wind energy sources; stronger regulations to limit carbon emissions; a shift away from fossil fuels while also ensuring those who work in the oil and gas sector can find equivalent jobs in a greener economy; and, of course, the economic hit of inaction.
But part of the solution also resides in education, and a new report from the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund and the National Center for Science Education gives Texas an F on climate science curriculum for its schools.
This is troubling. Our children and grandchildren need to be conversant in the science and policy discussions around climate change to better drive future solutions.
The study, which relied on three experts to review state standards, found Texas was one of six states that lacked any framework for teaching climate change. This is unacceptable, and it can’t be fixed by merely adding a line to biology curriculum. Climate science should be present throughout core classes such as chemistry, biology and physics. It doesn’t have to be this way — or this hard. Twenty states and the District of Columbia use the Next Generation Science Standards, which are based on the National Research Council’s A Framework for K-12 Science Education. Another 24 states have their own standards, the study found.
Many of these standards need updating and improvement, but at least there is a framework. And here is another example of why it doesn’t have to be this way: Wyoming, Alaska and North Dakota — states tied to fossil fuels — have some of the best standards in the nation.
In a unanimous statement, updated in 2019, faculty with Texas A&M University’s Atmospheric Sciences Department have said the “Earth’s climate is warming” and it is “extremely likely that humans are responsible for more than half of the global warming between 1951 and 2012.”
Without change in our emissions, the Earth will warm by 2.5 degrees to 7 degrees Fahrenheit “by the end of the century.” And with such warming will come devastating extreme weather.
But there is hope. Solutions and mitigation are possible. Part of this hope resides in dramatically improving how we teach the science of climate change in our schools.