Many states don’t have teaching Climate change in their curriculum, but thankfully, many teachers are finding a way to still dive into the topic with students.

Source: Mosesbrownschoolnews/YouTube

Climate change will affect students now more than anything else in the future. It will impact the jobs they have, where they can live, and how their lives will look. Unfortunately, despite this, many states don’t include the topic. Texas dedicates three bullet points to Climate change in its 27 pages of standards, the New York Times reported. Florida, on the other hand, does not include it at all. Although most states have adopted standards for the topic, teachers in these states are working hard to make sure students still understand what is happening to our planet.

Students who do receive instruction on climate change will most likely get that in middle school science class. Many middle school standards don’t mention Climate change, so it falls on the teachers and school districts to integrate the topic into lessons.

“I’m really passionate about this issue,” Bertha Vazquez told the New York Times. “I have to find a way to sneak it in.”

Ms. Vazquez has taught for over 30 years in Florida, where she says that her students are already seeing the dramatic impacts of global warming, but the words “Climate change”  don’t appear in the state’s middle or elementary school education standards.

The New York Times reported that around half of middle school science teachers in the country either don’t cover the subject or spend less than two hours a year on it, according to a survey by the National Center for Science Education.

Despite the suffering animals, the melting Arctic ice caps, the increase in wildfires, and all the other evidence, the United States is the leading developed country when it comes to Climate change denial. All the evidence points to it being real. As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says: “Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal.”

With this much denial, it’s clear we need more education on the matter. Recently, Italy added climate change to the curriculum in schools. The United States should do the same! Advanced industrialized nations, including the United States, are responsible for most greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution.

For more school and Climate change news, learn more about Italy and New Zealand’s Climate change curriculum.

Sign this petition to urge the United States to make Climate change and sustainability a part of the curriculum in schools!

Related Content:

• New Jersey Makes History by Introducing Climate Change Curriculum into Public Schools
• Renewed Push for Climate Change Curriculum in Medical Schools and Residency Programs
• Stanford University Receives $1.1 Billion For New Climate Change and Sustainability School
• New Jersey Becomes First State in Nation to Add Climate Change to School Curriculum
• Petition: Add Climate Change to Curriculum in U.S. Schools

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