Climate change misinformation is on the rise as climate education remains sporadic in school curriculum across the country, according to recently released research from a nonprofit that tracks digital information.
Though Minnesota is among the most robust states in the nation in requiring climate education in its academic standards, advocates say more can be done by school districts to weave the guidelines into their curriculums, and by lawmakers to update the guidelines further.
According to the Center on Countering Digital Hate’s report, the last five years have seen climate change misinformation evolve from outright denial to attacks on climate scientists and attempts to undermine solutions to the worsening climate. Meanwhile, the North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) found that educators want to teach climate education but don’t have the resources.
After surveying more than 700 educators and 100 administrators, NAAEE found that climate education is sporadic, with school districts not making the subject a priority. Despite willingness from educators, school districts nationwide fail to provide resources or a clear mandate to implement a formal climate curriculum.
Danielle Hefferan, Minnesota-based Climate Generation’s regional education coordinator, said the NAAEE study found that Minnesota is among states like California and Oregon as leaders in climate education. Not all states require climate change in their academic standards, but many that do only require the topic be taught in science. In contrast, climate education requirements show up across multiple subjects in Minnesota like social studies and language arts, she said.
Minnesota formally adopted climate change into its science education standards in 2019 after the Minnesota Department of Education put together a 26-member task force of educators and community members to develop the updated guidelines.
Hefferan said Minnesota also has a high number of local governments with plans to mitigate and adapt to climate change, which helps educators teach the subject to students in those communities.
“Minnesota definitely, on paper, has a lot of things going for it in terms of more policies and things that support climate change education,” she said. “And educators’ confidence increases quite a bit when they know their district and their state, whether through their policies or laws, support climate change education.”
But there still remain some growing pains.
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While there are a lot of resources and lesson plans around climate change education that are accessible to teachers, Hefferan said that if a district hasn’t yet created a formal climate curriculum, it falls on the teachers — who are already strained for time — to figure out how to incorporate the subject. Uniformity in curriculum planning could help fix the issue, she said.
“We see that resources are available but for some reason, there’s still some sort of glitch in weaving them in,” she said. “Being able to help weave in those resources into the formal curriculums that teachers are providing each year would be really helpful.”
Though Minnesota is a leader nationwide in climate education, Climate Generation is working to expand those guidelines further.
House File 2297 would require school districts and charter schools across Minnesota to add climate justice education to their curriculums. That would include not just educating students about the effects of climate change but also about inequities caused by it and the disproportionate impact on marginalized communities.
“The disadvantaged among us get the brunt of it, and in many cases it’s the folks that have caused it the least that are experiencing the biggest impacts of it,” said DFL Rep. Larry Kraft of St. Louis Park, who is carrying the bill in the House. “That’s the justice aspect of it.”
Kraft was aware of the effort before becoming a lawmaker, so when the bill was brought to him by the youth environmental activists with Climate Generation he agreed to carry it. Kraft, who before ran a nonprofit for five years that helped young people advocate for climate policy, said education is an important piece in developing solutions to the issue.
“As you can see from the non-winter we just had, as well as the horrific air quality of last summer caused by the Canadian wildfires which are definitely exacerbated by climate change, we are living it,” he said. “Understanding what’s happening is important. You need to understand so that you can address it.”
Kraft said the bill won’t advance this session, partly due to concerns that it may be too soon to impose more requirements on schools after last year’s jam-packed legislative session that featured a large education package. But he said he plans to continue working with youth activists and environmental groups to get the bill passed.
“On this one, I’ve been following their lead and I’m excited to keep working with them going forward to figure out how we get this or something like this across the finish line,” he said.
Mohamed Ibrahim
Mohamed Ibrahim is MinnPost’s environment and public safety reporter. He can be reached at mibrahim@minnpost.com.
