We have kids getting diplomas that can not read them. Students getting into Harvard that need to take remedial math. But the Left wants to use the government schools to indoctrinate students on the climate change scam—as if it was real.
“Earlier this year, students across the country watched as wildfires devastated large parts of Southern California. Yet even as they watched — and, in some cases, lived through — a real example of what climate change can look like, many students don’t understand why events like these are happening more frequently and with greater intensity. Without that foundational knowledge, they are ill-equipped to help mitigate the significant problem affecting their generation. Lack of climate literacy is a crisis that higher education has a responsibility to address.”
Al Gore, Greta Thunberg, the masters of the scam, making millions from the gullible and illiterate, is going to have their lies taught in our schools. Do you need more reason to flee government schools—and the State? SAVE THE CHILDRENA AND THE FUTURE.
Make climate literacy a gen ed requirement across higher ed — before it’s too late
Institutions must ensure students are prepared academically, socially, and emotionally to address climate change
Lelia Hawkins, Edsource, 4/16/25 https://edsource.org/2025/make-climate-literacy-a-gen-ed-requirement-across-higher-ed-before-its-too-late/730432
Earlier this year, students across the country watched as wildfires devastated large parts of Southern California. Yet even as they watched — and, in some cases, lived through — a real example of what climate change can look like, many students don’t understand why events like these are happening more frequently and with greater intensity. Without that foundational knowledge, they are ill-equipped to help mitigate the significant problem affecting their generation. Lack of climate literacy is a crisis that higher education has a responsibility to address.
Acknowledging the problem is no longer enough. Although 72% of U.S. adults recognize that our climate is changing, only 58% acknowledge that it is human-caused, and even fewer understand the scientific consensus — that over 97% of climate scientists affirm our role in the ever-warming planet. We need a climate-literate electorate if we want to drive effective climate action, because the solutions we choose to support are based on our individual understanding of the problem. To do this, we must make climate education part of general education. And we must move quickly.
Many students know what is coming. Rising climate anxiety among 16- to 25-year-olds is telling but disempowering if they aren’t prepared to meet the moment because they have misconceptions about the root causes. In a 2021 survey, students aged 14 to 18 overwhelmingly reported that climate change was real and human-caused. But follow-up questions showed large gaps between their conceptualization of Earth’s interrelated systems and reality. They also vastly underestimated the scientific consensus.
These gaps in knowledge make sense: When climate change is taught in middle and high school classrooms, nearly one-third of science teachers are sending mixed messages about the cause, often because they were never introduced to the subject during their higher education experience. Prioritizing climate literacy as part of general education at colleges and universities would reduce the perpetuation of these false narratives.
Ideally, institutions would offer multidimensional climate education for all students; realistically, the pace of climate change far outstrips the pace of change in higher education. However, a general education requirement for climate literacy is possible and necessary. These central concepts do not rely on additional college-level coursework, making a first- or second-year course on the topic accessible to students in any major.
Given the monumental challenge before us and what the best physical science tells us we are headed toward (heat waves, sea level rise, drought and more), it would be easy to put together a fairly depressing curriculum. A solutions-focused approach to climate education is not only kinder to our young people but also cuts against the temptation to spread anxiety. It’s easy to miss out on the momentum building in the clean energy sector, the climate leadership of local communities, and international efforts to build climate resilience. Resources like Project Drawdown and the Solutions Journalism Network can provide curricular materials that remind students that they are not alone and are not starting from square one.
Additionally, we need students to understand that policy, psychology and art are just as important in shifting our trajectory as atmospheric science and clean energy technology. In this way, we make room for every student in the climate movement, no matter their professional aspirations. At Harvey Mudd College, we have developed a course to help students think critically about the impact of their work on society through an interdisciplinary look at the climate-fueled challenge of fire in the North American West. Our teaching team is intentionally broad, so we can cover California’s legacy of fire suppression, the depictions of nature in the media, and the religious roots of environmental attitudes, as well as fire ecology and the greenhouse effect. While we do lay the groundwork for understanding the problem, 50% of the course is dedicated to analyzing proposed or current interventions.
In addition to a solutions-focused curriculum, basic climate education must prepare students emotionally and mentally to keep engaged in the work. Nearly 60% of respondents in a recent global survey of youth indicated “extreme worry” about climate change. Considering students’ emotions doesn’t mean we shy away from hard truths — that would not serve our students well and would undermine their trust in faculty. In fact, those hard truths can tap into students’ deeper motivations for learning, so long as we also help them build emotional resilience through reflection. Programs like the All We Can Save Project can offer resources and course materials. And efforts to wrap this “affective approach” into climate education are already underway, as with the Faculty Learning Community in Teaching Climate Change and Resilience at California State University in Chico.
The world is on track for nearly twice the rise in global average temperature that leading climate experts warn is safe. The kind of climate education we need is appearing, but not at the scale or speed required. Higher education leaders must prioritize climate literacy by integrating climate education into the general curriculum. Institutions must ensure students are prepared academically, socially and emotionally to address climate change. We need empowered graduates with both climate knowledge and a solutions-focused mindset in uncertain times. Their world literally depends on it.
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Lelia Hawkins is a professor of chemistry and the Hixon Professor of Climate Studies at Harvey Mudd College. She is the director of the Hixon Center for Climate and the Environment, a new program expanding climate education for Mudd’s scientists and engineers.
