Together with seven other Democrats, Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, one of the Senate’s leading environmental champions, introduced a bill Friday to create a national program to educate the public on climate change. The introduction date was chosen to coincide with the first anniversary of Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ encyclical urging the world to fight climate change.
It’s too bad this bill could not have been introduced 25 years ago, just as the climate change deniers were gearing up their campaign of propaganda and climatologist-smearing. But even last summer, with the proof of climate forecasters’ dire predictions popping up everywhere from the Arctic to the Amazon, Markey couldn’t get his proposal—in amendment form—passed through Congress. Democratic Rep. Mike Honda introduced a similar bill in the House last year, with similar lack of results.
The bill would authorize the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to establish a Climate Change Education Program. Sydney Pereira at ThinkProgress writes:
The program would include “formal learning” in classroom curricula as well as “informal learning” opportunities. The informal learning would include public service announcements or campaigns and outreach to post-secondary schools, community centers, and community groups, according to Barry. Further, the program would include information on climate change’s impact on human health and safety, as well as on new technologies, programs, and incentives related to energy conservation, renewable energy, and greenhouse gas reduction. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) would establish the program.
Using the latest science in a national education program could help overcome the problem of inaccurate science being taught in U.S. classrooms. One survey earlier this year found that 30 percent of teachers teach their students that climate change is “likely due to natural causes,” while another 31 percent teaches climate change as unsettled science. The same survey found that many teachers were unaware of the undeniable consensus on climate change.
Additionally, the bill authorizes NOAA to set up a grant program that would promote “relevant teacher training and professional development, STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education, and multidisciplinary studies to ensure that students graduate from high school climate literate, with a particular focus on programs that advance widespread State and local educational agency adoption of climate change education.”
The bill would encourage use of the curriculum NOAA develops but not mandate that it be used in any specific schools. If it passes—a very unlikely happenstance given that one-third to one-half of the Republican members of Congress are climate change deniers—many schools would likely choose not to use the curriculum. That what happens when so many school boards are populated by ideologues who view science as an abomination.