The Obama administration announced plans this week to launch the “Climate Education and Literacy Initiative.” The plan includes how we can educate individuals about climate change, starting in kindergarden and going up through college. The administration asked education and advocacy groups in October to provide ideas. They received over 150 ideas from more than 30 states. The White House also states that it will provide climate education to National Park Employees and have science workshops for teachers.
According to a Gallup analysis, conducted in April, 1 in 4 Americans don’t believe in global warming or are not worried. They think the temperature rise is due to natural fluctuations. A survey from Yale and George Mason Universities found that while 55% of Americans were “somewhat worried” regarding climate change, only 11% were very worried.
We talked about this in class, and yet I still am incredulous that people don’t believe in climate change. I think this initiative is very necessary to open the public’s eyes and get people worried. What is it going to take before people start seeing this as a major problem and therefore act on it?? It will be interesting to see whether this initiative works or not. My feeling is, it probably won’t due to the lack of support for Obama currently in our country. But this is definitely something that our country needs.
http://grist.org/news/prepare-to-be-schooled-on-climate-change-america/
Cool idea! Education at early levels is definitely the way to make kids have open minds about environmental issues. Even so, parents do have the power to put their kids in schools that would not have lessons on climate change if they do not believe in it themselves. Even so, this program has a lot of potential in shifting our nation’s outlook on climate change. But, Rachel is right, I think its not administratively feasible for the education of something so contentious to be implemented into our school systems. A shame.