America's School Teachers Are Confused About Climate Change

Any concerted effort to fight climate change requires a strong public consensus that people are the primary cause of the problem, but many Americans aren’t so sure that’s the case. In one recent poll of 20 countries, the U.S. was the least likely to agree that modern climate change is “largely the result of human activity,” at just 54 percent. That’s well below the poll’s world average of 76 percent and way below the 95 percent (or more) of scientists who attribute warming to we the people.

An informed media could help correct the misperception that recent global warming is just a natural occurrence (or, worse, nonexistent). But given the topic’s partisan grip in the U.S., with many conservatives unlikely to trust mainstream news outlets, early education has a huge role to play, too. That’s a problem, according to a new study in the journal Science, because many middle- and high-school teachers are confused about climate change themselves.