Extreme Temperature Diary-April 22, 2019/ Topic: Parents Want Climate Change Education

Monday April 22nd… Dear Diary. The main purpose of this ongoing post will be to track United States extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials)😉

Parents Want Climate Change Education

It’s becoming clear as of Earth Day 2019 that a change is in the air. People are craving green energy given a choice between carcinogenic coal and gasoline, and electricity produced by wind turbines and solar cells. I’m seeing more sleek, new Teslas on the road, even in conservative Georgia. On a positive note I think that the message of climate scientists is getting through…coal and oil should remain in the ground.

By no means do I think that the transition to renewables is happening fast enough, but what I am seeing on the road and reading is a good start. Today I saw an NPR article, which made me raise an eyebrow. Apparently most parents are wanting their children to get climate education, but as of 2019 most schools can’t or won’t comply, which is a big problem. I’ve written one World of Thermo book for educational purposes with the hope of penning and publishing more during the 2020s. I hope these books will be of some use as society starts to close this educational gap. Today’s featured topic and article is that quoted and reposted (about half) NPR article. Please read it in its entirety from this link:

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/22/714262267/most-teachers-dont-teach-climate-change-4-in-5-parents-wish-they-did

Most Teachers Don’t Teach Climate Change; 4 In 5 Parents Wish They DidL

April 22, 2019 5:00 AM ET Heard on Morning Edition

Anya Kamanetz 2017 square

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More than 80% of parents in the U.S. support the teaching of climate change, according to a new NPR/Ipsos poll.

Angela Hsieh/NPR

More than 80% of parents in the U.S. support the teaching of climate change. And that support crosses political divides, according to the results of an exclusive new NPR/Ipsos poll: Whether they have children or not, two-thirds of Republicans and 9 in 10 Democrats agree that the subject needs to be taught in school.

A separate poll of teachers found that they are even more supportive, in theory — 86% agree that climate change should be taught.

These polls are among the first to gauge public and teacher opinion on how climate change should be taught to the generation that in the coming years will face its intensifying consequences: children.

Should Climate Change Be Taught In School?

  • Schools should teach about climate change and its impacts on our environment, economy and society (orange)
  • Schools should teach that climate change exists, but not the potential impacts (yellow)
  • Schools should not teach anything about climate change (green)
  • Don’t know (gray)

Source: NPR/Ipsos polls of 1,007 U.S. adults conducted March 21-22 and 505 teachers conducted March 21-29. The credibility interval for the overall sample is 3.5 percentage points; parents, 7.3 percentage points; and teachers, 5.0 percentage points. Totals may not add up to 100 percent because of rounding.

Credit: Alyson Hurt/NPR

And yet, as millions of students around the globe participate in Earth Day events on Monday, our poll also found a disconnect. Although most states have classroom standards that at least mention human-caused climate change, most teachers aren’t actually talking about climate change in their classrooms. And fewer than half of parents have discussed the issue with their children.

When it comes to one of the biggest global problems, the default message from older generations to younger ones is silence.

Parents and the general public

Laine Fabijanic, a mother of three living in Glenwood Springs, Colo., says her part of the country is feeling the effects of climate change, from an unusually snowless winter last year to scary fires. She and her family recycle and eat organic; they are even installing solar panels on the house.

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Still, she says she hasn’t talked about the big picture of climate change with her young daughters. “I don’t think we’ve talked much about it at all,” she said in an interview. “Probably because it hasn’t come up from them.”

About 3 in 4 respondents in our nationally representative survey of 1,007 Americans agreed that the climate is changing. That figure is in line with previous results from Ipsos and other polls.

Parents are even more likely than the general public to support teaching students thoroughly about climate change, including its effects on our environment, economy and society. Among parents with children under 18, 84% agree that it should be taught in schools.

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A plurality of all parents support starting those lessons as early as elementary school. And though it may be a controversial subject, 65% of those who thought climate change should be taught didn’t think parental permission was necessary. Among Republicans, the corresponding figure was 57%.

However, parents like Fabijanic aren’t necessarily holding these conversations themselves. Just 45% of parents said they had ever discussed the topic with their own children.

(For more charts on NPR’s research and commentary, please read the entire article):

https://www.npr.org/2019/04/22/714262267/most-teachers-dont-teach-climate-change-4-in-5-parents-wish-they-did

Well, despite relaying many educational problems this article is mighty encouraging. I’ll state it before and I will state it again, only through education the climate crisis can be averted. Finally most parents are starting to realize this, even in the United States.

As far as young children go:

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(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article.)

Here is some weather education😉:

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Guy Walton- “The Climate Guy”

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