NCSE's deputy director Glenn Branch contributed a column, entitled "Why the Scientific Consensus on Climate Change Matters for Science Education," to the October 2017 issue of The Science Teacher, a special issue devoted to climate change.
Although upwards of 97 percent of climate scientists accept climate change, Branch observed, the extent of the scientific consensus is not always recognized, either by the public in general or by science teachers in particular.
The consequences are harmful for science education, he argued: policies and practices that obstruct science teachers from presenting climate change as they should — honestly, accurately, and confidently.
"Ensuring that both the public and science teachers recognize the scientific consensus on climate change is clearly vital to improving climate education," Branch concluded. "It won't be easy," he added, "[b]ut there are certainly reasons for optimism."
A brief video accompanying the column, in which Branch rebuts the claim that scientific consensus requires scientific unanimity by noting the existence of geocentrist astronomers, is posted on NSTA's YouTube channel.