NCSE's Townley on climate change education in Georgia
Georgia students studying climate modeling.
"The exclusion of climate education from [Georgia's state science] standards is truly terrifying," NCSE's Executive Director Amanda L. Townley told the Columbus, Georgia, Ledger-Enquirer (December 26, 2023). "There are many different climate issues and it's most unfortunate that we are not doing better in our climate change education."
Georgia was among six states to receive the grade of F for the treatment of climate change in its state science standards in the 2020 study "Making the Grade?" Townley noted that there is only one mention of climate change in Georgia's environmental science standards and none in its biology standards "even though it largely impacts so many different parts of biology."
Townley emphasized the need for interdisciplinary coverage of climate change. Similarly, Marshall Shepherd of the University of Georgia, a recent recipient of NCSE's Friend of the Planet award, argued, in a recent article quoted by the Ledger-Enquirer, that climate change should be highlighted in K-12 geography education.
Despite the challenges to K-12 climate change education in Georgia, the article ended with a note of hope: a Georgia professor who administers a pre-test that includes questions about climate change to students in his environmental sustainability class reports that scores have risen from 42 percent in 2016 to 74 percent in 2023.
