Observing that "[m]isinformation about climate change is distressingly common in the United States," The New York Times called for teaching students about climate change in its October 10, 2015, editorial.
"Children today stand to inherit a climate severely changed by the actions of previous generations," the newspaper stated. "They need to understand how those changes came about, how to mitigate them and how to prevent more damage to the planet. Schools can start by adopting science standards that deal extensively with human-caused climate change and that accurately reflect the scientific consensus."
But the inclusion of climate change in state science standards continues to provoke controversy. As NCSE previously reported, the Wyoming legislature blocked the adoption of NGSS over their treatment of climate change (a decision that was later reversed), and the West Virginia state board of education weakened the treatment of climate change in its new state science standards (a decision that was later partly reversed).
New science standards currently under review in Tennessee call for seventh-graders to use data “to engage in argument the role that human activities play in global climate change," which the Times connects to the state's 2012 "monkey law," which encourages teachers to misrepresent the scientific standing of topics that arouse "debate and disputation" such as "biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning."
The editorial commended the Next Generation Science Standards, already adopted by fifteen states for their treatment of climate science, but also noted that other state standards address the issue, including those of Alabama and New York.