A new study from the National Center for Scientific Education suggests there's a lack of comprehensive education on climate change in middle school and high school science classes.
Of the 1,500 teachers surveyed, on average, they spent between an hour to two hours on the topic. About 30 percent of teachers emphasized natural causes, and 12 percent didn't acknowledge human impact.
The researchers think the reason for those numbers is some teachers don't want to advocate for either side — so they teach both sides.
Yet, this hesitancy isn't because of outside pressure from parents or school administrators. Less than 5 percent of teachers said they were pressured to not teach it.
The researchers believe one key failing in the approach to climate change education is in what teachers tell their students.
For example, a survey question asked what proportion of climate scientists claim that human activities contribute to climate change, and only 30 percent of middle school teachers and 45 percent of high school teachers chose correctly. The answer is 81-100 percent.
This video includes images from Getty Images, Mikael Miettinen / CC BY 2.0 and U.S. Department of Education / CC BY 2.0.
