Sunday, May 29, 2016

What Happens When Kids Ask a Climate Scientist Questions



As school kids around the country count down the days to summer vacation, educators are putting plans in place for next year.

Climate science as a curriculum gets a lot of headlines.  Fortunately, the facts are making their way into more lesson plans.

Recently a Portland, Oregon school board voted to throw out textbooks that cast doubt on climate change.  With an eye to making students more “climate literate,” schools are ditching materials that hem and haw about the human causes of global warming.

The vote could not have come any sooner.  A survey published in the journal Science found 30 percent of U.S. teachers are telling students that climate change is “likely due to natural causes,” even though 97 percent of climate scientists say humans are driving the warming trend.

Thankfully, just as schools are updating their textbooks, scientists are reaching out to students.  Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist and one of the stars of Showtime’s Years of Living Dangerously, recently took time out to answer kids’ questions about climate change.

The result was as instructive as it was endearing.

Read more at What Happens When Kids Ask a Climate Scientist Questions

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