Florida Officials are Promoting Climate Change Denial in the State’s Classrooms and Textbooks

Two authors of middle and high school science textbooks report that they have been informed that references to climate change must be removed from their publications in order to be accepted for use in Florida’s public schools, according to an article published in the Orlando Sentinel, a move that appears to be based on “ideological grounds” and is expected to “make Florida climate education even worse than it is,” according to deputy director of the National Center for Science Education Glenn Branch. These crucial omissions follow the Sunshine State’s 2023 approval of climate change denial videos—produced by a petroleum company-sponsored media company—for use in the state’s classrooms.

Brown University professor emeritus of biology Ken Miller, along with his co-author, who wishes to remain anonymous, reported that they learned of these state-directed edits through their publisher, who told them that a 90-page section on climate change was removed from their high school chemistry textbook. Additionally, they were “asked to take out phrases such as climate change” from middle-school science texts, according to Miller’s co-author. The authors were told that Florida wanted publishers to remove what they referred to as “extraneous information” that wasn’t listed in state standards.

In one of their biology texts, the authors were told that they were required to add citations to back up statements saying that human activity was the cause for climate change, and to delete a statement urging governments to take action on the issue, an inclusion considered to be a political statement by the Florida Department of Education. Miller says that they weren’t told to remove the phrase “climate change” itself in that case, presumably because the phrase is mentioned in the state’s biology course academic standards.

These omissions appear to be part of Florida‘s earlier rejection of mathematics and social studies textbooks that, according to state officials, included passages of what they claimed were “indoctrination” and “ideological rhetoric” that run contrary to the political views of numerous Republican leaders, who, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence, question the validity of global warming and the role of human activity in climate change.

To that end, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis recently signed SB 1645, a bill that excised the phrase “climate change” from most state laws, undermining Florida‘s support of sustainable energy, according to critics of the measure; although the bill didn’t include changes to educational standards, it altered the state’s energy policy, removing the goal of recognizing and addressing “the potential of global climate change,” according to a an analysis made by Senate staff.

In reviewing the list of textbooks that were approved by Florida‘s Department of Education, Orlando Sentinel reporter Leslie Postal found that “there are no textbooks for high school environmental science classes on the approved list,” despite no less than three publishing companies having submitted bids to supply the texts. “Course material for that subject typically includes significant discussion of climate change,” Postal pointed out.

“How do you write an environmental science book to appease people who are opposed to climate change?” remarked a school district science supervisor involved with science textbook adoption for her district, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of job repercussions.

Florida‘s education system has already earned a “D” grade from a study conducted by the National Center for Science Education, placing it in the bottom five states when it comes to the quality of public school science curricula; this new exclusion is expected to make “Florida climate education even worse than it is,” according to NCSE deputy director Glenn Branch. “These ill-considered actions are going to cheat Florida students.”

These exclusions are not the state’s first measure meant to block awareness of the issue of global warming: in August 2023, Florida’s Department of Education approved the use of climate change denial videos, consisting of five-to 10-minute cartoons intended for use in kindergarten through 5th grade classrooms.

“They can take these right-wing, controversial ideas and cloak them in seemingly harmless and friendly rhetoric,” according to Adrienne McCarthy, a researcher at Kansas State University. “Then they create this kind of facade of normal conservative beliefs, and they use authoritative figures [in the videos] in order to convince the audience.”

“It’s also targeted at the parents themselves, saying that if you want to be a good parent, you should be teaching your kids this,” McCarthy added, speaking in an August 2023 article for Politico’s E&ENews; McCarthy tracks the publisher of the videos in question, a media organization that calls itself the Prager University Foundation.

Despite having “university” in its name, PragerU is not an academic institution, but rather a media organization founded with funding from petroleum industry billionaires Dan and Farris Wilks. PragerU has been accused of publishing videos promoting climate change denial, misinformation regarding race and immigration, along with the promotion of anti-LGBT politics.

Regarding the exclusion of the subject of climate change in Florida‘s textbooks, Volusia County high school environmental science teacher Brandon Haught stated that the students in his grade nine class know little about climate change, due to the subject not being covered in earlier grades.

“Florida is one of the [states] most impacted by the impacts of climate change, and oh my goodness Gov DeSantis, why?” Haught remarked, adding that Florida students need more information on the subject of climate change, not less.