Teens have a shaky understanding of the causes of climate change and the strong scientific consensus around the fact that human activity is driving up global temperatures, according to a report.
A little more than half of teenagers correctly identified in a national survey that emissions from human activity is the biggest contributor to climate change, and less than half knew that nearly all climate scientists agree on that point.
Teens need a strong understanding of the basics of the science behind climate change to be prepared for their futures, said Laura Schifter, a senior fellow with the Aspen Institute, and the founder of its This Is Planet Ed initiative, which produced the report.
A changing climate is going to affect many industries and the expertise required to succeed in them, whether it’s health care, construction, or even fashion design, she said. For example, doctors must understand how warmer temperatures can affect their patients’ health, such as increasing rates of heat stroke and asthma, while architects will need to design more energy-efficient and resilient buildings.
“What are the things that are going to be shaping our children’s world? Those need to be taught in schools,” Schifter said. “AI is one, climate change is one. People [are thinking about] how to integrate AI into education because they see that as something that will be impacting jobs, the way we interact with each other, and the world in the future. Climate is doing that exact same thing: it’s impacting jobs, and it’s impacting how and where we live.”
But many teens are not confident in their knowledge of climate change, the survey found. The survey was conducted by the EdWeek Research Center in January on behalf of This Is Planet Ed. (The Education Week newsroom did not participate in the survey project and is independently reporting on the results.) The survey includes responses from 1,017 teens ages 13-19 from across the United States.
Twelve percent of teens said they know “a lot” about the causes of climate change, and 27% said they knew “quite a bit.” Even fewer said they knew about solutions to climate change.
This is an uncertain time for climate change education as the Trump administration has cut or frozen numerous grants relating to climate change research, which has affected funding for some K-12 programs. For example, in canceling $4 million in funding for climate change research at Princeton University, which included educational initiatives for students in K-12 schools, the Trump administration said that the research exaggerated the threat of climate change and caused “climate anxiety” in young people.
Students confuse other environmental problems with climate change
Students’ assessments of their own knowledge were largely on track: Many students don’t have a firm grasp of the basics of how climate change works and what is causing it, the survey found.
For starters, nearly 6 in 10 teens didn’t know how strong the scientific consensus on climate change is.
When asked if plastic trash in oceans, rivers, and lakes was a major contributor to climate change, nearly three-quarters of teens responded yes. While it is a serious environmental and health concern, plastic pollution in waterways is not a primary driver of changes to the earth’s climate.
Overall, 54% of teens recognized that emissions from human activity is the primary cause of climate change.
Teens also overestimate the impact of recycling in combatting climate change. Fifty-seven percent said that recycling impacts climate change “a lot” more than other actions individuals can take, some of which are considered more effective at lowering emissions, such as replacing a gas stove with an electric or induction one or abstaining from eating meat or dairy.
Despite these misconceptions, other research has found that teens still worry about climate change. A 2022 EdWeek Research Center survey found that 37% of teenagers feel anxious when they think about climate change and its effects, and more than a third feel afraid.
Teachers can address that anxiety while also educating them about climate change, said Meghan Hooper-Jackson, a 7th and 8th grade science teacher for the Atlantic City public schools in New Jersey. Climate change is a subject that offers rich opportunities for project-based learning that both engages kids and makes them feel like they have some control over the problem, she said.
For example, Hooper-Jackson recently partnered with her local parks agency to have her class build a rain garden, which helps with flooding and pollution control, in a nearby park.
“There is a lot of anxiety and worry in teens’ lives right now, [and] climate action is where, especially in middle and high school, most of our teens need to be spending their time,” said Hooper-Jackson. “Fear shuts kids down. Teachers need to be doing more climate action projects with their students.”
Teachers need professional development on teaching climate change
Teens living in states that require climate change education demonstrated mildly better climate literacy, the survey found. States were broken into three groups in the report based on requirements in their science standards.
In the states where students must learn about human-caused climate change, 57% of teens correctly identified emissions from human activity as the primary cause of rising global temperatures, compared with 51% in states that require teaching about climate change but not necessarily that it is human-caused, and 46% in states that don’t mandate schools teach about climate change.
“By the time [teens] are in 10th grade and they’re responding to this survey, they might not remember that one unit in 7th grade that they did” on climate change, said Schifter. So even in states that require students to learn about human-caused climate change, teens aren’t necessarily retaining that knowledge.
Students need to develop a base level of understanding about climate change that is reinforced throughout their K-12 schooling, she said.
“There is a benefit to distilling climate change down to its most simplest form to get everyone to understand it at a very base level,” Schifter said. “Our atmosphere [is] a heat-trapping blanket that traps just the right amount of heat for us to live. Right now, we are changing the material of our blanket through our emissions, [...] and it makes dry drier, wet wetter, hot hotter, and storms and wildfires more extreme and intense.”
Currently, 32 states and the District of Columbia require teaching about human-caused climate change in their science standards, while 15 require teaching about climate change but not necessarily that it is driven by human activity, according to the report.
Nine states and the District of Columbia require teaching about climate change, but not necessarily that it’s human-caused, in their social studies standards.
“Standards are a strong policy lever to think about places to integrate climate education, [but] making changes to standards can take longer and can be a harder process,” Schifter said.
There are other policy options that might be easier for states to adopt, she said, such as a diploma climate literacy seal that students can earn through taking certain classes, as well as expanding professional development and training options for in-service and pre-service teachers.
According to teens, teachers are a main source of information on climate change. Seventy-one percent said in the This Is Planet Ed/EdWeek Research Center Survey that they learned “a lot” or “some” about climate change from their teachers; 67% said the same of their parents and family; and 63% said they learn a lot or some about climate change from social media.
The fact that teachers are a primary source of information on this topic underscores the need for more professional development, said Hooper-Jackson, especially for non-science and social studies teachers. A 2022 EdWeek Research Center survey of K-12 teachers from all subjects found that three-fourths have not received any professional training or education on how to teach climate change.
Climate change isn’t just a topic for science class, Hooper-Jackson said.
“When we’re trying to teach climate change, we have to take kids outside, we have to focus on social-emotional learning, and that we’re trying to raise these children to be good citizens,” she said. “These are things that have kind of gotten lost with their phone-based childhoods. It’s not necessarily the science behind climate change, as much as it is getting kids to have awareness of the world around them.”
Data analysis for this article was provided by the EdWeek Research Center. Learn more about the center’s work.
