Oregon students are about to be much more informed about the myriad effects a warming climate has on our planet.
As the National Center for Science Education reported, the Oregon Legislature has passed House Bill 3365. The bill requires the state's Board of Education to "include sufficient instruction on the causes and effects of climate change and strategies for mitigating, adapting to, and strengthening community resilience to such causes and effects."
The bill originally passed the House of Representatives in April. An amended version passed the Senate in June, and the House then promptly passed it again.
The bill's amended version is slightly scaled back, requiring that climate impacts be taught in relation to science, health, history, geography, economics, and civics. The original version would have mandated climate education in all subjects, including math and physical education.
With this bill, Oregon follows in the footsteps of New Jersey and Connecticut, which also have laws mandating that public school students learn about our warming planet.
Getting educated on climate-related issues is one of the most important things anyone can do to help protect the planet.
Knowing the root causes of our warming climate — and the effects each has — makes it easier to change how we act in our daily lives. Understanding how much plastic pollutes our oceans, for example, may make it easier to ditch plastic shopping bags or stop using single-use plastic water bottles.
Learning how much pollution gas-powered cars cause may lead future generations to purchase more electric vehicles. Figuring out which causes matter most also makes it possible to use your voice in support of those issues.
Opponents of this bill told The Oregonian that they consider climate education to be too political, and they fear "one-sided" discussions about the topic. However, a middle-school counselor wrote testimony in support of the bill, saying it would do her students a world of good.
"As a school counselor, I often have students in my office suffering from anxiety. … They are very worried, angry and feel utterly helpless about the state of the planet, the water supply, pollution, fires, ash in the air, the plight of animals going extinct and about floods and droughts," Brinda Narayan-Wold wrote, per The Oregonian.
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"[This bill] would allow Oregon's publicly educated students to feel less anxious and to talk out loud in age-appropriate and in scientific terms about what climate change is and what can be done about it."
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