Why are so many American children learning misinformation about climate change?

Investigative reporter Katie Worth reviewed scores of textbooks, built a 50-state database, and traveled to a dozen communities to talk to children and teachers about what is being taught about climate change in America’s public schools. She found a red-blue divide in climate education. More than one-third of young adults believe that climate change is not man-made, and no wonder—that’s what they are taught in school.

Who has tried to influence what children learn, and how successful have they been? Worth connects the dots: oil corporations, state legislatures, school boards, libertarian think tanks, conservative lobbyists, and textbook publishers, all of whom have learned from previous fights over evolution and tobacco. They are now sowing uncertainty, confusion, and distrust about climate science. Four in five Americans today don’t think there is a scientific consensus on global warming. In the words of a top climate educator, “We are the only country in the world that has had a multi-decade, multi-billion dollar deny-delay-confuse campaign.” Miseducation is the alarming story of how climate denialism is being implanted in millions of school children.

“Exceptional reporting undergirds the truly shocking facts in this book: the fossil fuel industry is doing all that it can to undermine education about climate change, which will be the most important fact in the lifetimes of kids in school today.” —Bill McKibben