Climate change and global warming are two of the hottest topics in education currently- pardon the bad pun.

A recent study released by the National Center for Science Education revealed that while many teachers are in fact teaching about climate change, they are not teaching about human involvement.

This is because many teachers, like many American citizens, are confused about the role humans play in climate change despite 97 percent of the scientific community agreeing on the correlation.

"Knowledgeable teachers will clarify that 809 scientists who helped review 9,200 scientific publications for the fifth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Report confirmed human-caused global warming...The National Academies of Science from 80 countries along with 18 American scientific organizations (including the American Meteorological Society and American Geophysical Union) have made formal policy statements recognizing humans cause global warming,” said Missoullian.com.

That hasn’t stopped West Virginia, however, from trying to block new science standards for at least another year because they include mention of human involvement in climate change.

" Proponents of the delay, which was introduced as an amendment to a larger education bill, argued that the new curriculum would have presented the science of climate change without properly reflecting both sides of the global warming debate,” said ThinkProgress.org.

“… speaking to the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Delegate Michel Moffatt (R), who introduced the amendment, worried that students would ‘twist' the climate science curriculum to conclude that 'all fossil fuels are bad.' And Delegate Frank Deem (R) speaking in support of the amendment, said that 'there’s nothing that upsets [him] more than the idea that it’s a proven fact that climate change is man made,’” according to the article.

Important to note is that West Virginia is the second-largest producer of coal in the country. 

“West Virginia’s children, like children everywhere, need to learn about the science of climate change...since it is they who will have to live in a world that we have been warming. For their sake, West Virginia’s Senate needs to reject the proposed repeal of the state science standards,” said ” NCSE’s executive director Ann Reid said.

Just this week, Leonardo DiCaprio used his much anticipated Oscar win to bring climate change awareness to the national stage:  

#ClimateChange action starts w/ electing leaders who'll make brave & vital changes needed to save our planet. Visit http://www.lcv.org/act/

— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) February 29, 2016

Read the full story.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

3/1/2016