Teaching climate science to increase understanding & receptivity

Abstract

Only about half of Americans are convinced that human activity is the major cause of climate change. This statistic highlights the increased need for high-quality climate science education but also highlights the fact that lessons on this subject are often complicated as denial argumentation abounds in classrooms. In order to achieve greater efficacy of and receptivity to climate science instruction, I propose the inclusion of lessons on the nature of science and the reframing of lessons in terms of risk management.