Florida education officials directed science textbook publishers in the summer of 2024 to remove or weaken references to climate change, altering specific scientific impacts and dropping terms such as “polluting” from coal plant descriptions, according to an investigation published by WUSF and The Hechinger Report.
Textbook Revisions Target Climate Science Content
State education officials asked publishers to adjust high school science books during a review period, according to findings from WUSF and The Hechinger Report. In a McGraw Hill marine science textbook, an original draft passage noting that climate change kills at least 150,000 people per year was changed to state that human health will be affected by increased carbon dioxide, and that another 1 degree Celsius of warming will further increase the impact. Another section in the same book replaced the phrase “climate change” with “changes in the environment.”
Publishers made additional cuts based on the state’s requests. An environmental science book from publisher Cengage removed the word “polluting” before “coal burning power plants.” The same textbook cut a reference to University of Washington students voting to pay higher fees to help purchase renewable electricity.
Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, noted that the requested adjustments fell outside standard state requirements. “These are not changes that were required to bring the textbooks in line with the state science standards,” Branch told WUSF and The Hechinger Report. “Demanding that the treatment of climate change be weakened in these textbooks is very unusual.”
Ongoing Updates to Florida Science Standards
The textbook edits coincided with the Florida Department of Education’s update of its academic science standards for the first time since 2008. Existing standards mandate that students learn about human-caused climate change in high school electives like earth science, marine science, and environmental science. However, state education officials did not respond to inquiries regarding whether the updated standards will retain climate change education.
Branch emphasized the practical implications of the curriculum shift for the state’s student population of roughly 3 million. “It’s vital that today’s students learn about climate change because they’re going to be tomorrow’s workers, consumers, and voters,” Branch said.
Broader Political Context in Florida Classrooms
The textbook negotiations parallel wider policy shifts led by Governor Ron DeSantis and the Republican-led state. In May 2024, DeSantis officially removed references to climate change from state statutes. Over recent years, the state administration enacted laws making it easier for parents to sue teachers, outlawed diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and eliminated the study of how systemic racism is embedded in legal systems.
Scientific consensus indicates that burning fossil fuels releases heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide and methane, driving global temperature increases and intensifying weather patterns. For Florida, this dynamic manifests as record-breaking heat, stronger and wetter storms, and increased flooding events.
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