Textbooks are devoting substantially less space to addressing climate solutions now than they did in the 1990s. Credit: Jennifer Landin, NC State University
Key Points:
- College biology textbooks published between 1970 and 2019 did a generally poor job of incorporating climate change research and information.
- Despite climate change worsening every year, coverage in textbooks in 2010s actually declined from the previous decades.
- Of the available climate content, less space is given to actionable solutions.
Researchers from North Carolina State University have found that college biology textbooks have done a poor job of incorporating material related to climate change. In fact, most textbooks published in the 2010s included less information about climate change than they did in the previous decade—despite significant advances in our understanding of how climate change is influencing ecosystems and the environment.
For the study, published in PLoS One, researchers analyzed coverage of climate change in 57 college biology textbooks published between 1970 and 2019. Prior to 1990, textbooks had an average of fewer than 10 sentences addressing climate change.
In the 1990s, the average length of climate content was 30 sentences. The median length of climate content rose to 52 sentences in the 2000s, which is not surprising given the amount of emerging research into climate change and its impacts. However, the researchers found that the amount of climate coverage in textbooks actually declined in the 2010s—dropping to a median of 45 sentences.
The researchers found that the nature of the content has also changed substantially over time. For example, sentences dedicated to actionable solutions to climate change peaked in the 1990s at more than 15% of the climate content. However, in more recent decades, actionable solutions make up only about 3% of the climate content.
“That suggests to students that nothing can be done, which is both wildly misleading and contributes to a sense of fatalism regarding climate change,” said Jennifer Landin, corresponding author of the study and an associate professor of biological sciences at NC State.
In addition, the study showed the position of climate change sections keeps moving further back in the books, from the last 15% of the overall text in the 1970s to the last 2.5% of the text in the 2010s.
“This is important because most instructors present textbook content in order, which means topics at the end of the book are often skipped,” said Landin.
While the content may be less, Landin adds that her team did find textbooks in the 2000s and 2010s at least began including a wider variety of climate-relevant information.
Information provided by NC State.