Schools: Teachers right to counter climate misinformation

Re: “Staff wrong to join Lincoln High climate strike,” (TNT,12/17).

The letter writer claims that students, teachers and administrative teaching staff are concerned about “highly exaggerated non-evidence.”

A simple search of scientific websites finds that Washington residents face more smoky summers, increasing temperatures and extended pollen seasons, earlier snowmelt and retreating glaciers, and damaged shellfish from ocean acidification.

Wise adults know our students will be facing unprecedented challenges throughout their lives due to climate change, and they know that it is their job to prepare them for that future.

It is also their job to teach students that the survival of democracy depends on civic minded, involved citizens who care about equality.

They also must teach students to distinguish between fact and opinion, how to find credible information, and to spot misinformation such as presented in the cited letter to the editor.

This story was originally published January 3, 2020 at 3:31 PM with the headline "Schools: Teachers right to counter climate misinformation."