Now, a new study published in PLOS ONE shows that Alberta schools aren’t the only ones getting a failing grade on climate change education.

Seth Wynes, a PhD student at the University of British Columbia, spent time paging through the curriculum for each province’s secondary schools and spoke with the authors of those education guides.

Wynes and his coauthor Kimberly A. Nicholas from Sweden’s Lund University rated the provinces on a scale of zero to three in five different components of climate change education:

• “It’s climate,” the foundational principles of climate science.
• “It’s warming,” the basic concept that the climate is warming and observations to accompany this idea.
• “It’s us,” humans and anthropogenic emissions are the cause of the majority of global warming.
• “Experts agree,” establishing that there is no debate that climate change is real, significant and human caused.
• “It’s bad,” expressing the dire consequences of climate change.
• “We can fix it,” focusing on solutions to the climate crisis.

The pie graph shows the rating for each province on each of the six components of climate change education. Graphic: Seth Wynes and Kimberly A. Nicholas / PLOS ONE

Three provinces include materials from climate denial group

Significantly, all provinces except Saskatchewan were missing any focus on “experts agree.” Most also missed any focus on solutions to the climate crisis.

“If students don’t understand those facts then they’re unlikely to be motivated to help solve the problem,” Wynes said.

“For instance, if you believed that there was great debate among scientists — when there’s not — or if you believed that there weren’t any solutions — when that’s not true — then you’d be really unmotivated to contribute to solving the problem.”

The study found that Manitoba’s education program doesn’t merely neglect to include in lessons that experts have reached consensus on human-caused climate change, but goes in the opposite direction by providing documentation from the organization Friends of Science, a known climate change denial group.

The provided supplementary materials for Grade 11 chemistry say: “It should be noted that there is significantly polarized debate on the issue among scientists. Students should be justifiably cautious about accepting unsubstantiated claims about global warming.”

Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island have similar supporting documentation included in their education guides.

“This speaks to the official curriculum writing process and points to how important it is to review how climate change is being taught,” Wynes said. “Because it might very well be out of date.”

Saskatchewan and Ontario come out on top

The study concluded that Saskatchewan and Ontario have the strongest programs, while New Brunswick and Nova Scotia have the least effective. Wynes notes that British Columbia has made some changes in its curriculum since the research began there in 2015.

Another important factor is whether or not the courses that touch on climate change are mandatory or merely elective. In Alberta, Northwest Territories and Yukon climate change is only covered in non-mandatory courses. Meanwhile, Saskatchewan and Ontario had five of the six categories covered in mandatory courses.

In New Brunswick and Nova Scotia “it’s climate” was all that was covered in mandatory secondary science courses.

The people behind the programs

Wynes wanted to know if politics and lobby groups played a role in shaping the curriculum, but generally he found they did not.

Special interest groups are permitted in many cases to appeal to the authors of the curriculum, but interviews showed that the authors — typically seasoned teachers and educators — didn’t feel unduly pressured.

“They weigh those things into consideration, but no one is dictating what they do,” Wynes said.

Another interesting finding was that chance contributes in a big way to curriculum development.

“Sometimes you might get one or two of the teachers on your small team who are very passionate about climate change and then suddenly your science curriculum guide can have a substantial focus on climate change, but the opposite might also be true,” he said.

Wynes acknowledges that his study only looks at what is in the education guides for teachers. It doesn’t look at what education looks like in practice.

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Some students say a climate change education is missing altogether.

For example, the Grade 10 science curriculum includes in its “key concepts,” both “social and environmental contexts for investigating climate change” as well as “human activity and climate change.” An aim of social studies classes is to “assess the impact of human activities on the land and the environment.”

Students say that’s one thing in theory and another in practice.

Faline Darling, 18, is about to graduate from a high school in Calgary, Alta. “None of my courses have ever taught me anything about climate change,” she said.

“I remember in middle school it was something we briefly touched on but at that point in time it was still, ‘Do you believe in climate change?’ And that was the question that was being posed.”

Kiera Williams, 16, shared a similar experience with The Narwhal. “We mentioned [climate change] briefly in science, and the teacher — she’s really funny — she was like, ‘OK and that just sucks.’ And then we just moved on.”

Is the curriculum the problem?

Alberta’s curriculum is in the process of a complete overhaul initiated by the previous NDP government before being handed off to the United Conservative Party when it won the spring election.

Given the past comments of Alberta’s Premier Jason Kenney it seems unlikely that a new curriculum will have an increased focus on climate change.

In 2017, Kenney attacked the proposed curriculum review that was going to add focus on climate change and Indigenous history. At the time, he said the NDP was engaging in “social engineering” in order to impose “political correctness” on students.

Kenney has said he believes man-made climate change is real, but he also supports MLAs who have a “spectrum of views” on the topic — views that often stand in contradiction to the available scientific evidence.

How these views will impact a curriculum update remains to be seen.

This comes at a time when youth climate strikes — inspired by 16-year-old Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg — have become increasingly commonplace. Under the Fridays for Futures banner, students have been walking out of classes to advocate for meaningful action to address the climate crisis in more than 130 countries across the globe — including a march last month at the Alberta legislature.

The office of Alberta’s Minister of Education Adriana LaGrange told The Narwhal by email that she is “being briefed on a number of priorities, including the curriculum review. More information is anticipated in the coming weeks and months.”

In the meantime, The Narwhal took a trip to Calgary’s Central Memorial High School to get a sense of how some teachers are turning things around and engaging students on climate change.

Community gardens and solar panels

Walking into the energy and environmental innovations class is a bit of a shock to the senses — a stark contrast to the bustle of teenage life outside its doors.

There’s the gentle sound of the trickling water flowing through the plant wall and into the tank of tilapia. On the far side of the workshop, several students cut and sand wood into rustic, live-edge benches and tables — using only recycled or upcycled wood, of course.

Then off to the side, a door leads to a regular classroom where a handful of students sit with their teacher, Mr. Robb, writing a presentation that will be given to partners at one of Seattle’s biggest green-architecture firms on the next class field trip.

This unusual and specialized class is run and developed by Adam Robb, who won Canada’s environmental educator award this year, and represents his effort to engage students with the environment and science education through hands-on, self-driven learning.

In Alberta, this sort of environmental education is fairly unique, and Robb is motivated by memories of his own education, which he often felt was lacking.

“I think I was doing dioramas and bristol board presentations,” Robb said. “I remember sitting in class feeling like I had all this energy to give, I was very conscious of it, and being very frustrated that all we are doing that day was copying down notes, or reading out of the textbook and filling in fill-in-the-blanks.”

“The real learning I’ve done in my life is when I’ve needed to learn something and I want to present students with those opportunities.”

Kiera Williams, 16, stands with her teacher Adam Robb in a new community garden as they plan out where to put benches (made by the class) to encourage locals to come and spend time in the garden. Photo: Sarah Lawrynuik/The Narwhal

‘We go out and stand on the glacier’

The energy and environmental innovations class differs in its approach in that it puts climate change front and centre — something not all teachers are willing, or able, to do in Alberta.

The class has offered students the opportunity to join in on myriad projects, all sharing the common thread of understanding the impacts of climate change‚ both globally and locally. Over the course of nearly four years, students have negotiated approval from the City of Calgary as well as the Calgary Board of Education to commandeer a jointly owned segment of land to convert into a community garden that opened this spring.

Other students have participated in policy-heavy initiatives, like being a part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change meetings in 2018 in Edmonton. One created a youth advisory committee to work with Parks Canada on sustainability initiatives. Another of the proposals resulted in the former provincial NDP government committing $9 million to installing solar panels on school roofs.

When asked how much knowledge students generally have about climate change when walking into his class, Robb laughs. “One in 20 students will be a diehard advocate on climate change, environmentalism — the type of kid you would assume would choose to take an energy and environment course,” he said.

“The other 19 have zero concept of climate change. We’re starting from square one and the basic science of the greenhouse effect.

“We learn it in a way that’s not, ‘Here’s the worksheet on what climate change is about.’ We learn it by looking at water temperature in rivers. We look at the amount that the Athabasca Glacier has receded. We go out and stand on the glacier. We talk about pine beetles.

“We talk about all these real tangible things that students can experience and feel for themselves.”

All of this, Robb says, empowers students to take action on climate change.

Robb’s class is “wonderful, superb, superlative work” done by a driven teacher, says Gareth Thomson, the executive director of the Alberta Council for Environmental Education.

But the class is the exception to the rule.

Adam Robb, a teacher at Central Memorial High School, in Calgary won Canada’s environmental educator award in 2019. Photo: Sarah Lawrynuik/The Narwhal

Teaching climate change in a petroleum-producing province

Neither the Calgary Board of Education nor the Alberta Teachers Association has prepared any additional resources to help teachers when it comes to climate change education, so the Alberta Council for Environmental Education has stepped up to try and fill that void.

The council offers suggestions for peer-reviewed research to read, potential field trips and resources that can be used in classrooms like YouTube videos, podcasts and books.

Thomson explains there are a number of reasons for why the energy and environmental innovations class is the exception to the rule, and it’s a lot more complicated than what is or isn’t in the curriculum.

“If you do a scan of all of the Word documents of all of the programs of study in all of the Alberta curriculum, yeah the word ‘climate’ pops up here and there, a couple of times,” he said.

“Is it in there to the extent that it could be in there? Probably not. Is it in there in the context in which it should be in there? Probably not.”

But he suggests a bigger problem is that most teachers have no background in the topic, so being able to confidently teach about climate change in a polarized, petroleum-producing province is challenging. Thomson advocates focusing on or incorporating solutions to climate change issues into their lessons.

Thomson also says he’d like to see school boards across the province step up and make this a priority, not only in science and social science, but by incorporating an appreciation of sustainability and the environment into all subjects.

“Teachers are very good at finding opportunities to help deliver the education that they know their students are hungry for, in a way that they think will work best with her the student group,” Thomson said.

“They simply need the opportunities for their own professional development and they simply need the planning time to weave that into their lesson plans and take the next step.”

Kids educating their peers

Coming back to the students and what this all means for them, Williams — the student who told The Narwhal her teacher told her class that climate change “sucks” — says the lack of education on climate change is evident when she talks to her peers that aren’t in her environmental innovations class.

She says many of her peers are already convinced climate change is overblown and exaggerated, which puts her in an awkward spot because she shies away from confrontation, but still feels compelled to educate them herself.

Abby Storrow, 16, says she didn’t know anything about climate change when she walked into this class for the first time. She says what she’s learned will change how she plots her future after graduation.

“We’re talking about what we want to be when we grow up and the roles that we are going to have in society, and not knowing about the issues and not knowing about what we can do when shaping our lives, it’s kind of frightening,” Storrow said.

“Lots of my peers don’t know about it at all,” she added. “And when I’m talking about it they almost think of it as a joke because they’ve never learned about it and it’s not the curriculum so [they figure] it shouldn’t matter.”

Neha Pattar (left) and Abby Storrow work on a presentation about making school buildings more environmentally friendly. Photo: Sarah Lawrynuik/The Narwhal

‘Our education system is preparing us more so for the past’ 

Darling, as she heads for the convocation stage, is completing the second iteration of the environmental innovations course and for her final project she is determined to find out why there aren’t more classes like this one being offered in Alberta. Darling has set out to interview teachers and members of the administration and so far the answers she’s come back with aren’t encouraging.

“No one has been able to give me a clear answer,” she told The Narwhal. “From the research I’ve done, the best answer I can give is there’s not enough funding available for it.”

Neha Pattar, a 16-year-old who hopes to become a doctor, feels that generally her education isn’t properly preparing her or her peers to make a difference in the future.

“I feel like our education system is preparing us more so for the past than the future.”

Updated Nov. 7, 2025, at 4:04 p.m. ET: This article was updated to correct the spelling of Neha Pattar’s name.

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“Brawndo! It’s got what plants crave!”

This slogan for the popular sports drink ‘Brawndo’ is the mantra of citizens in Mike Judge’s 2006 film ‘Idiocracy.’ It’s information everyone has memorized, word for word, ready to trump anyone who would dare to question their precious ‘Thirst Mutilator!’ And because they believe so absolutely in the claim, they can’t understand why their plants won’t grow when they stop watering them altogether, instead feeding them only Brawndo – since, of course, it’s got what plants crave.

The film depicts a society so degraded in educational norms, and so smitten by emboldened advertisement, that its members passively accept the most powerful and obvious ideas thrust upon them. The words are so loud and the font is so bold; how could it be a lie?

Education was replaced by advertisement. No one needed the slightest botanical leanings, since everyone knew that Brawndo was all that plants need. The ad had taught them this; the ad had made it clear.

What does it matter to us? We needn’t worry; it’s all comedy or science fiction. It’s just a joke.

Yet every now and then, black comedy becomes reality.

In a recent piece, DeSmog Canada documented a new role the oil and gas industry will play in the development of primary and secondary school curriculum: “The province of Alberta has recently released a development plan for public schools that enlists Suncor Energy and Syncrude Canada in the creation of future Kindergarten to grade three curriculum. Oil giant Cenovus will partner in developing curriculum for grades four to 12."

Big oil in the classroom. You can already imagine the slogan: “Oil! It’s got what societies need!” Are children learning to think, or are they being sold a product?

And while the place of industry in the classroom is clearly contested, there is a more fundamental issue at play here: Big Oil or not, why are we entrusting the development of childhood educational curriculum to non-experts?

Speaking on the issue, NDP Education Critic Deron Bilous argues that, in drafting the curriculum, the ministry of education should “[…] remove any partners that are not experts in childhood education. Somehow, I don’t think that oil and gas companies have the necessary qualifications.” Further, Bilous goes on to ask, why it is that “parents and teachers are being pushed aside to make room for oil and gas companies? I certainly can’t even begin to rationalize these decisions, or why the minister would undermine the value of our education system.”

The answer seems to be found in that old abysmal gap between policy-makers and practitioners. Why is anyone without educational expertise drafting educational policy?

The question of how to educate is profoundly complex, and an area of study in its own right. Not just anyone can teach, and even fewer can teach the teachers. When inexpert executives are given policy-making powers, they aren’t just inconsequentially out of their element; they are making consequential decisions without the qualifications to do so. Lions lead by donkeys.

The actual question of who decides upon curriculum is nothing new: even the role and qualifications of teachers in this process is a contested matter. And who is to say that the curriculum handed down to those teachers is the best material for the students in the class?

Educational experts, in many cases current and former teachers, inform schoolroom policy throughout the country – a cursory search of provincial education ministries’ websites reveals this.

But the influence of these experts may fade if they are forced to compete with corporations for a seat at the table. What is the voice of a teacher next to the dollar-strength and political influence of an oil corporation?

And where, in this scenario, are students to learn the value of critical thinking? Of challenging what has come before to make room for something better?

In Ontario the “government is putting a new policy into force this fall that will focus on career planning for students from kindergarten to Grade 12” in an effort to keep students on a straight path to the workplace.  

In describing the problem, Kelly Pedro for the London Free Press reports that young students aren’t getting enough career guidance at an early age, leading to uncertainty when entering university.

She writes, “With less amount of time to think about career options or ask questions, some students have taken an extra year of high school, entered university when college would have been a better path, or changed majors as their world opens up.”

Let that sink in. That they ‘changed majors as their world opens up,’ is described as the problem.

Clearly the overarching role of education is not to inspire, to open minds, or to pursue learning; it is to funnel children into the productivity machine, even at the expense of intelligence.

This becomes particularly troubling when the entire educational process is turned into a corporate endeavour.

Corporations exercising influence on curriculum could very easily make self-serving use of such practices. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine why they’d be there otherwise. They could very well funnel children into their own factories.

Education becomes advertisement: come work for us!

Are we to imagine a future in which children are placed on a pathway to the oil patch from Kindergarten on? Or is that future already upon us?

The child’s trajectory will be said to reflect his or her ‘personal interests,’ but can that future be considered free if there was no discernable alternative?

The possibility for change is ruled out from the start; career planning for students will see to that. But the oil industry’s booming voice at the drafting table does not turn their claims into the truth; students should be free to follow their interests beyond a predetermined work-path. 

Changing majors when your world opens up is the same thing as using your critical powers. It is realizing that people change, and interests change, and that the world changes, and there are far more expansive realms of knowledge beyond a single marketable skill.

We do have one thing going for us: we’ve been warned. We have the comedy and the science fiction; we know what to expect. It’s in artist’s renderings of the possible future that we see what very well could happen to the world around us. It’s our choice to listen to the warnings.

And there’s one more thing we have on our side: every open mind so highly sought after, because in the final analysis, it is the children themselves who have to buy what the curriculum is selling.

Image Credit: Bill Erickson via Flickr

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