Texts on health, geography, civics, and history now typically contain one or more environmental chapters. Unfortunately, the textbook authors often know little about the environment. Even where environmental education is taught as science, it is frequently mistaught. Only six states require teachers to take the three years of mathematics and science recommended in 1983 by the National Commission on Excellence in Education. The National Education Goals Report for 1993 stated that less than one-fourth of elementary teachers feel fully prepared to teach science.
Environmental groups fill the information gap, peppering schools with their materials.
In the early 1990s, teachers were buying close to 60,000 books a year. To combat global warming, it recommends that national governments force fuel efficiency, encourage solar energy, and increase reforestation. To preserve biodiversity, it recommends slowing population growth and creating protected areas. Textbooks endorse such groups as sources of information. Certainly, many environmental organizations have useful material, but it is often unscientific and unbalanced.