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. Some businesses produce materials, too. But these often echo the same themes. Meanwhile, the federal government is expanding the environmental education effort. The Environmental Protection Agency now has an Office of Environmental Education.