How Florida quietly removed climate change content from textbooks

A WUSF/Hechinger Report investigation found Florida education officials in summer 2024 asked science textbook publishers to water down or remove climate change content, unrelated to any state science standard. One McGraw Hill Marine Science draft citing research that climate change kills at least 150,000 people annually — a toll set to double with another 1°C of warming — was rewritten to say only that 'human health will also be affected.'

Other changes included swapping 'climate change' for 'changes in the environment,' cutting 'polluting' from a description of coal power plants in a Cengage textbook, and removing a mention of University of Washington students voting for renewable energy fees. Glenn Branch of the National Center for Science Education called the demands 'very unusual' since they weren't required for standards compliance.

The state is now quietly revising its science standards for the first time since 2008, with officials declining to say whether climate change will remain a required topic in any course; they did not respond to questions from the investigating outlets. Gov. Ron DeSantis had already stripped climate change references from state statutes in May 2024.

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