Energy

EPA Spends MILLIONS Training Teachers On ‘Environmental Education’

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Andrew Follett Energy and Science Reporter
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is spending $10.8 million training teachers on the fundamentals of “environmental education.”

EPA will fund the training of 4,400 educators annually and “deliver high-quality environmental education in formal and non-formal education settings.” EPA officials declined to tell CNS News what the program would actually teach or how it would explain topics, like global warming.

“Environmental educators help learners of all ages understand and value the ecosystems around them,” EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said in a statement. “The teacher training program gives educators access to the best classroom and out-of-classroom materials and professional development opportunities, focused on using the environment as a platform for learning science, technology, engineering and math skills to improve decision-making.”

It would collaborate with other academic institutions including Stanford University, the University of Oregon, Antioch University and several federal agencies.

Research by Oregon State University shows that the best way to get adults to act like environmentalists is by indoctrinating their children. The research found that having teachers indoctrinate kids about global warming caused their parents to use less energy and act more like environmentalists. The investigation was run on 30 Girl Scout troops in northern California and had a “lasting impact on family energy consumption” for at least eight months after the end of the program.

The study was financially supported by government grants from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency — Energy Program, the California Energy Commission, the Child Health Research Institute and the Precourt Energy Efficiency Center.

Based on the study’s success, the researchers are now disseminating the curriculum to Girl Scout leaders around the country and attempting to adapt it to other groups of kids, including schools and youth-focused organizations such as 4-H with the help of other universities, like Stanford.

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