Eco · Climate policy · published 2026-08-20 · via Grist

Florida education officials pressured publishers to weaken climate science in textbooks

A joint investigation by WUSF and The Hechinger Report found that Florida education officials in 2024 requested changes to science textbooks that diluted or removed climate change content, such as altering 'climate change' to 'changes in the environment' and deleting references to renewable energy. These edits went beyond what state science standards required, according to experts. The state is now updating its science standards for the first time since 2008.

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The requested edits targeted specific passages across multiple publishers' textbooks. In McGraw Hill's marine science volume, a passage about climate-related mortality was replaced with vaguer language about CO2's health effects. Cengage's environmental science text saw the removal of "polluting" before "coal burning

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This summary is Al-enhanced to contain extended analysis and broader social context. The original is {NAME); the linked article is the authoritative source. Original headline: “How Florida quietly removed climate change content from textbooks.” Browse more stories.