When the popular Daily Kos blog decided to devote a week-long blogathon, running August 17 through August 24, 2012, to climate change, two NCSE staffers were invited to contribute.
In "Why climate literacy matters," posted on August 20, 2012, Mark McCaffrey observed, "Ideology, cultural norms, and corporate profits certainly contribute to climate change denial. But arguably one of the biggest drivers of denial is ignorance. Most people, even many meteorologists, never learned anything about climate change in school." There are signs of hope, he explains: "In recent years, a few projects have been funded to develop sound, scientifically accurate climate education materials for educators, museums and science centers, key influentials such as community leaders, and yes, even TV weathercasters." But there is abundant room for improvement, he concluded: "For a real sea change, a national climate and energy literacy initiative is needed so that humans and the ecosystems that sustain us can survive and thrive in the 21st [c]entury."
In "Attacks on climate change education are attacks on our future," posted on August 22, 2012, Joshua Rosenau argued, "The greatest climate change battlefield in the US may not be Congress and the White House, but the nation's more than 17,000 elected school boards and the classrooms they run. Disputes over local curriculum make fewer headlines, but those decisions shape the generations that will be most affected by climate change — the citizens (and voters) who will have to respond to climate change." Reviewing a host of recent incidents of climate change denial in the schools, he urged, "In order for future citizens to be able to make scientifically informed decisions about how to deal with the challenge, the science of climate change needs to be taught — accurately, thoroughly, and without compromise — in the classroom."
Among those also contributing to the Daily Kos's Climate Change SOS blogathon were Michael E. Mann, John P. Abraham, Bill McKibben, Henry Waxman, Brian DeMelle, Ed Markey, and Al Gore.