“Florida and California continue on their path to recovery from massive floods and horrific fires. As the states invest millions in recovery, I am reminded how important it is to protect the rights of teachers — at all levels of education — to freely discuss the climate crisis which contributed to the fires and floods in the first place.

I am a professor at the University of California, Irvine, and last semester I taught a class on global environmental politics to eighty students. We talked about a lot of things, and my students now know that burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of our warming planet. They know that under the first Trump administration 50 years of environmental regulations were dismantled, and that under Trump’s second term Big Oil will ramp up greenhouse gas-emissions by opening public lands for mining, receiving in turn more federal tax cuts. Students also know that Big Oil has financed the Republican party for decades and contributed over $14 million to Trump’s recent electoral success. Finally, they know that energy companies and philanthropic groups such as the Koch Foundation, whose wealth originated in oil production, give huge donations to universities to influence what is studied and discussed in classrooms. Some may accuse me of being biased in the classroom. We should all, instead, be concerned about the influence of Big Oil on education. Their money prevents students from knowing the reality of a dramatically warming planet that impacts every one of us.”

Continue reading: https://www.tampabay.com/opinion/2025/03/21/fighting-floridas-floods-californias-wildfires-classroom-column/