After Vancouver experienced its first snowless winter in 43 years, British Columbia is failing to educate students about the climate crisis that is warming their world. As parents and health-care providers, we are deeply concerned about how poorly our province is preparing our children to understand and address the crisis that will affect every season of their lives — from winters without snow to summers too smoky for safe outdoor play.
No Curriculum Requirement for Climate Change
The province currently has no curriculum requirement for students to learn about the causes or solutions of climate change. A student can graduate from a B.C. high school without ever being taught that burning fossil fuels is driving the crisis threatening their world. This gap in education leaves young people vulnerable to misinformation and unable to advocate for their own futures.
Climate Anxiety Among Youth
Our children are worried about climate change. In a 2023 study of 1,000 Canadian young people aged 16 to 25, 73 percent reported that thinking about the future is frightening, and 78 percent said climate change impacts their overall mental health. With high levels of climate anxiety and widespread misinformation, B.C.'s lack of climate education leaves students unable to separate fact from fiction.
Public Knowledge Gaps
Recent polling found that only 53 percent of British Columbians know that burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of climate change, and only 35 percent understand that so-called natural gas is mostly methane, a greenhouse gas over 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide over 20 years. Every student should leave high school knowing these foundational facts. Without accurate information, they cannot make informed decisions about their future or hold leaders accountable for the policies shaping it.
Call for Mandatory Climate Education
Last summer, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment B.C. and the parent climate advocacy organization For Our Kids Vancouver delivered an open letter to Minister of Education Lisa Beare. The letter, signed by over 175 people representing thousands of British Columbians, called for mandatory, comprehensive climate education across all grades. Climate change touches everything, from science and economics to history and health.
What Students Need
B.C. students need a climate-focused graduation requirement and an interdisciplinary course that explores real climate solutions. This would give students not just awareness, but agency. Teachers need professional development and resources to teach these topics confidently. A province-wide training day would be a meaningful start. Corporate influence has no place in this process. Just as we would not invite the tobacco industry to design health curricula, we cannot allow fossil fuel companies like FortisBC to shape how students learn about climate change.
Vulnerable Communities
The communities hit hardest by heat domes, floods, and wildfires are rarely the ones with the most resources to recover. Children are among the most physically and psychologically vulnerable to these disasters, and they are the least responsible for causing them. Leaving them without an honest, rigorous climate education is indefensible.
