Did yr 1980's secondary school teach you about climate change?

[hunnymonsta]

Mine did. We had Environmental Studies lessons in what would have been the equivalent of Year 9 in about 1985. We learnt about fossil fuels, renewable alternatives, and the "theory" (as it was then) of global warming. We also learned about CFC gases creating a hole in the ozone layer. Was my school very ahead of its time or was it fairly common for schools to teach about these things?

For years afterwards I saw nothing more about it than an occasional newspaper article, though the frequency of those eventually picked up momentum as the evidence-base grew and the science became more accepted.

Yes. I am pretty sure that they did. But
a) I knew about it anyway due reading the paper everyday
b) moat of the class would have been chatting/fighting or otherwise not listening so little guarantee that anyone learned anything.

I did O levels in 1984 nothing was mentioned.

Not that I can recall

Yes

Green Party got lots of votes too

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1989_European_Parliament_election_in_the_United_Kingdom

I was in primary school in the 80s. We did a lot on acid rain and the hole in the ozone layer.

There were vague mentions of global warming due to fossil fuels but it was like the science process rather than the impact of it.

Yes, I started secondary in 1987 and I remember that we covered the ozone layer and global warming.

I think we did a bit in A'level Geography. I remember writing a lot of my own thoughts in an exam paper on vegetarianism and the benefits for feeding the world etc but I think that may of just been stuff I was aware of through being involved in animal rights stuff as a teenager. We were mostly worrying about nuclear war and Aids in my teens.

No.

I left in 2004 and I can only ever recall learning how to chop an onion. Sorry I can’t be of much help.

Yes. We did acid rain, greenhouse effect and Blackpool was going to be underwater by 2020 due to the seas rising.

Yes, we did and vividly remember being told about East Anglia being underwater by the year 2000.
Yet hardly anyone seems to do anything about it.

Yes. I only did geography up to age 13, so it was taught before GCSE at my school.
It was well-known and talked about a lot, people were looking for alternative fuels. My dad gave up his car in 1992 as a step towards personal change; my grandmother had solar panels installed on her house around that time, early 90s. My brother had newspaper articles about a petrol company buying up alternative fuel or car design patents to prevent switches from fossil fuels, back in the 90s. Quite a few of my friends decided not to have children because of how climate change would affect the futures of the non-wealthy.
It's been a major, terrifying threat well-known for a very long time and the means to do something about it have long been available.

I was a teen during eighties, and ended up doing a geography degree.

I can remember learning about ‘The Greenhouse effect’ and acid rain. Acid rain was quite big then, you don’t really hear about it now. Also we were recommended to read the book, “Silent Spring”,,about what the world could look like in the future. I also remember that every subject had “…and the environment” tagged on it.

No. But I was aware of CFCs, the ozone layer and banning the bomb. School had no part in any of that.

Or was called ‘Environmental studies”.

Late 80s we did about alternative energy sources, wind, tides and hot rocks.
As mentioned the whole cfcs and hole in the ozone layer were hot topics.
But that wasn't really taught as global climate change, more that people in Australia were suffering the effects.

We did a really weird O-level chemistry syllabus that was watered-down on chemistry but heavy on acid rain and environmental issues. No textbook on earth seemed to cover the content. (It was shit preparation for A-level too, according to my friends who were daft enough to try sciences at sixth form).

When I find my head starting to explode with various doomsday scenarios involving climate change, asteroids, killer diseases, nuclear war etc., it’s interesting to be reminded that we’ve been here before. I remember that otherwise worthy science TV programme Horizon being obsessed with various forms of apocalypse, the prettiest of which involved solar radiation exposure and a massive exhibition of the Northern Lights before we all fried to death. 😱😆

Yes we learnt about acid rain, the depletion of the ozone layer and also the idea of ‘snowball earth’ where the climate would get colder and colder leading to a new ice age! So I was taught two completely different ideas about climate change.

Same with our German teacher too 😅.

The Germans were very much at the forefront of the ‘Environmental friendly’ movement at that time I seem to remember. I did a couple of German exchange trips with school in the late 80s/early 90s, and vividly remember my host families all having comprehensive recycling systems - with separate bins for yogurt pots and cardboard etc. It was all very new to us Brits back then, and definitely felt way ahead of its time. Meanwhile, back in Blighty in 1990, we were lucky if there was a bottle bank recycle point at our local supermarket car park.

From the early 80s in primary we sang songs about animals and learnt about animals that would become extinct if their habitats were destroyed (something about a tiny ant and an elephant if I recall the song correctly 😂)

towards the end of primary we learnt a lot about the ozone layer, rainforests etc and we were told never to waste paper as it was disrespectful to trees and every class had a scrap paper drawer as we got In trouble if we threw away usually paper. Year 7 we had a very progressive teacher who was vegetarian and did lessons about mechanically recovered meat ,cjd, the fishing industry and how bad it was and all sorts of similar things.
We were told to prepare to start recycling soon and how to tell the difference between cans that could be recycled or not.

It seems for decades now children have been taught that the earth needs looking after yet nothing really changes and it’s at the point where there’s nearly no going back sadly

I also declared that I would never drive or go on a plane because I wanted to help the environment

Yes in the 70s during the energy crisis we were told all about fossil fuels and pollution and so on. I'm not sure it was in the context of global warming, more in that it was going to eventually run out so we should be looking to change our behaviour as well as look to developing renewables. But definitely we learned about how the planet was being damaged by logging etc which had a knock on effect.

I remember hearing a lot about a hole in the ozone layer and how we would all get skin cancer (?). And that using hair spray was really bad for the ozone layer and we would all get skin cancer (?)

I'm afraid it didn't stop anyone using hair spray.

No not at all. I was aware if CND(Greenham Common) and Greenpeace.

Yep. It was all known about. The damage to biodiversity was being trumpeted by people like Gerald Durrell in the 60s ffs. The damage to climate was already well studied.

No there is no excuse whatsoever for the very deliberate choice to ignore ecology for the last 20 years, among politicians and the well-off who just found it all too inconvenient to think. Ever.