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Photo by Wynes and Nicholas, PLOS ONE (2019), Figure by Emma Li Johansson.

The study’s ideal climate change education is founded on six pillars — which Wynes refers to as “foundational” information — baseline information on how the climate works, the fact that the earth is warming, humans are the primary cause, scientific experts are in agreement, it’s bad, and there are ways we can fix it.

The study found that in general, the provinces were effective at communicating that climate change has negative effects, and humans are responsible, but lacked in communicating that experts agree that it’s happening, and there are ways to reduce the damage.

As they were starting the study, Wynes said he expected the provinces with a stronger connection to the fossil fuel industry to have less educational content on climate change.

But according to the study’s parameters, Saskatchewan — which employs 18,320 people in the oil and mining industries as of May 2019, as well as accepts donations in the tens of thousands from energy companies — had the most comprehensive climate change curriculum in the country. It included content on how the climate is warming, how to fix it, and the most information on how experts are in agreement.

Alberta, which employs 98,209 people in the oil and mining industries as of May 2019 and is the largest oil producer in the country — ended up in the middle of the pack, only lacking in educational content about solutions to climate change and experts agreeing.

When you communicate about scientific issues, you don't have students debate each other on science that is very settled

These findings surprised Wynes, who said they determined that there was no evidence of political influence in the creation of any of the country’s curriculums.