Author of scientific textbooks and emeritus professor of biology at Brown University, Ken Miller, announced on Friday that he had taken certain references to “climate change” out of his instructional book, which is used in Florida public schools.
In a story that was published on Friday, Miller—who co-wrote a number of biology textbooks with Joseph Levine—told the Orlando Sentinel that state representatives had called his publisher last month to alert them of modifications that were being dictated by the state. Some references to “climate change” had to be eliminated as a result of these modifications, and middle school science textbooks no longer used the term.
A 90-page section on global warming was to be removed from a high school chemistry book, according to publisher Savvas, who also produces the Miller and Levine high school biology textbooks used across the country.
“We write special editions closely correlated to their unique science standards for certain states, such as Florida and Texas,” Miller told Newsweek on Saturday afternoon. “We submitted our new Florida edition back in 2023 and school districts have been evaluating it for adoption and use in the 2024-25 school year, which begins in a few weeks.”
According to the publisher, they were forced to remove a “political statement” that suggested taking legislative action to stop climate change and add citations supporting claims that “human activity” causes climate change.
The Republican-led legislature of Florida sponsored HB 1645, which was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis in May, eliminating the term “climate change” from a number of state statutes. It became operative on July 1. The measure indicates that solving climate change is not a state priority rather than explicitly addressing the scientific and education standards.
Liberal activists have criticized DeSantis for a number of book banning and censorship instances that have occurred in Florida public schools. The anti-book ban group PEN America revealed in a study from April that “Florida experienced the highest number of ban cases, with 3,135 bans across 11 school districts.”
