Texas Democratic Senate Hopeful James Talarico Sought To Create ‘New Generation of Climate Activists’ by Mandating Climate Change Lessons in Texas Schools

The Democratic Senate hopeful, who says he supports Texas’s oil and gas industry, also joined a Greta Thunberg-inspired school walkout to ‘save our planet’ and introduced a Green New Deal-style bill mandating carbon emission reductions

By Thomas Catenacci

Texas Democratic Senate nominee James Talarico says he supports his state’s enormous oil and gas industry. Before running for higher office, however, Talarico sought to “inspire a new generation of climate activists” by mandating climate change lessons in Texas public schools. He also authored a Green New Deal-style bill that would have implemented statewide green energy mandates and joined a school walkout protest inspired by climate activist Greta Thunberg.

As a state representative, Talarico introduced a March 2021 bill to “ensure every public school student in Texas has a strong science-based understanding of human-caused climate change and its consequences.” Talarico said he was “so proud of the young people stepping up to push legislators like me to address the climate crisis. But we need millions more.”

The bill would have required every K-12 public school to teach kids about the “long-term problem of human-caused climate and its effects” and also about “bioregionalism, which allows us to understand our reliance on the places we live and to appreciate the plant and animal ecosystems, the watersheds, the landforms and the human cultures connected to these regions.”

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