Chemistry education must change to help the planet: here’s how

Photo caption: Classroom chemistry needs to equip pupils and students with the knowledge and skills to design products in a way that minimizes harm. Photo credit: Kalpak Pathak/Hindustan Times/Getty. Editorial published by Nature – April 27, 2022.

The subject has a history in heavy industry and fossil fuels, but teachers should focus on sustainability and climate science.

Generations of chemists have taken what nature has to offer and converted it into hugely beneficial products — from drugs to dyes and from fertilizers to food packaging. But the current environmental crisis, in terms of both carbon emissions and plastics pollution, is also a creature of chemistry. And that means chemists must re-engineer their working methods as part of efforts to solve it — including rethinking how current and future generations of chemists are educated. […]

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