Children are not being taught enough about plants at a
time when they could be the answer to global warming, scientists
have warned. This has led to people becoming “disconnected
from the botanical world” of plants when understanding flora has
become crucial to ecology. Even students starting masters’
degrees in biology lack a “basic” ability to identify plants, the
new study claims.
Data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency of the
United Kingdom reveals just one student graduated in plant
science for every 185 who graduated in other life sciences
between 2007 and 2019. The lack of botanical knowledge means
people can’t identify invasive species and that ecological damage
is being done as trees are planted in the wrong places and
wildflower meadows are damaged.
Researchers argue “nature literacy” must become a core
skill for professionals from planners, engineers, architects, and
educators as much as it does to farmers, foresters, and fishermen.
Researchers at the University of Leeds, in England, say plant
ecology — which studies the distribution and abundance of
plants, the effect of the environment on them and how they
interact with the environment — is also not taught well enough.
“We ignore the opportunities presented to us by the botanical
world at our own peril,” said lead study author and doctoral
student Seb Stroud.
This data is also corroborated by the Scottish government,
which said there are not enough skilled people to implement
“nature-based solutions” to rising temperatures. The University
of Leeds team also argued that people’s inability to identify
plants could make the spread of invasive plants worse. The
researchers conclude: “The extinction of botanical education will
only continue to worsen unless we break the cycle of
disconnection from the botanical world.”
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