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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