TEHRAN – Iran’s Department of Environment is setting up “environment schools” to better educate citizens on “global warming” and other environmental issues of concern to the government.

“DOE director for public education Mohammad Darvish said a number of movie directors, producers, Majlis legislators, and Friday Prayers leaders have been instructed with tips to help improve the public’s awareness about environmental issues,” the Tehran Times reports.

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The goal is to “make the public more aware about environmental issues and ways to protect wildlife,” according to the news site.

The government hopes to make all elementary and middle school students aware of environmental issues within a twenty-year period, Darvish says.

Some 56,000 teachers will receive “training in environment protection,” as well, from the government.

Sixty schools around Iran will be converted into pilot environment schools for the next academic year.

A similar push is occurring in America.

US News reports the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy “it will launch a new initiative aimed at climate education and literacy that will distribute science-based information – in line with the administration’s position on the issue – to students, teachers and the broader public.”

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The Obama administration held an event at the White House in early December where participants focused on “how to spread more resources to teachers and increase professional development and training related to climate change for educators, federal employees and informal educators, such as those working in national parks, museums, aquariums or botanic gardens.”

“If you believe, like I do, that something has to be done on this, then you’re going to have to speak out,” Obama said in June at the University of California–Irvine commencement ceremony. “You’ve got to educate your classmates, and colleagues, and family members and fellow citizens, and tell them what’s at stake.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District – America’s second-largest school system – was among the participants at the White House meeting.

“Under President Obama’s Climate Action Plan, important steps have already been taken to cut carbon pollution, prepare for the impacts of climate change and lead international efforts to fight this global challenge,” a White House “fact sheet” says.

“Continued progress into the future will depend on ensuring a climate-smart citizenry and a next-generation American workforce of city planners, community leaders, engineers and entrepreneurs who understand the urgent climate change challenge and are equipped with the knowledge, skills and training to seek and implement solutions.”