United States Military Academy at West Point. Photo by USMA Public Affairs Office.
"A civilian geography professor was fired from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., for pushing back after department officials barred faculty from teaching that humans contribute to climate change," reported the daily military newspaper Stars and Stripes (August 26, 2026). The professor, Adam Kalkstein, who taught future Army officers for 17 years at the academy, is now suing the academy in federal court.
Kalkstein contends that his position was eliminated because he taught about anthropogenic climate change, that he was instructed not to mention anthropogenic climate change in the classroom, and that he was punished for protesting his treatment, according to the complaint in Kalkstein v. United States Military Academy et al. "Learning how humans affect the atmosphere was a fundamental component of [Kalkstein's] course which he had been teaching for many years, and the concept that humans can alter Earth's climate is a plainly established scientific fact," the complaint observed.
Similarly, in 2025, the U.S. Coast Guard Academy eliminated 'climate change' and related terminology from its curriculum in an effort to conform to President Donald Trump's policies," according to Inside Climate News (March 7, 2025). NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch commented, "Not using the right terminology makes it harder for students to understand and discuss and process the scientific literature they’re supposed to be inspecting."
