Thousands of US middle and high school teachers are telling their students climate change has nothing to do with human activity, according to a new study.

The findings come in a study published in the journal Science and reported by the International Business Times.

The investigation found 16 per cent of science teachers in the US believe personally that global warming is a purely natural event.

More than 1,500 teachers were surveyed in the study, taken from every state in the US. They had to say whether they "strongly agree", "agree", "disagree", or "strongly disagree" with statements saying either that climate change is "primarily being caused by human release of greenhouse gases from fossil fuels" or that "many scientists believe that recent increases in temperature are likely due to natural causes".

Some 54 per cent of teachers said climate change is caused by humans burning fossil fuels, and they do not mention the natural process theory. Around 31 per cent teach their students about both theories.

At the far end of the spectrum, 10 per cent teach that global warming has nothing to do with humans. Five per cent avoid the subject altogether. Extrapolating from the sample up to the 175,000 science teachers in US schools yields a figure of 70,000 teachers who allow their students to discuss the possibility that global warming is a natural process.

Researcher Josh Rosenau said: "At least one in three teachers bring climate change denial into the classroom, claiming that many scientists believe climate change is not caused by humans.

"Worse, half of the surveyed teachers have allowed students to discuss the supposed 'controversy' over climate change without guiding students to the scientifically supported conclusion."

Climate change scientists overwhelmingly accept that human beings have caused climate change through burning fossil fuels.