In our joint project, we investigate what different interpretations and meanings (e.g., economic, ecological, cultural, recreational) school textbooks have presented about forests in Sweden and Finland (1972–today). Our ESEH paper is inspired by the conference themes “storytelling in terms of the historical and present experience of living with climate uncertainty, biodiversity loss, or rapid landscape change”, and “didactics and themes for teaching climate history with practical examples of approaches and pedagogics”. We will especially look at how Swedish and Finnish forests and forestry are portrayed in the textbooks studied and what meanings of forests are highlighted. We will use a sample of textbooks from the subjects of biology, geography, social studies (samhällskunskap/yhteiskuntaoppi) and investigate how the meanings of forests as ecology, biodiversity and more recently carbon sink intertwine, compete and conflict with stubborn ideas of forests as resources of national economy. We will also investigate the relationship between Nordic forests and forestry practices and the ideas of forest destruction in the Global South and pose the critical question whether our educational systems are up to the task of teaching our young citizens about past, current and future cases of climate uncertainty, biodiversity loss and landscape change.