Coal Industry Paying Schools To Tell Kids: "Doubling Of Atmospheric CO2 Is Very Beneficial."

[n2doc]

By Bill Scher
June 3, 2011 - 11:25am ET


The Washington Post published an investigative report on how fossil fuel companies are "spending significant sums of money" to directly fund public schools that teach biased curriculums that promote their industries.
And the most brazen example is buried in the middle of the story: a coal-industry produced propaganda film for kids selling the lie that the atmosphere needs more greenhouse gas:

...the Coal Education Development and Resources foundation, known as CEDAR, offers small grants to teachers whose lessons dovetail with its industry-driven mission...
...CEDAR also offers a video to teachers called “The Greening of Planet Earth,” which says that “our world is deficient in carbon dioxide, and a doubling of atmospheric CO2 is very beneficial.” Mainstream scientists widely dispute that assertion.


Of course, scientists don't just dispute it. They have definitively debunked it over and over again.

Towards the end of the article, the Washington Post notes that fossil fuel companies "counter that environmentalists provide classroom materials all the time."

Yes, but they are not filled with lies. That's the difference.

http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2011062203/coal-industry-paying-schools-tell-kids-doubling-atmospheric-co2-very-beneficia

[TheWraith]

1. People gripe about oil, but coal is a MUCH bigger problem.

And much less noticed, despite the fact that they're considerably more aggressive than oil companies. Where do you think the funding and "research" comes from for anti-wind and anti-nuclear groups?

[Deep13]

2. Environmentalists do not have a financial interest in their materials.

So it is a false comparison. Evironmentalists publish what has been discovered through scientific investigation while coal companies print bullshit to keep making money. They are no two sides of the same coin. Rather the environmental groups are the coin and the coal companies are a bloody fingerprint on the coin from when they stole it.

[StatGirl]

3. Deficient in CO2? WTF?

By what standard?