According to Laurie David's November 26 op-ed in The Washington Post, she and other producers of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" were turned down when they offered to give the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) 50,000 copies of the film for use in the classroom.
Why would the NSTA refuse the offer? Even at discount prices, that is a half million dollar donation.
In the op-ed, David points out that the NTSA's letter refusing the offer said that the group did not want to bring "unnecessary risk upon the capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters."
Ah, it's all about the fundraising. And what donor, specifically, would be displeased by "An Inconvenient Truth"?
Her candidate is ExxonMobil, which has given $42 million this year to various organizations trying to influence the way science education is taught and $6 million to NTSA in the past decade. These are but small elements of the oil giant's huge PR efforts to influence the climate debate.
David notes in the piece that teachers' groups routinely accept free curricular materials from corporate America -- even some about environmental issues prepared by Exxon Mobil and Weyerhaeuser.
Don't those materials sound...what's the right word?
Ah: convenient!
David is the wife of comedian Larry David, as well as a Natural Resources Defense Council trustee and founder of StopGlobalWarming.org.
Hat tip to my spouse, who brought this anecdote to my attention.
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Filed as: climate politics
I'm interested in international relations, American foreign policy, climate change, US presidential elections, public debate, Kansas Jayhawks basketball, film, and major league baseball.
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