Oil Sector Propaganda Invades The Classroom – Below 2C
“Public education in Saskatchewan has become a key tool in securing the “hegemony” of the oil and gas industry and “obstructing” the transition to a low-carbon economy,” writes Fatima Syed in the National Observer.
In its analysis of the Eaton & Day report, National Observer highlights a disturbing pattern of infiltration by Big Oil in Saskatchewan’s public school system. The public education system:
- restricts “the imagination of possible climate solutions to
individual acts of conservation that fail to challenge the structural
growth of fossil fuel production and consumption;” - accepts that
“the influence of oil and gas has instilled in Saskatchewan’s education
system a troubling worldview that doesn’t acknowledge the urgency of the
climate emergency;” and, - supports “how teaching practices and
resources work to centre, legitimize, and entrench a set of beliefs
relating to climate change, energy, and environmentalism that align with
the interests and discourses of oil industry actors.”