New report decries fossil fuel industry influence in climate education [Video]

The teacher’s guide for a trip to Alberta’s oil sands talks about what they’re made of, how they were formed and how many jobs they provide. There is a brief mention of finding ways to “balance” energy needs with “environment needs of our planet.”

But the guide, made by Inside Education, a long-running education charity in Alberta that creates resources for schools, mentions nothing about greenhouse gasses, emissions or climate change.

That’s a problem, said Anne Keary, co-author of the report released this week by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and the climate advocacy group For Our Kids.

Inside Education is one of the groups highlighted in the report for accepting money from fossil fuel companies, though it says they don’t influence content.

Keary said similar examples exist in multiple provinces, including B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick. 

When it comes to teacher resources, “it’s both a matter of what they are saying and what they’re not saying,” explained the independent researcher …