Can’t Handle the Truth? – Updated

…While the NSTA rejected the Truth DVDs on the grounds that accepting them would violate its 2001 policy against endorsements, David points out that the policy “didn’t stop them from shipping out 20,000 copies of a whopping 10-part video funded by ConocoPhillips in 2003.” The series, which credits NSTA Executive Director Gerald Wheeler as an executive producer, cites only one scientist in its “largely dismissive global warming section,” according to David. The scientist is Dr. Robert Balling, “a well known global warming skeptic” who has acknowledged taking at least $400,000 from the fossil fuel industry.

David also alleges that the NSTA– which claimed it had cut off its relations with the American Petroleum Institute five years ago– had in fact, not, until the story was publicized in recent weeks. According to David, evidence of persisting ties between the NSTA and the API have been suspiciously removed from both of their websites.

The fact that the NSTA feels it needs to rely upon Big Oil in order to support itself is pretty tragic in and of itself. But what’s really tragic is the fact that Big Oil’s reach is so expansive that it actually creeps into America’s classrooms–working to prevent young people from learning about the enormous global problem that they are going to inherit. If anyone needs to see this film, it’s young people, because they are going to be dealing with a world ravaged by climate change.

The Nation