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https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/08/queensland-museum-accused-of-misleading-teachers-and-children-about-the-cause-of-climate-change>
"Queensland Museum has been accused of misleading teachers and children about
the root cause of the climate crisis through a multimillion-dollar education
partnership with one of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies.
Shell’s Queensland Gas Company has been sponsoring the museum’s Future Makers
learning program since 2015 and produces teaching materials as well as running
free professional development courses for teachers.
But a review of the program’s climate change materials carried out by climate
advocacy group Comms Declare claimed they ignore the root cause of the climate
crisis: the burning of fossil fuels, including gas.
Belinda Noble, founder of Comms Declare, said: “This is climate obstruction
dressed up as education. We wouldn’t let big tobacco sponsor teaching materials
– fossil fuel companies shouldn’t shape how kids learn about the climate.”
Future Makers worksheets and learning materials about global warming designed
for years 7 to 10 explain how greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are rising and
this is causing rapid warming, but the cause of the rise – mainly fossil fuel
burning – is not explained.
When covering ocean acidification for students in years 9 and 10, Future Makers
“never identifies fossil fuel combustion as the dominant source” of changes in
ocean chemistry, CommsDeclare said.
Pupils are encouraged to design a carbon capture and storage (CCS) system,
which the teaching materials claim is being developed by “many scientists” to
“remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and oceans”.
Climate scientists agree the best way to tackle the climate crisis is to stop
burning fossil fuels that puts carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the first
place.
Comms Declare said it had been told by the museum that since the program
started, Shell had contributed $10.25m in sponsorship for various museum
programs, including Future Makers."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
