No thanks Al, we'll stick with the tiger

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onNov 28, 2006 @ 10:32 PST

When Laurie David approached the National Science Teacher’s Association (NSTA) to offer 50,000 free DVD copies of Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth she was surpised by the answer: โ€œThanks but no thanks.โ€ In a recent Washington Post editorial titled โ€œScience a la Joe Camel,โ€ David, who is one of the producers on Gore’s movie, explains that the rebuke was due to concern over that other โ€œunnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters.โ€ Any guesses about who those โ€œtargetted supportersโ€ might be? I know, it’s getting old, but I’m sure you guessed it:ย ExxonMobil.

And according to David, โ€œExxon Mobil isn’t the only one getting in on the action. Through textbooks, classroom posters and teacher seminars, the oil industry, the coal industry and other corporate interests are exploiting shortfalls in education funding by using a small slice of their record profits to buy themselves a classroomย soapbox.โ€

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Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmog. He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a โ€œGreen Heroโ€ by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the โ€œTop 50 Tweetersโ€ on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning. Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevinโ€™s research into the โ€œclimate denial industryโ€ and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Kochโ€™s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea partyย networks. Kevin is the first person to be designated a โ€œCertified Expertโ€ on theย political and community organizing platformย NationBuilder. Prior to DeSmog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health. In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the worldโ€™s best e-Content and innovative ICTย applications. Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.

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