The Greens are calling on the Arts Minister to scrap a sponsorship deal between the Queensland Museum and Shell, after an investigation revealed Shell is sponsoring biased and scientifically inaccurate educational materials for Queensland schoolchildren.
Background
- A report from Comms Declare reveals that Shell has paid the Queensland Museum more than $10.25 million, funding education programs for children from kindergarten age.
- Materials delivered to children include Shell branding, outdated scientific data and misleading information on the causes of and solutions to climate change. In one resource, students are asked to design their own “Carbon Capture and Storage” (CCS) solution - a technology which has been criticised by experts as unscientific and unproven.
- The Greens have previously questioned the Arts Minister in Parliament about legal advice which says the Queensland Museum’s partnership with gas producer Shell likely breaches its legal obligations under the Queensland Museum Act 1970.
- The Greens, alongside parents, experts and environmental organisations, are calling for the Arts Minister to intervene and end the partnership with Shell.
Greens MP for Maiwar Michael Berkman:
“It’s a bit naive to expect that a fossil fuel corporation like Shell would give the Queensland Museum millions of dollars out of a pure love for education, and now we know why they really did it.
“These corporate-funded materials aren’t educational resources, they’re marketing brochures.
“If corporations like Shell can buy influence over our kids, through public institutions like the Queensland Museum, frankly that’s frightening.
“Alongside out-of-date figures on current global warming levels, these materials obscure the role of fossil fuels in climate change, peddle scientifically unproven “carbon capture and storage” myths, and focus on individual action to shirk Shell’s own responsibility.
“My 14-year-old won’t save “poor nemo” by ditching plastic straws - the scientific consensus is clear that fossil fuels like those produced by Shell are the greatest threat to our climate and the Reef. Omitting that fact from educational materials is not just negligent, it’s sinister.
“I’d be outraged if my kids got handed this unscientific rubbish, which fails to meet Australian Curriculum standards.
“Queensland students deserve world-class scientific education, not thinly veiled propaganda plastered with corporate logos.
“It’s a clear conflict of interest for fossil fuel companies to be funding environmental or cultural education when they are fuelling the climate crisis that is destroying national treasures like the Great Barrier Reef.
“With the LNP and Labor both taking millions of dollars in fossil fuel donations, it’s no surprise that they’ve allowed this to happen.”