According to The Conscious Earth, the National Science Teachers Association has rejected 50,000 free copies of An Inconvenient Truth.

On the surface, the reason for this sounds (kind of) reasonable. Film producer and the founder of StopGlobalWarming.org, Laurie David, writes:

In their e-mail rejection, they (NSTA) expressed concern that other “special interests” might ask to distribute materials, too; they said they didn’t want to offer “political” endorsement of the film; and they saw “little, if any, benefit to NSTA or its members” in accepting the free DVDs.

However, calling leading climate scientists a “special interest group” sounds a bit odd. David continues:

Gore, however, is not running for office, and the film’s theatrical run is long since over. As for classroom benefits, the movie has been enthusiastically endorsed by leading climate scientists worldwide, and is required viewing for all students in Norway and Sweden.

Yet, the best (or worst) part is still to come:

But there was one more curious argument in the e-mail: Accepting the DVDs, they wrote, would place “unnecessary risk upon the [NSTA] capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters.” One of those supporters, it turns out, is the Exxon Mobil Corp.

I wonder how long Exxon Mobil can go on with the tactics of bribing and silencing anyone whose motives are not aligned with theirs.

It is also a misconception that this is a global stance taken by all oil companies. British Petroleum has for long shifted more and more of its focus to alternative energy sources (and had, according to Wikipedia, “a 20% world market share in photovoltaic panels in 2004“). In Sweden, a considerable part of cars run by 85% ethanol, and the Finnish national petroleum company, Neste Oil, will have an operational 2nd generation biodiesel factory done by the end of next year. And somehow these companies still manage to make a hefty profit.

(via BoingBoing)