Over the last week, the Guardian has been running a series of articles on the global corporations that contribute most to climate change and the way that these vested interests lobby against changes to the law which might protect the planet. Beginning in the 1990s, an alliance of fossil fuel and automobile corporations, along with conservative think tanks and politicians, developed a ‘denial machine’ which sought to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change. Between 2003 and 2010, it has been estimated that over $550 million was received from a variety of sources to support this campaign. The Guardian’s current series is an update and reminder of the research into climate change denial that has been carried out in recent years.
In the past, it was easier to trace where the money came from (e.g. ExxonMobil or Koch Industries), but it appears that the cash is now being channelled through foundations like Donors Trust and Donors Capital, who, in turn, pass it on to other foundations and think tanks (see below) that promote the denial of climate change.
The connection between climate change denial and edtech becomes clear when you look at the organisations behind the ‘denial machine’. I have written about some of these organisations before (see this post ) so when I read the reports in the Guardian, there were some familiar names.
Besides their scepticism about climate change, all of the organisations believe that education should be market-driven, free from governmental interference, and characterised by consumer choice. These aims are facilitated by the deployment of educational technology. Here are some examples.
State Policy Network
The State Policy Network (SPN) is an American umbrella organization for a large group of conservative and libertarian think tanks that seek to influence national and global policies. Among other libertarian causes, it opposes climate change regulations and supports the privatisation of education, in particular the expansion of ‘digital education’.
The Cato Institute
The mission of the Cato Institute, a member of the SPN, ‘is to originate, disseminate, and increase understanding of public policies based on the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets, and peace. Our vision is to create free, open, and civil societies founded on libertarian principles’. The Institute has said that it had never been in the business of “promoting climate science denial”; it did not dispute human activity’s impact on the climate, but believed it was minimal. Turning to education, it believes that ‘states should institute school choice on a broad scale, moving toward a competitive education market. The only way to transform the system is to break up the long-standing government monopoly and use the dynamics of the market to create innovations, better methods, and new schools’. Innovations and better methods will, of course, be driven by technology.
FreedomWorks
FreedomWorks, another member of the SPN and another conservative and libertarian advocacy group, is widely associated with the Tea Party Movement . Recent posts on its blog have been entitled ‘The Climate Crisis that Wasn’t: Scientists Agree there is “No Cause for Alarm”’, ‘Climate Protesters: If You Want to Save the Planet, You Should Support Capitalism Not Socialism’ and ‘Electric Vehicle Tax Credit: Nothing But Regressive Cronyism’. Its approach to education is equally uncompromising. It seeks to abolish the US Department of Education, describes American schools as ‘failing’, wants market-driven educational provision and absolute parental choice . Technology will play a fundamental role in bringing about the desired changes: ‘just as computers and the Internet have fundamentally reshaped the way we do business, they will also soon reshape education’ .
The Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation, the last of the SPN members that I’ll mention here, is yet another conservative American think tank which rejects the scientific consensus on climate change . Its line on education is neatly summed up in this extract from a blog post by a Heritage senior policy analyst: ‘Virtual or online learning is revolutionizing American education. It has the potential to dramatically expand the educational opportunities of American students, largely overcoming the geographic and demographic restrictions. Virtual learning also has the potential to improve the quality of instruction, while increasing productivity and lowering costs, ultimately reducing the burden on taxpayers‘.
The Institute of Economic Affairs
Just to show that the ‘denial machine’ isn’t an exclusively American phenomenon, I include ‘the UK’s most influential conservative think tank [which] has published at least four books, as well as multiple articles and papers, over two decades suggesting manmade climate change may be uncertain or exaggerated. In recent years the group has focused more on free-market solutions to reducing carbon emissions’ . It is an ‘associate member of the SPN’ . No surprise to discover that a member of the advisory council of the IEA is James Tooley, a close associate of Michael Barber, formerly Chief Education Advisor at Pearson. Tooley’s articles for the IEA include ‘Education without the State’ and ‘Transforming incentives will unleash the power of entrepreneurship in the education sector’ .
The IEA does not disclose its funding, but anyone interested in finding out more should look here ‘Revealed: how the UK’s powerful right-wing think tanks and Conservative MPs work together’ .
Microsoft, Facebook and Google
Let me be clear to start: Microsoft, Facebook and Google are not climate change deniers. However, Facebook and Microsoft are financial backers of the SPN. In a statement, a spokesperson for Microsoft said: “As a large company, Microsoft has great interest in the many policy issues discussed across the country. We have a longstanding record of engaging with a broad assortment of groups on a bipartisan basis, both at the national and local level. In regard to State Policy Network, Microsoft has focused our participation on their technology policy work group because it is valuable forum to hear various perspectives about technology challenges and to share potential solutions” . Google has made substantial contributions to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (a conservative US policy group ‘that was instrumental in convincing the Trump administration to abandon the Paris agreement and has criticised the White House for not dismantling more environmental rules’). In the Guardian report, Google ‘defended its contributions, saying that its “collaboration” with organisations such as CEI “does not mean we endorse the organisations’ entire agenda”. “When it comes to regulation of technology, Google has to find friends wherever they can and I think it is wise that the company does not apply litmus tests to who they support,” the source said’ .
You have to wonder what these companies (all of whom support environmental causes in various ways) might consider more important than the future of the planet. Could it be that the libertarian think tanks are important allies in resisting any form of internet governance, in objecting to any constraints on the capture of data?
Adaptive Learning in ELT 