Let's not inconvenience Big Oil

Much of Al Gore's presentation on today's Oprah Winfrey show was a retread of the information on An Inconvenient Truth, but there was one tidbit he shared that really struck home with me. An older woman stood up during the after show discussion to say that she thought schoolchildren should see the movie and become a force for changing their parents--much as they helped propel the anti-smoking movement. Al Gore agreed wholeheartedly but pointed out that the National Science Teachers Foundation had just turned down 50,000 free copies of the DVD Paramount was making available to them as teaching tools. Their reason? Accepting the DVDs, would place "unnecessary risk upon the (NSTA) capital campaign, especially certain targeted supporters." Supporters, it turns out, that include Exxon Mobil.