Radio Disney's pro-fracking elementary school tour sparks outrage

[defacto7]

Source: aljazeera

Radio Disney made 26 stops across Ohio with a pro-fracking group to promote oil and gas to elementary school students.

An educational program funded by Ohio’s oil and gas industry and sponsored by Radio Disney has environmental activists – and some parents – up in arms over what they say is a hijacking of public education by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) interests, in a state sitting on billions of dollars’ worth of gas-rich shale.

The program, called Rocking in Ohio, went on a 26-stop tour of elementary schools and science centers across the state last month. It involves interactive demonstrations of how oil and gas pipelines work, and is led by three staffers from Radio Disney’s Cleveland branch. It is entirely funded by the Ohio Oil and Gas Energy Education Program (OOGEEP), which gets its money from oil and gas companies.

Radio Disney, a nationwide network of radio stations aimed at kids, has said it will take the tour to other states if it deems the program successful. The company could not be reached for comment in time for the publication of this story.

Read more: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/1/8/radio-disney-s-partnershipwithgasindustryinohiohassomereeling.html

[peoli]

1. outrage, sparked.

[Harmony Blue]

2. Fracking is going to devastate

entire communities and small towns. They are going to turn into wastelands..either because of subsidence or because of the toxic "fill material" will permeate into the water tables.

[SoapBox]

3. WTF?

These corporations have lost all sense decency.

[DeSwiss]

4. FUCK ALL THINGS DISNEY.

- K&R

[defacto7]

5. Proselytizing of children with lies

is about as despicable an act as I can think of. Get'm while they are young and impressionable, while they have less ability to discern what is real and what is fantasy. Disney? They really are scraping the bottom of the greed machine with this shit.

[JackInGreen]

6. I wonder how long

before princess or marvel heros start showing up pitching environmentally disastrous products and policies as disney rents them out by the handful to the highest bidder?

[CoffeeCat]

7. Yep, I felt the same way when my 7th grade daughter...

...came home from school with a homework packet that extolled the miraculous and wondrous attributes of GMOs.

The seven-page packet communicated that without GMOs, the world would starve. And that GMOs were safe and produced drought-resistant and pest-resistant corn without any environmental or health concerns.

There was a lab portion of the packet. The kids had to plant a non-GMO corn seed and a GMO corn seed and expose both growing plants to the corn borer. The non-GMO corn plant died, of course. The quiz over the lab reinforced the notion that GMOs were essential, safe and pretty much a miracle that we should all accept as perfect.

I looked at the bottom of the packet and on every page, in fine print, it read, "Copyright Pioneer HiBred."

Yep. These corporations (in this case Big Ag) are in our schools. They're propagandizing our children and they're not telling the complete truth. These companies know that if they want acceptance, and if they want to continue poisoning our water (in the case of fracking) or if they want us to just accept GMOs and not fight for our food to be labeled--that they must start with the young kids.

It's disgusting that these companies do this. I think they figure that they've lost our generation. We all hate fracking and we all understand that we don't know the long-term consequences of GMOs--because Pioneer, and companies like Monsanto won't allow them to be tested. We want our food labeled and Big Ag figures that if it can lie to children it can create a generation of kids who have been brainwashed into believing that GMOs are just fine and dandy.

It's so warped.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

8. ALEC for schools.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. I signed a petition to Disney about this a couple of weeks ago. Can't remember

what group was sponsoring the petition.