WEBVTT - How Big Oil Targets Elementary School 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:13.399 Just about everybody on Moca had some special work to do. 0:00:13.680 --> 0:00:16.120 Ian was the best fisherman on the island, so he 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:19.360 more or less kept everybody supplied with fresh fish. Then 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:22.200 there was Benny six Toes, who, by a gift of nature, 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:25.360 could climb trees better than anybody else, so he became 0:00:25.440 --> 0:00:29.080 the coconut cellar. Big Daddy's daughter Raquel, presided over the 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:30.040 village melon patch. 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.160 Resh right, melons here there was a call. 0:00:33.360 --> 0:00:37.640 This is from a nineteen seventy six educational cartoon about 0:00:37.680 --> 0:00:38.960 a fictional place. 0:00:38.800 --> 0:00:40.640 Called the Kingdom of Moga. 0:00:41.280 --> 0:00:44.160 It was made by Amaco Oil, which is now BP, 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:47.599 and it's full of just all kinds of racist and 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:51.239 sexist garbage. The man in that clip who's delegated to 0:00:51.320 --> 0:00:54.760 fishing is a caricature of a black man, and the 0:00:54.800 --> 0:00:58.400 woman presiding over at the melon patch, well, let's just 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:01.600 say they're clearly not just talking about cantalopes. 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.679 Each other morning was Regualemban the coconut tang. 0:01:05.760 --> 0:01:10.119 Oh fine, just fine man. So a couple of little yeah. 0:01:10.160 --> 0:01:13.679 So the movie is based on film strips that Amaco 0:01:13.760 --> 0:01:17.760 Oil started making about the Kingdom of Moca in the 0:01:17.840 --> 0:01:21.880 early nineteen seventies. And the film strips are just as bad, 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.400 not only because of the obvious stereotypes and bigotry, but 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:30.560 also because they're full of insidious messages about how our 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:32.080 economy should work. 0:01:32.840 --> 0:01:33.800 Yeah, yeah, that's right. 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.720 The Kingdom of Moca presents itself as a story of 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:38.399 how the economy. 0:01:38.080 --> 0:01:39.080 Just sort of evolved. 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:41.520 So at the beginning of the story, the Mochans have 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:46.360 a barter system, but then they realize that's inefficient, which, okay, whatever. 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:48.080 Then they start using. 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:54.440 Clamshells as currency, and one character starts selling wood, and then, 0:01:54.640 --> 0:01:58.120 as if because there's some innate force in all of 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:02.920 us pushing us to become capitalists, he creates a corporation. 0:02:03.520 --> 0:02:08.560 Well, I incorporated myself. Heyt No, what I mean is 0:02:08.600 --> 0:02:10.920 I formed a company like they have over on the 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:11.600 Beaver Islands. 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:12.400 Ah. 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:12.720 Yes. 0:02:12.960 --> 0:02:15.600 In the Kingdom of Muca, wood is what's used to 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:18.919 power cars. And this guy who has the logging company, 0:02:19.480 --> 0:02:23.120 he's supposed to be the voice of reason in the story, 0:02:23.480 --> 0:02:26.680 the hero, and one message he brings is that taxation 0:02:26.880 --> 0:02:30.480 is a burden, that it mainly just benefits politicians. 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:33.480 If we don't make profits, we can't keep our company 0:02:33.560 --> 0:02:36.400 growing to take care of everybody's needs. We can't go 0:02:36.520 --> 0:02:39.480 exploring for new sources, and we can't step up our 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:40.679 replanning program. 0:02:41.120 --> 0:02:43.320 Some people complain about the fact that this s guy's 0:02:43.360 --> 0:02:46.400 logging too much. For sure, they're saying he's chopping down 0:02:46.440 --> 0:02:49.120 the forest that they love. But they're just dismissed as 0:02:49.200 --> 0:02:52.000 like a silly special interest group rather than a group 0:02:52.000 --> 0:02:54.360 of people trying to protect the natural world and it's 0:02:54.440 --> 0:02:57.960 benefits for both mental health and keeping the kingdom inhabitable. 0:02:58.200 --> 0:03:01.520 That's right, and it will bum you out to hear 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:04.560 that this cartoon, which sounds like some sort of silly 0:03:04.600 --> 0:03:05.880 bit of archival from the. 0:03:05.880 --> 0:03:07.720 Seventies, it's out there, come. 0:03:07.600 --> 0:03:11.480 On up, was in fact still shown in college economics 0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.800 one on one classes today the Year of Our Lord 0:03:14.880 --> 0:03:17.840 twenty twenty one, and. 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:20.400 Not as a joke, not as an example of propaganda. 0:03:20.960 --> 0:03:21.919 If you look at the. 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:24.760 Comments under it on YouTube, a whole bunch of folks 0:03:24.840 --> 0:03:29.680 are like, wow, I got here from econ class. But 0:03:30.120 --> 0:03:32.880 it originally targeted little kids, kids who were still in 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:37.080 grade school. And the message is clear, extractive capitalism is progress, 0:03:37.360 --> 0:03:41.080 and anyone who goes against it, particularly to protect nature, 0:03:41.800 --> 0:03:46.400 is primitive and backwards. Ammaco made a coloring book of 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:50.800 the Mokens for grade school kids too, and Carol Muffett 0:03:50.800 --> 0:03:53.880 from the Center for International Environmental Law walked me. 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:55.560 Through it a few years back. 0:03:56.520 --> 0:04:02.080 So in nineteen seventy six, Amico Oil Company and Standard 0:04:02.080 --> 0:04:06.880 Oil Company, which is now Exxonmobile published a comic book, 0:04:06.960 --> 0:04:12.000 A coloring Book about the Mochens, a mythical economic society. Now, 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:15.480 the coloring book is as remarkable and notable for its 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:20.440 pervasive racism as it is for its arch conservative neoliberal economics. 0:04:20.440 --> 0:04:24.599 But at the root of its argument is the idea 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:30.960 that children should be wary of any form of regulation, 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:34.719 any form of social control, because it gets in the 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:38.920 way of economics, it gets in the way of free choices, 0:04:39.320 --> 0:04:44.479 and it's ultimately disruptive. And so this educational package was 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:47.799 presented as a study in economics, but at its heart 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:52.919 it was really about being innately wary of any form 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:55.080 of collective government action. 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.680 There's something that's just about putting it in the form 0:04:58.680 --> 0:05:01.640 of a coloring book that somehow may it's so much worse. 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:05.680 And Carol reminds us right about why the industry would 0:05:05.720 --> 0:05:07.560 bother spending any money on stuff like this. 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:12.480 What's remarkable is that by reaching children in schools, you're 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:15.560 shaping not only their understanding of individual facts, but their 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:19.320 understanding of the world. Why because what you learn in 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.640 school you learn as the truth about the world. You 0:05:23.680 --> 0:05:26.720 don't learn that it's advertising, you don't learn that it's propaganda. 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:31.080 What you're taught, particularly in those early formative years, is 0:05:31.560 --> 0:05:34.520 this is the world. These are the basic facts about 0:05:34.520 --> 0:05:37.839 how we live. And so if you can shape children's 0:05:37.960 --> 0:05:41.760 understanding of those basic facts, if you can inculcate that, 0:05:42.480 --> 0:05:45.960 it is remarkably difficult to remove. 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.120 And that is what we're digging into in this series. 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.760 I'm Amy Westervelt and I'm Darna Nora. 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.440 Welcome back to the Abcs of Big Oil, a mini 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:10.360 series from Earther and Drilled Today. Elementary School Stay with Us. 0:06:16.120 --> 0:06:28.279 The Standard School Broadcast, radio's oldest network musical and educational program, 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:31.320 presented as a public service by the Standard Oil Company 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:32.080 of California. 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:35.920 This is from a record I found of the Standard 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.560 Oil School Broadcast Darta. 0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:43.120 Do you want to guess when that broadcast started? God 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:44.800 like nineteen forties. 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:47.400 Maybe that was sort of the company's heyday, right. 0:06:47.960 --> 0:06:50.960 Good guess, But no, it was nineteen twenty. 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:55.760 Eight Standard School Broadcast, which was inaugurated on October eighteenth, 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.960 nineteen twenty eight, as a pioneer in education by radio. 0:07:00.760 --> 0:07:04.440 The School Broadcast was first heard by only seventy two schools, 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.480 and today it is received regularly in many thousands of schools, 0:07:08.480 --> 0:07:11.720 by millions of school students and educators, and by many 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.880 additional thousands of parents and other home listeners. 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:19.240 It's the oldest educational radio program in the country, the 0:07:19.360 --> 0:07:23.840 very first one, and it was technically a music appreciation program. 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:27.400 It went alongside a classical music show that Standard Oil 0:07:27.520 --> 0:07:33.080 also sponsored on the regular radio. The kids weren't just 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:36.840 learning about John Phillips, SUSA and Louis Armstrong. The show 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:41.960 also regularly smuggled in bits of American history told through 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:43.520 the lens of Standard Oil. 0:07:44.200 --> 0:07:47.720 Convenience is the great thing. The automobile is an incredible 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.680 convenience to the average American in his everyday life. For 0:07:50.840 --> 0:07:53.840 parents getting to work, running down to the store, picking 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:56.840 up the kids, and for the kids themselves going on 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:00.480 vacation trips, going on dates. Almost everything we am Americans 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:03.560 do involve the automobile in some way. Don't forget that 0:08:03.600 --> 0:08:05.120 most of us took a quick ride in a car 0:08:05.160 --> 0:08:06.600 on our way to being born. 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:10.640 Miss Scratch, anything on the debit side for the automotive industry. 0:08:10.480 --> 0:08:12.920 May I remind you that many of us will take 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:16.440 a quick ride in a car to our death, Missscratch. 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:21.080 Would you give up your automobile? Would you give up 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:23.800 your standard of living? Would you prefer to live like 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:27.040 an Australian aborigine without even a vessel to carry water 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:29.240 in and a lifespan of thirty years? 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:31.400 Like this is the sort of thing that I don't 0:08:31.400 --> 0:08:34.800 think people necessarily realize that oil companies have been doing 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.120 for well in this case, I guess almost like a century. 0:08:38.200 --> 0:08:41.880 And it's not science or environmental focused at all. It's 0:08:42.000 --> 0:08:45.600 presenting a very specific picture of what America is and 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:46.520 what it's supposed to be. 0:08:47.000 --> 0:08:47.840 That's right, that's right. 0:08:47.880 --> 0:08:50.520 And really the first company to figure out how valuable 0:08:51.080 --> 0:08:55.520 getting into schools is was actually Standard Oil, So it's 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:59.160 not really overstating things to say the fossil fuel industry 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:00.880 pioneer this tactic. 0:09:01.120 --> 0:09:03.680 Yeah, And later in this series we're also going to 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:06.480 get into how they were the first to infiltrate university 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:07.400 curricula too. 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:10.600 First more cartoons that's right. 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:14.440 The Mochns weren't the only cartoon characters used to tell 0:09:14.559 --> 0:09:18.280 kids how the world works. Some companies didn't have to 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:21.400 make up their own characters. They could put their messages 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:24.840 in the mouths of already beloved cartoons. 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.880 A couple of my favorite my favorite possessions are comic 0:09:32.880 --> 0:09:37.240 books Mickey and Goofy, comic books that Exxon Mobile put 0:09:37.240 --> 0:09:42.280 out in conjunction with Disney to teach kids about renewable 0:09:42.440 --> 0:09:46.240 energy and energy conservation and environmental concerns. 0:09:46.840 --> 0:09:47.839 Carol Muffett again. 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:52.800 And it's perhaps unsurprising that what children learn from Mickey 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:58.040 and Goofy about energy conservation and environmental concerns was we 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:02.480 really need gas, We really need fracking. Nuclear energy is fine. 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:05.679 There are a lot of problems with wind and solar. 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:11.199 It may work out eventually, but thank goodness for this 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:16.440 bountiful resource of oil, gas and tarcans. And these comic 0:10:16.480 --> 0:10:18.119 books were from the nineteen seventies. 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.080 I happen to own these comic books too. 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:27.440 They're also amongst my prized possessions. And on the inside 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.000 flap they tell you that they're part of a whole package. 0:10:30.040 --> 0:10:32.360 So these were sent out to teachers and there's like 0:10:32.400 --> 0:10:36.000 an ordering form on the inside flap that tells you 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.319 that you can order more copies of the comic books, 0:10:39.320 --> 0:10:41.199 and you can also order a film that goes along 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.960 with it. And the package included not only these comic 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:47.120 books and filmstrip, but also. 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:52.600 A ride at Disney World in Epcot Center. 0:10:53.360 --> 0:10:59.000 Yep it was called the Universe of Energy. 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:10.760 There we go, self vetchy, second, it's the. 0:11:13.200 --> 0:11:13.520 Venit. 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:17.480 But what's extra crazy about it, and I just learned 0:11:17.520 --> 0:11:21.600 about this fairly recently, is that the original proposal for 0:11:21.679 --> 0:11:26.480 this ride slash exhibit at Epcot Center was supposed to 0:11:26.480 --> 0:11:30.920 be called the Future World of Energy, and it was 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:34.599 supposed to be all about solar and other renewables. 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:37.600 It's kind of unbelievable, but then it also kind of 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:41.000 makes sense. Right, we're talking about the late nineteen seventies here, 0:11:41.160 --> 0:11:43.400 So that's right on the heels of the oil embargo 0:11:43.600 --> 0:11:46.560 that fuel producing countries imposed against the US in nineteen 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:48.920 seventy three. And also it's right in the middle of 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:52.000 this year's long energy crisis in America that followed it. 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:54.480 So the mid to late seventies is when you got 0:11:54.520 --> 0:11:57.200 Americans rationing gas and having to line up for it 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:58.720 for hours at the gas station. 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.440 Funding for this program has been provided by this station 0:12:02.679 --> 0:12:07.240 and other public television stations, and by grants from Exon Corporation, 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:12.160 Allied Chemical Corporation, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 0:12:12.280 --> 0:12:15.400 Did you catch the funding announcement tonight? 0:12:15.880 --> 0:12:19.640 Is gas rationing the answer? But first, for those of 0:12:19.640 --> 0:12:22.679 you who've been spared the experience so far, we want 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:25.840 to share the emotions Americans are feeling on the gas lines. 0:12:26.320 --> 0:12:29.920 Late last week, independent producer Phil Garvin spent a day 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.760 on a line at a service station in Queens, New York. 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:35.720 As has become common in many states in the East, 0:12:35.840 --> 0:12:39.000 cars have been lining up before dawn. By the time 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:42.640 the pumps opened, many had been waiting two and three hours. 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.080 This is a period of time when Jimmy Carter was 0:12:45.080 --> 0:12:47.440 installing solar at the White House and there was this 0:12:47.520 --> 0:12:50.480 big turn in general towards solar as a way to 0:12:50.520 --> 0:12:54.360 get off of foreign oil. But Exon was like, no, no, no, 0:12:54.400 --> 0:12:57.000 The solution to foreign oil is domestic oil. 0:12:58.080 --> 0:13:00.360 So, in addition to all. 0:13:00.360 --> 0:13:03.440 Their lobbying and everything else, they sign on in nineteen 0:13:03.520 --> 0:13:07.640 seventy eight to sponsor this Future World of Energy exhibit. 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.679 But they suggest widening the scope a little bit. 0:13:11.320 --> 0:13:12.480 Yeah, I bet they did. 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:15.800 Instead of focusing on a future that left fossil fuels 0:13:15.840 --> 0:13:18.760 out of the picture, now the ride would focus on 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:23.200 today and tomorrow and all the available forms of energy. 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.079 Here's the promo that eventually came out about it. 0:13:27.920 --> 0:13:31.000 Even from the outside, the energy pavilion will be a 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.920 strong visual statement as it generates power via its own 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:40.240 solar energy systems. Here the formation of fossil fuel energy 0:13:40.280 --> 0:13:47.360 will be portrayed, climaxed by a sudden energy storm of wind, lightening, rain, fire, 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:52.240 and volcanic eruptions, demonstrating the almost endless potential of raw 0:13:52.320 --> 0:13:56.680 energy available for man. Visitors will see the alternatives and 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:00.400 choices he must consider it today, racing against the clock 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:04.720 and a search for new energy, and finally harnissing tomorrow's 0:14:04.760 --> 0:14:09.280 best news sources for the future world of energy. 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:12.960 And again, what's being pushed in the exhibit and the 0:14:13.000 --> 0:14:16.679 accompanying comic books and film strip is the idea that 0:14:16.800 --> 0:14:20.240 all these other energy sources are sort of nice little supplements, 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:22.240 but they're not really up to the big task of 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:23.400 powering America. 0:14:23.760 --> 0:14:24.400 Yeah, that's right. 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:27.960 And there's a bunch of messaging that pins the responsibility 0:14:28.000 --> 0:14:33.280 to solve the energy crisis on individuals and conservation. It's 0:14:33.320 --> 0:14:36.240 all about how you can conserve energy by turning the 0:14:36.320 --> 0:14:40.320 lights off, stuff like that, so you know, the precursor 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:45.320 to the individual carbon footprint calculator, and how you are 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:48.760 basically responsible for any of the downsides of fossil fuel use, 0:14:48.800 --> 0:14:51.520 because after all, you're the one that's using this energy. 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:52.680 Yeah. 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.320 Yeah, And of course we see this all the time, 0:14:55.520 --> 0:14:57.600 and you start to see this talking point that we 0:14:57.760 --> 0:15:00.920 heard in reporter Katie Worth's tape that oil and gas 0:15:00.960 --> 0:15:04.400 industry spokesperson in Arkansas that we heard last episode kind 0:15:04.440 --> 0:15:07.240 of bubbling up here too. So there's this idea that 0:15:07.360 --> 0:15:12.240 actually the industry is actively minimizing environmental impacts, and that's 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:16.520 still super prevalent in schools today too. Kurt Davies from 0:15:16.560 --> 0:15:20.440 the Climate Investigation Center actually experienced it firsthand with his 0:15:20.600 --> 0:15:23.280 daughter when she was an elementary school I. 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:26.360 Can't remember how the conversation started, but somehow my daughter 0:15:26.480 --> 0:15:29.680 came home from school in probably third or fourth grade, 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:33.840 and she said, we did this really cool lesson today 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:37.360 where the teacher gave us a chocolate chip cookie and 0:15:37.400 --> 0:15:41.960 a toothpick, and we had to carefully extract the chocolate 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:46.600 chips without breaking the cookie. And the lesson was, you 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:50.520 can do mining safely. You can get the yummy chocolate 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:53.280 chips out of the cookie without ruining the cookie, the 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:57.440 cookie being the land. And I flipped out. I was like, 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.000 oh my god, you're getting mining propaganda. 0:16:01.280 --> 0:16:05.200 Oh my god. That was about a decade ago. But 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:07.760 you talk to someone who had a similar experience just 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:08.520 this year, right. 0:16:08.480 --> 0:16:09.480 Darna I did. 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:11.680 I did, yeah, And in some ways it's actually kind 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:14.640 of even more bizarre. So this past spring, in the 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.720 spring of twenty twenty one, this guy Gleb bach Mutav 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:20.240 was picking up his nine year old kid from his 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:23.840 elementary school, which is called John M. Tobin Montessori School, 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:28.040 and it's in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and he found something really 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:29.840 weird in his son's bag. 0:16:30.880 --> 0:16:34.200 I pick up my son and it was such a 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:38.160 beautiful day in the spring, and usually, you know, they 0:16:38.320 --> 0:16:41.520 release the kids and they go straight to the playground 0:16:41.560 --> 0:16:45.280 there right running around monkey bars, and then we go 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:49.280 home and my son usually has a backpack with lunch box, 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:53.080 and I was reaching something like I was trying to 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:56.280 pack his who deal something back into the backpack. And 0:16:56.320 --> 0:16:59.760 when I see he has a couple of booklets inside 0:16:59.840 --> 0:17:04.760 the backpack, and you know sometimes they give school books, 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:09.119 right or materials to read, and I actually like to me, 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:10.560 it was like, oh, yeah, it looks like a color 0:17:10.600 --> 0:17:10.960 and book. 0:17:12.200 --> 0:17:15.439 I cannot believe that of all places for this to 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:19.840 show up, it's not in Midland, Texas, It's in Cambridge, 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:22.680 Massachusetts at a Monassory school. 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:25.239 Yeah. We talked about that too. 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:29.639 It's just the most like blue liberal enclave of the 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:33.920 most liberal state, at the most liberal school you could 0:17:33.920 --> 0:17:35.720 possibly fined in this enclave. 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:39.840 So Gleb took a closer look at the booklets and 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:43.040 saw that they were both stamped with the logo Forever Source, 0:17:43.240 --> 0:17:47.119 the energy utility company that serves Cambridge residents and millions 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:50.399 of other people all over New England. One book had 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:53.399 the title natural Guess Your Invisible Friend. 0:17:55.840 --> 0:17:58.080 The other was called Nat and Guss. 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.360 Both were about how amazing gas is and how important 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:05.480 it is for our lives. There's literally a page titled 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:07.359 natural gas is Great. 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:12.320 Every other page is like has something positive, right, like 0:18:12.520 --> 0:18:15.480 using natural gas is the cleanest way to power cars, 0:18:15.560 --> 0:18:19.399 for example, right where there's literally a natural gas is 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:23.359 great activity. Whereas a page we've cut out of a 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:26.760 like a regular standalone house, right, and it's as homespit 0:18:26.840 --> 0:18:30.200 home and natural gas has many uses in and around 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:34.440 the home, and you're supposed to matchable number and wherever 0:18:34.560 --> 0:18:39.880 gas is used, right, and you use it for barbecue 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:45.280 degree or full heater or furness fireplaces, range, vehicle water heater, 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:49.560 and then you have to like going further would be 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:53.280 like talk to your family members about how they use 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:57.000 gas in their homes, right, and why they prefer them. 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:01.160 So you've got the industry using new music and cartoon 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:05.119 characters to shape kids understanding of the world and America's 0:19:05.200 --> 0:19:09.439 place in it. And then you've got them infiltrating specific 0:19:09.480 --> 0:19:12.640 curricula in later years with things like the chocolate chip 0:19:12.680 --> 0:19:16.600 cookie experiment or that lady in Arkansas talking about the 0:19:16.680 --> 0:19:18.640 happy medium that gas gives us. 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:21.960 Yeah, it's really just like incredible and kind of shocking 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:25.320 how comprehensive it is, Like how many ways kids are 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:28.520 being hit with these talking points, linking free enterprise to 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.359 fossil fuels and then connecting all of that to like 0:19:31.760 --> 0:19:35.240 American identity and freedom. And I think it's really important 0:19:35.280 --> 0:19:38.199 to remember that these are multiple companies doing all of 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:41.720 this at once. So for instance, one kid could be 0:19:41.720 --> 0:19:44.919 getting the Exxon comics and the Mokens and the chocolate 0:19:44.960 --> 0:19:48.240 chip cookie experiment and probably more than that, just while 0:19:48.240 --> 0:19:49.600 they're in elementary school. 0:19:50.000 --> 0:19:54.240 Yes, yes, totally. The ride at Disney World is the 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:55.200 one that I think. 0:19:55.119 --> 0:19:57.000 Shocked to bate them most, just. 0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.320 Because it's like, I don't know, it seems so next 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:03.479 level to me because Exon got involved, not just in 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:06.960 sort of sponsoring the exhibit and putting its name on 0:20:07.000 --> 0:20:09.000 the sign and all that kind of stuff and making 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:14.080 these ancillary materials, but they actually completely shifted the whole 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:15.520 focus of. 0:20:15.440 --> 0:20:16.600 That ride and exhibit. 0:20:17.160 --> 0:20:20.320 And you know, maybe, like one Disney World ride by 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.879 itself doesn't have the power to change the whole world, 0:20:24.200 --> 0:20:26.159 but it's not hard to think about what might have 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:30.439 happened if all the people who experienced Exxon's Universe of 0:20:30.560 --> 0:20:34.800 Energy had instead experienced the original vision that future of 0:20:34.960 --> 0:20:37.320 energy powered entirely by renewables. 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:39.200 I mean, I feel like we hear all the time 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:43.440 about the fact that people can't imagine a future without fossil. 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:49.000 Fuels, and then I'm like, well, I wonder why it's totally. 0:20:49.080 --> 0:20:51.800 It's also just really eerily familiar to the what. 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:53.720 Ifs that come up when you look into all the 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:56.919 research that Exon was doing during these exact same years 0:20:57.480 --> 0:21:02.200 into alternative energy sources and what greenhouse gas emissions were 0:21:02.240 --> 0:21:03.600 doing to the planet. 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.440 Yeah, and actually the existence of all these educational materials 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:11.200 that sort of steer people away from those ideas at 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:13.640 the same time make it pretty clear that Exon never 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:16.200 really had any intention to shift away from its core 0:21:16.280 --> 0:21:17.760 product from. 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:18.200 Oil at all. 0:21:18.600 --> 0:21:18.919 Yeah. 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:20.800 Yeah, it definitely does not seem like it. 0:21:20.840 --> 0:21:23.639 I think that's been kind of a pervasive story that 0:21:23.840 --> 0:21:28.280 like I think people want to believe, maybe because thanks 0:21:28.320 --> 0:21:30.800 to one hundred years worth of propaganda, people like to 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:37.199 give companies souls. But this idea that like, oh, you know, 0:21:37.640 --> 0:21:41.200 the road not taken, Exon was totally going to become 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:42.600 an alternative. 0:21:42.119 --> 0:21:45.000 Energy company, and it's like, eh, I think maybe not. 0:21:45.440 --> 0:21:49.120 Evidence says otherwise totally, and no one ever forced them 0:21:49.200 --> 0:21:50.040 to write. 0:21:50.840 --> 0:21:51.320 Yeah. 0:21:51.320 --> 0:21:53.920 God yeah, And it gets I think, in some ways 0:21:53.960 --> 0:21:56.440 even worse in a high school, which is where we're 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:58.439 going to go in our next episode, and we're going 0:21:58.480 --> 0:22:00.399 to take a look at how the industry is up 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:04.760 in civics classes, and economics and social studies, So please 0:22:04.800 --> 0:22:06.920 come back for that. 0:22:06.920 --> 0:22:07.360 That's right. 0:22:07.440 --> 0:22:17.520 I promise we won't give you a wedgie. That's it 0:22:17.560 --> 0:22:18.160 for this time. 0:22:18.640 --> 0:22:19.920 We're taking you to school. 0:22:20.040 --> 0:22:24.240 In this collaboration between Drilled and Earther, Darna and I 0:22:24.280 --> 0:22:28.080 have found a lot of really interesting and shocking things. 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:30.320 So stay with us. 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:36.200 Drilled is an original production of the Critical Frequency podcast Network. 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:40.480 This series is a collaboration with earther is motos climate. 0:22:40.119 --> 0:22:41.040 And justice site. 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:43.520 My co host and co reporter for the series is 0:22:43.640 --> 0:22:47.320 Darna nor Our editors are Julia Richie for Drilled and 0:22:47.440 --> 0:22:51.960 Brian Kahn for Earther. Our producer is Juliana Bradley. Mixing 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:56.000 and mastering by Peter Duff. Our factchecker is Trevor Gowan. 0:22:56.520 --> 0:22:59.840 Music is by Martin Wissenberg. Our artwork was created by. 0:22:59.760 --> 0:23:00.680 Math You Fleming. 0:23:01.080 --> 0:23:03.920 Our First Amendment Attorney is James Wheaton of the First 0:23:03.920 --> 0:23:09.160 Amendment Project. You can find corresponding stories, videos, and documents 0:23:09.240 --> 0:23:12.200 for this series on earther dot com. 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:14.720 Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.