Queensland Museum, it's time to end Shell-funded fossil fuel education in Queensland

More than 50 organisations with millions of members, and prominent Australians, including Tim Winton and Natalie Kyriacou, have demanded the Queensland Museum end a controversial sponsorship deal with fossil fuel giant, Shell. 

In an Open Letter delivered today to the Queensland Museum, they say the multi- million- dollar deal with Shell, worth over $10 million since 2015, has led to Queensland schoolchildren being given misleading Shell-branded climate change materials. 

An investigation by the climate communications charity, Comms Declare, found that systematic omissions and distortions in Shell-branded educational resources delivered under the Museum's authority.

Qld Museum is just one of hundreds of Australian institutes accepting fossil fuel sponsorships.  A new report by Comms Declare identified more than 260 programs and sponsorships through which fossil fuel companies, like Shell, are marketing to millions of Australian children through trusted institutions.   

Australians have had enough

Prominent Australians and groups representing millions of teachers, parents, doctors and disaster survivors have called for the Queensland Museum to end its ties with Shell. 

Tim Winton, AO, Author says:

"Our children deserve clean air, clean soil, and clean water.  But they also deserve clean information about the world they live in and the challenges we all face.

Our educational institutions should never allow themselves to be used to launder the reputations of big polluters.  Educators should be shielding kids from purveyors of deceit and misinformation, not abetting them in this way."

Natalie Kyriacou, Author, says:

There is a reason tobacco companies do not develop curricula on respiratory health for children: it is a conflict of interest. The same conflict of interest should prevent fossil fuel companies from developing (misleading) content on climate change for children.

Professor Ian Lowe, says:

Given that we now face a climate emergency, as many local authorities have accepted, it is scandalous for fossil fuel companies to distribute misinformation to school students

Comms Declare Founder, Belinda Noble said: 

We call on Queensland Museum to stop promoting climate-wrecking gas, to drop Shell as a sponsor, and to put in a partnership policy that ensures children receive accurate information, untainted by corporate influence.

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