When a university takes money from an oil company to build skepticism for climate change, you not only have a dishonest higher educational body but also one that goes against everything that is sacred about the pursuit of knowledge. It becomes one big Con of a PR firm, you know like the Fraser Institute. Plus, it stinks to high heaven.
A major Alberta-based oil and gas company helped to kickstart an elaborate public relations project designed to cast doubt on scientific evidence linking human activity to global warming with a $175,000 donation in 2004 channelled through the University of Calgary, a newly-released letter has revealed.
The donation from Talisman Energy was the largest single contribution to a pair of trust accounts at the university that received $507,975 in donations to produce a video and engage in public relations, advertising and lobbying activities against the Kyoto Protocol and government measures to restrict fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
“Talisman is pleased to be a part of this exciting project and wish you success in the production of the video,” said the letter, dated Nov. 4, 2004, to university account administrator Chantal-Lee Watt, that accompanied a $175,000 cheque.
The document was released to Postmedia News by the university along with hundreds of pages of details about the project under orders from the office of Alberta’s information and privacy commissioner, Franklin J. Work.
Conservatives and big polluting businesses are not content just to own our media but now they dirty the waters of our educational institutions, too? No wonder so many students these days don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about.