Why Biden is struggling to sell his climate change record
Ben Adler
·Senior Editor
Wed, August 9, 2023
President Biden announced he is putting the brakes on uranium mining around the Grand Canyon while speaking at Red Butte Airfield in Arizona on Tuesday.
The most ambitious climate change policies of any president in history
Wind turbines generate electricity at the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm near Palm Springs, Calif.
·Senior Editor
Wed, August 9, 2023
President Biden announced he is putting the brakes on uranium mining around the Grand Canyon while speaking at Red Butte Airfield in Arizona on Tuesday.
(Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
President Biden is trying to sell his record on climate change and the environment with a series of speeches and media appearances this week.
Standing in front of the Grand Canyon in Arizona on Tuesday, Biden touted his environmental record while signing into existence a new national monument surrounding the area to protect it from uranium mining. In a state that’s currently baking under a historic heat wave, during the hottest summer on record, Biden connected the recent extreme weather with the climate change that, studies show, has made it much more likely.
“There is more work ahead to combat the existential threat of climate change,” the president said during his speech, in which he also announced a $44 million investment to “strengthen climate resilience across our national park system,” paid for with funds from his signature legislative achievement, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022.
In a Wednesday morning TV interview with the Weather Channel, Biden said he had “in practice” declared climate change a national emergency, as many climate activists are demanding, with his robust climate agenda. And on Wednesday afternoon, he will speak in Albuquerque at the groundbreaking of a wind tower manufacturing facility expansion, to claim credit for the clean energy and manufacturing boom the IRA helped create.
The president’s latest messaging blitz is likely an attempt to boost the popularity of his climate change record, which has been frequently criticized by both Republicans seeking to dismantle it and climate activists who think it does not go far enough. On Monday, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found 57% of Americans disapprove of his climate change record (40% approve).
These are the key points to understanding why Biden finds himself in this predicament.
President Biden is trying to sell his record on climate change and the environment with a series of speeches and media appearances this week.
Standing in front of the Grand Canyon in Arizona on Tuesday, Biden touted his environmental record while signing into existence a new national monument surrounding the area to protect it from uranium mining. In a state that’s currently baking under a historic heat wave, during the hottest summer on record, Biden connected the recent extreme weather with the climate change that, studies show, has made it much more likely.
“There is more work ahead to combat the existential threat of climate change,” the president said during his speech, in which he also announced a $44 million investment to “strengthen climate resilience across our national park system,” paid for with funds from his signature legislative achievement, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022.
In a Wednesday morning TV interview with the Weather Channel, Biden said he had “in practice” declared climate change a national emergency, as many climate activists are demanding, with his robust climate agenda. And on Wednesday afternoon, he will speak in Albuquerque at the groundbreaking of a wind tower manufacturing facility expansion, to claim credit for the clean energy and manufacturing boom the IRA helped create.
The president’s latest messaging blitz is likely an attempt to boost the popularity of his climate change record, which has been frequently criticized by both Republicans seeking to dismantle it and climate activists who think it does not go far enough. On Monday, a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll found 57% of Americans disapprove of his climate change record (40% approve).
These are the key points to understanding why Biden finds himself in this predicament.
The most ambitious climate change policies of any president in history
Wind turbines generate electricity at the San Gorgonio Pass Wind Farm near Palm Springs, Calif.
Robert Alexander/Getty Images
When Biden signed the IRA one year ago, it included $369 billion in climate-related spending over 10 years — by far the biggest U.S. investment in combating climate change — with an array of subsidies for clean energy and clean car production, consumption and manufacturing.
An all-of-government approach
The Biden administration isn’t just pushing for spending bills to address climate change; it’s writing new regulations to require increased energy efficiency in everything from vehicles to gas stoves, tightening air pollution rules and creating the first rules limiting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. After rejoining the Paris climate agreement upon Biden’s inauguration, the U.S. has taken an active role in leading global climate change negotiations, including coaxing other large climate polluters such as China to pledge to reduce emissions of methane, a powerful planet-warming gas.
Some climate activists are still disappointed
Environmentalists have blasted the administration for approving some proposals to drill for oil or gas offshore, and in sensitive areas like the controversial Willow project on Alaska’s North Slope, in spite of Biden’s campaign pledge to end fossil fuel leasing on federal land and water.
A part of the Trans Alaska Pipeline system near Delta Junction, Alaska.
Conservatives are angry too
When Biden took office, he temporarily paused selling new federal oil and gas leases, and he canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would have brought Canadian tar sands oil to U.S. refineries. Republican congressional leaders and the oil and gas industry responded by blaming him when oil prices rose during the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. (Prices are not affected by recent lease sales, which take many years to bring oil to market.)
The IRA is working as intended, with renewable investment skyrocketing
On Monday, a report from the American Clean Power Association stated that in the year since the IRA passed, there was more than $270 billion in capital investments in renewable energy — more investment than in the previous eight years combined. That represents over 200 clean energy projects and more than 100,000 new jobs.
The more people know about the IRA, the more they like it
Biden speaks with Ed Keable, superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park.
When Biden signed the IRA one year ago, it included $369 billion in climate-related spending over 10 years — by far the biggest U.S. investment in combating climate change — with an array of subsidies for clean energy and clean car production, consumption and manufacturing.
An all-of-government approach
The Biden administration isn’t just pushing for spending bills to address climate change; it’s writing new regulations to require increased energy efficiency in everything from vehicles to gas stoves, tightening air pollution rules and creating the first rules limiting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. After rejoining the Paris climate agreement upon Biden’s inauguration, the U.S. has taken an active role in leading global climate change negotiations, including coaxing other large climate polluters such as China to pledge to reduce emissions of methane, a powerful planet-warming gas.
Some climate activists are still disappointed
Environmentalists have blasted the administration for approving some proposals to drill for oil or gas offshore, and in sensitive areas like the controversial Willow project on Alaska’s North Slope, in spite of Biden’s campaign pledge to end fossil fuel leasing on federal land and water.
A part of the Trans Alaska Pipeline system near Delta Junction, Alaska.
(Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The White House contends that its hands have been tied on fossil fuel leasing by court rulings, but some legal experts say it could have fought back harder in some of those cases.
Biden has also backed increasing exports of natural gas to help Europe stop buying Russian gas, frustrating climate activists.
The White House contends that its hands have been tied on fossil fuel leasing by court rulings, but some legal experts say it could have fought back harder in some of those cases.
Biden has also backed increasing exports of natural gas to help Europe stop buying Russian gas, frustrating climate activists.
Conservatives are angry too
When Biden took office, he temporarily paused selling new federal oil and gas leases, and he canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline, which would have brought Canadian tar sands oil to U.S. refineries. Republican congressional leaders and the oil and gas industry responded by blaming him when oil prices rose during the economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. (Prices are not affected by recent lease sales, which take many years to bring oil to market.)
The IRA is working as intended, with renewable investment skyrocketing
On Monday, a report from the American Clean Power Association stated that in the year since the IRA passed, there was more than $270 billion in capital investments in renewable energy — more investment than in the previous eight years combined. That represents over 200 clean energy projects and more than 100,000 new jobs.
The more people know about the IRA, the more they like it
Biden speaks with Ed Keable, superintendent of Grand Canyon National Park.
(Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
While Biden’s climate change record is underwater in the Post-UMD poll, the IRA gets 39% approval with just 20% disapproving and the rest unsure. That high rate of uncertainty is due to the fact that only 27% said they have heard a “great deal” or a “good amount” about the law, with 71% saying they've heard little or nothing about it.
While only a third, or less, of the public is familiar with the IRA’s individual provisions, each of those provisions is very popular. Expanded tax credits for buying solar panels, electric vehicles and heat pumps, and for manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines, all enjoy the support of at least 50% of the public, while none Is opposed by more than 22%.
So Biden is betting that talking up his record will raise awareness of its popular components and boost his climate change approval ahead of his reelection campaign.
While Biden’s climate change record is underwater in the Post-UMD poll, the IRA gets 39% approval with just 20% disapproving and the rest unsure. That high rate of uncertainty is due to the fact that only 27% said they have heard a “great deal” or a “good amount” about the law, with 71% saying they've heard little or nothing about it.
While only a third, or less, of the public is familiar with the IRA’s individual provisions, each of those provisions is very popular. Expanded tax credits for buying solar panels, electric vehicles and heat pumps, and for manufacturing solar panels and wind turbines, all enjoy the support of at least 50% of the public, while none Is opposed by more than 22%.
So Biden is betting that talking up his record will raise awareness of its popular components and boost his climate change approval ahead of his reelection campaign.
Even Now, Still Downplaying Climate Change
Leah McGrath Goodman
Leah McGrath Goodman
August 9, 2023
Where money, power and politics collide
If there has ever been a summer of such oppressive heat that Americans are finally forced to confront the reality of climate change, it would be this one.
And yet some groups are doubling down on the notion that climate change continues to reside not in scientific data or fact, but political talking points and hyperinflated rhetoric.
Alongside the increasingly politicized ESG movement (an acronym that stands for “environmental, social and governance”), some conservative organizations, such as the Heritage Foundation, are working to dismantle efforts and programs that seek to mitigate the impact of climate change.
In a wide-ranging strategy called Project 2025, the Washington think tank makes a series of propositions intended for the next Republican administration, bringing together dozens of right-of-center organizations that “are ready to get into the business of restoring this country.”
Among some of the plan’s biggest changes would be to rewrite federal policy on energy and climate, if a Republican should retake the White House in 2024. The plan aims to scrap regulations to rein in greenhouse gas emissions for power plants, oil and gas wells and automobiles, while upending most federal clean energy programs and increasing fossil fuel production and consumption, which directly contributes to global warming.
Speaking favorably of the plan this week, Mandy Gunasekara, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s chief of staff under Trump, backed the idea of slashing the size and scope of the EPA.
“A lot of the rhetoric that the public sees and experiences is based on a picture that’s not consistent with what we’ve seen with observed climate data and that the forecasts actually suggest a mild and manageable climate change in the future,” Gunasekara told NPR, citing scientific research. When pressed for the names of the scientists on which she based her conclusions, she declined to provide them.
Where money, power and politics collide
If there has ever been a summer of such oppressive heat that Americans are finally forced to confront the reality of climate change, it would be this one.
And yet some groups are doubling down on the notion that climate change continues to reside not in scientific data or fact, but political talking points and hyperinflated rhetoric.
Alongside the increasingly politicized ESG movement (an acronym that stands for “environmental, social and governance”), some conservative organizations, such as the Heritage Foundation, are working to dismantle efforts and programs that seek to mitigate the impact of climate change.
In a wide-ranging strategy called Project 2025, the Washington think tank makes a series of propositions intended for the next Republican administration, bringing together dozens of right-of-center organizations that “are ready to get into the business of restoring this country.”
Among some of the plan’s biggest changes would be to rewrite federal policy on energy and climate, if a Republican should retake the White House in 2024. The plan aims to scrap regulations to rein in greenhouse gas emissions for power plants, oil and gas wells and automobiles, while upending most federal clean energy programs and increasing fossil fuel production and consumption, which directly contributes to global warming.
Speaking favorably of the plan this week, Mandy Gunasekara, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s chief of staff under Trump, backed the idea of slashing the size and scope of the EPA.
“A lot of the rhetoric that the public sees and experiences is based on a picture that’s not consistent with what we’ve seen with observed climate data and that the forecasts actually suggest a mild and manageable climate change in the future,” Gunasekara told NPR, citing scientific research. When pressed for the names of the scientists on which she based her conclusions, she declined to provide them.
KOO KOO FOR COCO PUFFS
Florida schools ‘hijacked by the left’ turn to anti-climate cartoons
Scott Waldman
Wed, August 9, 2023
Wind and solar power pollute the Earth and make life miserable. Recent global and local heat records reflect natural temperature cycles. And people who champion those beliefs are fighting oppression.
These are some of the themes of children’s videos produced by an influential conservative advocacy group. Now, the videos could soon be used in Florida’s classrooms.
Florida’s Department of Education has approved the classroom use of material from the Prager University Foundation, which produces videos education experts say distort science, history, gender and other topics. And those researchers fear that the nation’s third-largest state has opened a door that will help spread the videos to classrooms in other states.
Florida is the first state to allow PragerU materials in public schools, where teachers will have the option of showing the five- to 10-minute videos in their classrooms.
PragerU CEO Marissa Streit says the videos will rebalance schools that have been “hijacked by the left.”
“Young kids are being taught climate hysteria," Streit said in an interview. "They’re hearing that the world is coming to an end, and we think that there needs to be a healthy balance.
“The climate is always changing,” Streit added, repeating a climate-denial motto that rejects fossil fuel burning as the cause of continuing record-high temperatures.
For now, Florida has approved using PragerU videos only in civics and government for younger children. Some PragerU climate denial videos are classified under non-climate categories, which could enable their use in Florida.
Florida’s approval is alarming because children will watch the videos when they are at their most impressionable stage, in kindergarten through 5th grade, said Adrienne McCarthy, a researcher at Kansas State University who tracks PragerU. Extreme ideas are presented as common beliefs in many videos, she said.
“They can take these right-wing, controversial ideas and cloak them in seemingly harmless and friendly rhetoric,” McCarthy said. “Then they create this kind of facade of normal conservative beliefs, and they use authoritative figures [in the videos] in order to convince the audience.”
“It’s also targeted at the parents themselves, saying that if you want to be a good parent, you should be teaching your kids this,” McCarthy added.
Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, said Florida is effectively supporting parents and teachers who want to tear down accurate climate science lessons.
Florida’s approval “may be telling climate change-denier teachers about the availability of these materials,” Branch said. Teachers who want to teach climate change accurately could feel coerced to do otherwise “by hinting that there are resources out there with the opposite view, and people are going to be pressuring you into using them.”
Climate-denial talking points, verbatim
Florida Department of Education spokesperson Cassie Palelis said in a statement that the PragerU material “aligns to Florida’s revised civics and government standards” and “is no different than many other resources, which can be used as supplemental materials in Florida schools at district discretion.”
PragerU’s videos use talking points common among global warming skeptics to frame climate science and policy. Many of the videos attack renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
An eight-minute video, “Poland: Ania’s Energy Crisis,” exemplifies how PragerU introduces climate denialism to children by subtly attacking established science and the people concerned about global warming.
In the video, teenager Ania is concerned about climate change because of what she learned at school. Climate-denial talking points are introduced almost verbatim in the trusted voice of Ania’s mother and father.
Ania’s parents tell her that the climate has always cooled and warmed — “long before carbon emissions were a factor” — and that climate action is pointless until China and India cut their emissions. Ania also hears that renewable energy is unreliable and too expensive.
Ania repeats her parents' claims in class and is shunned by her teacher and classmates. Her sadness lifts, however, when her grandfather tells her about life under Nazism in World War II. Ania feels empowered because her grandfather says “fighting oppression always takes courage.”
A PragerU video about a child in Africa features a narrator calmly attacking solar and wind because “their batteries break down and become hazardous waste” and because it's risky “to rely on things like wind and sunlight, which are not constant.”
Streit, the PragerU CEO, said she wants to ensure schools frame climate science as a debate. A goal of her organization is to reach children when they are at their most impressionable. That’s why Florida approved the PragerU Kids channel content, she said.
“The science is actually contrary to what most educational institutions that have been really controlled by one ideology are saying,” Streit said, rejecting decades of peer-reviewed research by some of the world’s top science agencies showing that humanity is warming the planet at a dangerous rate. “There is debate about the severity of the changing of the climate as well as the pragmatic solutions.”
PragerU’s goal is to develop a “turnkey curriculum” that can be expanded to as many states as possible, Streit said. She expects to announce soon that more states have approved PragerU content and will use it for classrooms in all grades. PragerU is developing a curriculum module that could be used for course credit in high school, Streit said.
DeSantis leads the way
PragerU’s foray into approved classroom use comes as conservative states and politicians aggressively seek to dismantle curriculum in African-American history and LGBTQ issues.
The leader has been Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican running for president. DeSantis recently faced loud, bipartisan condemnation after education officials in his government released new curriculum standards that say enslaved people gained “personal benefits” from a lifetime of forced labor.
Less documented are the conservative efforts to tear down climate science and to promote in classrooms the use of fossil fuels.
Florida is just the latest state to open the door to climate disinformation. Texas changed its science curriculum to require that schools teach positive lessons about fossil fuels. It’s an effort to downplay accurate climate science and to influence the national textbook market, since Texas is one of the biggest consumers of educational materials in the U.S.
Climate scientists long ago determined that fossil fuel use is driving rapid global warming and pushing the planet toward dangerous tipping points. Most states center their climate change curriculum around that consensus. Only a small number of researchers with legitimate academic credentials doubt the consensus science, and PragerU videos feature many of them.
PragerU’s website contains thousands of videos, which have a variety of classification tags to help users find its videos on topics such as civics, financial literacy or government. Climate denial videos, including some pushing conspiracy theories like the “Great Reset," are classified with tags other than climate change, such as “government,” “global issues,” “life lessons” and “freedom,” which lets them qualify for approved use outside of science classes.
PragerU also has materials that avoid partisan slants, including videos explaining the Electoral College and the offices of the president and vice president.
In Florida, DeSantis has long assailed what he says is liberal “indoctrination” in education. PragerU co-founder Dennis Prager, a nationally syndicated conservative radio host, has proclaimed that his PragerU materials are specifically designed for “our indoctrination.”
“It’s true we bring doctrines to children,”Prager told the conservative group Moms for Liberty at a conference in Philadelphia in July. “But what is bad about our indoctrination?”
PragerU has produced anti-climate policy videos since shortly after it began in 2009. The Prager foundation has received millions of dollars from the billionaire brothers, Farris and Dan Wilks of Texas, who made their fortune in fracking. Wilks funding also was essential to the growth of The Daily Wire, a popular website and media company that routinely pushes climate disinformation.
PragerU has received additional funding from foundations that oppose climate regulations such as the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.
PragerU’s video library goes far beyond climate change and introduces viewers to a worldview framed around the belief system of the far right.
PragerU CEO Streit said her group has tapped into angry parents who want their politics reflected more in classrooms.
“Many of us, as parents, don’t feel like we’re being heard,” Streit said. “We feel like we’re being gaslit, so we’re hoping that this product will better explain to everyone what we want to see in our children’s schools.
Scott Waldman
Wed, August 9, 2023
Wind and solar power pollute the Earth and make life miserable. Recent global and local heat records reflect natural temperature cycles. And people who champion those beliefs are fighting oppression.
These are some of the themes of children’s videos produced by an influential conservative advocacy group. Now, the videos could soon be used in Florida’s classrooms.
Florida’s Department of Education has approved the classroom use of material from the Prager University Foundation, which produces videos education experts say distort science, history, gender and other topics. And those researchers fear that the nation’s third-largest state has opened a door that will help spread the videos to classrooms in other states.
Florida is the first state to allow PragerU materials in public schools, where teachers will have the option of showing the five- to 10-minute videos in their classrooms.
PragerU CEO Marissa Streit says the videos will rebalance schools that have been “hijacked by the left.”
“Young kids are being taught climate hysteria," Streit said in an interview. "They’re hearing that the world is coming to an end, and we think that there needs to be a healthy balance.
“The climate is always changing,” Streit added, repeating a climate-denial motto that rejects fossil fuel burning as the cause of continuing record-high temperatures.
For now, Florida has approved using PragerU videos only in civics and government for younger children. Some PragerU climate denial videos are classified under non-climate categories, which could enable their use in Florida.
Florida’s approval is alarming because children will watch the videos when they are at their most impressionable stage, in kindergarten through 5th grade, said Adrienne McCarthy, a researcher at Kansas State University who tracks PragerU. Extreme ideas are presented as common beliefs in many videos, she said.
“They can take these right-wing, controversial ideas and cloak them in seemingly harmless and friendly rhetoric,” McCarthy said. “Then they create this kind of facade of normal conservative beliefs, and they use authoritative figures [in the videos] in order to convince the audience.”
“It’s also targeted at the parents themselves, saying that if you want to be a good parent, you should be teaching your kids this,” McCarthy added.
Glenn Branch, deputy director of the National Center for Science Education, said Florida is effectively supporting parents and teachers who want to tear down accurate climate science lessons.
Florida’s approval “may be telling climate change-denier teachers about the availability of these materials,” Branch said. Teachers who want to teach climate change accurately could feel coerced to do otherwise “by hinting that there are resources out there with the opposite view, and people are going to be pressuring you into using them.”
Climate-denial talking points, verbatim
Florida Department of Education spokesperson Cassie Palelis said in a statement that the PragerU material “aligns to Florida’s revised civics and government standards” and “is no different than many other resources, which can be used as supplemental materials in Florida schools at district discretion.”
PragerU’s videos use talking points common among global warming skeptics to frame climate science and policy. Many of the videos attack renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
An eight-minute video, “Poland: Ania’s Energy Crisis,” exemplifies how PragerU introduces climate denialism to children by subtly attacking established science and the people concerned about global warming.
In the video, teenager Ania is concerned about climate change because of what she learned at school. Climate-denial talking points are introduced almost verbatim in the trusted voice of Ania’s mother and father.
Ania’s parents tell her that the climate has always cooled and warmed — “long before carbon emissions were a factor” — and that climate action is pointless until China and India cut their emissions. Ania also hears that renewable energy is unreliable and too expensive.
Ania repeats her parents' claims in class and is shunned by her teacher and classmates. Her sadness lifts, however, when her grandfather tells her about life under Nazism in World War II. Ania feels empowered because her grandfather says “fighting oppression always takes courage.”
A PragerU video about a child in Africa features a narrator calmly attacking solar and wind because “their batteries break down and become hazardous waste” and because it's risky “to rely on things like wind and sunlight, which are not constant.”
Streit, the PragerU CEO, said she wants to ensure schools frame climate science as a debate. A goal of her organization is to reach children when they are at their most impressionable. That’s why Florida approved the PragerU Kids channel content, she said.
“The science is actually contrary to what most educational institutions that have been really controlled by one ideology are saying,” Streit said, rejecting decades of peer-reviewed research by some of the world’s top science agencies showing that humanity is warming the planet at a dangerous rate. “There is debate about the severity of the changing of the climate as well as the pragmatic solutions.”
PragerU’s goal is to develop a “turnkey curriculum” that can be expanded to as many states as possible, Streit said. She expects to announce soon that more states have approved PragerU content and will use it for classrooms in all grades. PragerU is developing a curriculum module that could be used for course credit in high school, Streit said.
DeSantis leads the way
PragerU’s foray into approved classroom use comes as conservative states and politicians aggressively seek to dismantle curriculum in African-American history and LGBTQ issues.
The leader has been Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican running for president. DeSantis recently faced loud, bipartisan condemnation after education officials in his government released new curriculum standards that say enslaved people gained “personal benefits” from a lifetime of forced labor.
Less documented are the conservative efforts to tear down climate science and to promote in classrooms the use of fossil fuels.
Florida is just the latest state to open the door to climate disinformation. Texas changed its science curriculum to require that schools teach positive lessons about fossil fuels. It’s an effort to downplay accurate climate science and to influence the national textbook market, since Texas is one of the biggest consumers of educational materials in the U.S.
Climate scientists long ago determined that fossil fuel use is driving rapid global warming and pushing the planet toward dangerous tipping points. Most states center their climate change curriculum around that consensus. Only a small number of researchers with legitimate academic credentials doubt the consensus science, and PragerU videos feature many of them.
PragerU’s website contains thousands of videos, which have a variety of classification tags to help users find its videos on topics such as civics, financial literacy or government. Climate denial videos, including some pushing conspiracy theories like the “Great Reset," are classified with tags other than climate change, such as “government,” “global issues,” “life lessons” and “freedom,” which lets them qualify for approved use outside of science classes.
PragerU also has materials that avoid partisan slants, including videos explaining the Electoral College and the offices of the president and vice president.
In Florida, DeSantis has long assailed what he says is liberal “indoctrination” in education. PragerU co-founder Dennis Prager, a nationally syndicated conservative radio host, has proclaimed that his PragerU materials are specifically designed for “our indoctrination.”
“It’s true we bring doctrines to children,”Prager told the conservative group Moms for Liberty at a conference in Philadelphia in July. “But what is bad about our indoctrination?”
PragerU has produced anti-climate policy videos since shortly after it began in 2009. The Prager foundation has received millions of dollars from the billionaire brothers, Farris and Dan Wilks of Texas, who made their fortune in fracking. Wilks funding also was essential to the growth of The Daily Wire, a popular website and media company that routinely pushes climate disinformation.
PragerU has received additional funding from foundations that oppose climate regulations such as the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation.
PragerU’s video library goes far beyond climate change and introduces viewers to a worldview framed around the belief system of the far right.
PragerU CEO Streit said her group has tapped into angry parents who want their politics reflected more in classrooms.
“Many of us, as parents, don’t feel like we’re being heard,” Streit said. “We feel like we’re being gaslit, so we’re hoping that this product will better explain to everyone what we want to see in our children’s schools.
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