Breaking Petro-Pedagogy with Green Education: Holding The Big Business Accountable for Climate Change
Since the world has embraced the green narrative, the focus has shifted more towards individual responsibility rather than holding fossil fuel industries accountable for their extractive activities. This shift has had a long-lasting impact on policymakers and society’s perspective on the urgent climate crisis. For years, the oil industry has spent over $3 billion to control the discourse on these issues, with one of the prominent channels being education (Holden, 2020). As a long-term solution to many global issues, the power embedded in the production and dissemination of knowledge is immensely significant. Even the formulation of education policies is constantly influenced by political factors (Nordensvärd, 2014). Those who control education have the power to shape the societal thinking of children and youth, steering them towards specific regimes of knowledge. This is what academics call: petro-pedagogy, a promotion of teaching practices that legitimize energy-related activities, and trigger awareness of personal responsibilities. However, such pedagogy extends beyond classroom activities to include industry infiltration through philanthropic initiatives.
