Why Is Big Oil Curricula Finding Acceptance In Educational Settings?

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Last Updated on: 20th July 2025, 10:18 pm

In the midst of my career as a high school English teacher, I savored the joyous month of July. It was mine and mine alone. I vacationed and relaxed, sunbathed and gardened. As soon as August 1 rolled around, however, I had to change cognitive gears. It was time to map out classplans and be sure to incorporate district mandates. It was a balance of infusing my own vision about language and literature while also finding commonality with other senior honors teachers. Never, though, did I have to address corporate “donations” — like the Big Oil curricula many instructors do today.

Students in the UK’s Shetland Islands are now immersed in Newton Rooms. These pop-up science classrooms were created in Norway to complement STEM provision in schools and engage more young people in STEM activities. There is now an international network of 45 Newton Rooms facilities across 14 countries.

STEM classes are important, as so many future careers are grounded in tech and engineering. Sounds nice, right? But digging beyond the surface produces a stark reality: Norwegian oil giant Equinor has provided more than £200,000 ($232,500) to sponsor those STEM classrooms.

Camilla Salthe, senior vice president upstream at Equinor UK, stated:

“As we continue our journey to net zero, encouraging an early interest in STEM subjects is critical, and exposure to new technology for young people will play a key role as we work to decarbonize our sector. We look forward to seeing how the mobile Newton Room benefits the wider Shetland community and are delighted to be a key partner in this great program for the region.”

The propaganda campaign began in Norway in order to protect Big Oil business interests under the cloak of STEM education. Equinor expects around one-third of school-aged children in Shetland to participate — more than 1,000 kids. A member of the Scottish Parliament called Equinor’s backing for the classrooms “concerning.”

Three word choices particularly stick out in Salthe’s statement.

• “Our journey to net zero:” In the UK, Equinor currently produces approximately 38,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. The company acknowledges that it’s working to develop domestic oil and gas, and it is supplying almost 30% of UK demand for natural gas and more than 15% of oil. “As we know, oil and gas are going to be part of the bigger picture for years to come,” the company states. Only perfunctory company language mentions renewables.
• “Decarbonize our sector:” Equinor plans to continue its leading role as an energy provider, yet says it wants to “achieve net zero in 2050.” Their actual strategy is a delicate balancing act, optimizing oil and gas production while looking to “high value growth in renewables and new market opportunities in low carbon solutions.” This mumbo-jumbo hardly masks the continued, heavy emphasis the company will devote in years to come on fossil fuel extraction.
• “How the mobile Newton Room benefits the wider Shetland community:” And there’s the rub. A DeSmog expose reveals that, just 80 miles west of the Shetland Islands, Equinor hopes to receive approval to develop a major new oil and gas field called Rosebank 130 km northwest of Shetland. The “wider Shetland community” will experience disinformation about fossil fuels while Equinor reaps enormous profits.

The Rosebank project has sparked massive protests in the UK, and more than half a million people have signed a petition to stop it. In January, the company lost a case against climate activists in the Scottish High Court, which ruled that the company’s permit for its oil field was invalid. As a result, oil field extraction would be illegal; Equinor needed to apply for a new permit before the field could be placed into production.

Equinor counters that its sponsorship of the school program has no connection to the opposition to the oil project, as reported by E24, a business newspaper in Norway.

Equinor has spent 833 million kroner on sponsorship agreements over the last five years, with recipients including scholarship holders at universities, university research, professorships, PhD positions, teaching initiatives, Lego competitions, and science centers.

An Equinor energy game aimed at children in the UK was designed to “clear misconceptions ” about oil and gas, yet the game has raised questions about Equinor’s actual motivation in STEM education programs. The game Energy Town is about building a city that will survive until 2050 and shows, in part, how oil can be a viable part of a “green energy mix.”

A Local Government MSP Speaks Out on Behalf of Children

Highlands and Islands MSP Ariane Burgess told the Shetland News that islanders need to be careful about “who is paying” for their children’s learning.

“It’s not fair for companies that make money from oil to have a significant say in what kids learn about energy and the environment,” she stated. Concerned that “the lessons are more about helping the company look good than telling the full truth about climate change,” Burgess reminded her constituents that fossil fuel companies were complicit in hiding their knowledge about the adverse effects of burning carbon on the environment. “They shaped the narrative decades ago when scientists first raised concerns about climate change.”

Big Oil’s blatant climate denial delayed a global embrace of renewables, and now people “face this extremely challenging time of transition that should have started long ago.” Burgess said curricula should help young people understand options for the future, “including our move to renewables and why we must transition away from fossil fuels.” Shetland is in a position to “lead the way in clean energy,” with numerous renewable projects soon to come online, including onshore and offshore wind farms.

She cited the need for education in critical thinking and decision making “so they have the tools and skills that will ensure life on this planet for their and future generations.” She said every young person will be “dealing with the consequences of the climate and nature emergencies,” so it was important “they get the full picture — not just the version that helps oil companies.”

Burgess called upon the local government to provide greater transparency about who funds children’s education. “If schools are accepting corporate sponsorship, this should be from a range of sources, with clear guidelines and independent oversight,” she said.

Final Thoughts

If Equinor was really trying to help the next generation of Shetland Islanders, the fossil fuel company would teach about the real-life effects of climate change. We know now that warmer air holds more moisture. An increase of one degree means the atmosphere can hold 7% more water vapor. That, in turn, means when it rains, there is a lot more moisture available to make the rain heavier. In much of the world, the air is now close to two degrees Celsius warmer than in pre-industrial times, which means the air may contain 14% more moisture. The devastating storms around the world are evidence of our rapidly changing climate.

But we know that pulling back the curtain on Big Oil in education would illuminate and turn away the next generation from dependence on fossil fuels, and companies like Equinor depend for the next generation on ongoing profits — for decades to come.