Sanera, M

NO MERRI

PERC

CFACT

CEI HERITAGE JOHN LOCKE ART POPE

GOLDWATER STOSSEL

CLAREMONSTER

MIS-EDUCATION

the Environmental Education Working Group (EEWG), a national umbrella group for organizations working to undermine environmental education in schools. It is linked to the UK-based rightwing think tank, the International Policy Network, via shared staff and an identical US contact address. It also sponsors several other subsidiary organizations, including:

• Michael Sanera's Center for Environmental Education Research, based in Washington, D.C.

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CEI has also worked to cultivate a relationship with John Stossel, the controversial correspondent for ABC-TV's 20/20 program. When Stossel came under fire in August 2000 for citing nonexistent scientific studies on a 20/20 segment bashing organic foods, CEI set up a "Save John Stossel" website to help him keep his job.^[14]^ Stossel returned the favor the following year by working with Michael Sanera to put together a program titled "Tampering With Nature" that focused on attacking environmental education. In March 2001, a pesticide industry front group known as Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment (RISE) sent out an action alert memorandum to its members. "Mr. Sanera has been contacted by ABC News," the memo stated." A producer for John Stossel is working on a program on environmental education. He needs examples of kids who have been 'scared green' by schools teaching doomsday environmentalism in the classroom. ... He has some examples, but needs more. Would you send out a notice to your group and ask if they know of some examples. Then contact Mr. Sanera ... Let's try to help Mr. Stossel. He treats industry fairly in his programs."^[15]

Apparently neither Stossel nor CEI applied similar standards of fairness toward the schoolteachers and students they interviewed. Prior to the program's air date in July, several California parents of children interviewed by Stossel filed a complaint with ABC, stating that they had been misled about the nature of the program and the types of leading questions their kids would be asked. Seattle teacher John Borowski also reported being approached] by ABC producer Ted Balaker, who attempted to trick him into appearing on camera by claiming that he was making a documentary about Earth Day, while denying that he was working with Stossel and Sanera.^[16]

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• mis-education:
• PERC
• Critical Thinking About Environmental Issues
• December 1, 2000
• PERC and CEI Launch New Series of Environmental Books
• Two educational and research organizations have initiated a new series of books for young people called “Critical Thinking about Environmental Issues.” Unlike many environmental books found in schools today, this series offers objective and balanced discussions of controversial issues in an attractive and readable format. The books were prepared by PERC?  the Center for Free Market Environmentalism?  and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. The series of five books includes Endangered Species, Global Warming, Pesticides, Forest Fires, and Energy. The publisher is Greenhaven Press, recognized for its library books on topical issues for students from grades three to twelve.
• Evidence that environmental education has gone awry has been accumulating since the early 1990s, when parents began to notice that their children came home from school with strange ideas about the natural world. Students condemned their parents for normal behavior such as driving cars or having a job as a logger. Students worried about cities being flooded by rising seas because of global warming or feared that rain was as acidic as lemon juice.
• Subsequent studies confirmed that many widely used textbooks are riddled with inaccurate science, an emphasis on advocacy, and unbalanced descriptions of potential environmental risks.
• To fill the need for objectivity, Greenhaven Press cooperated with PERC and the Competitive Enterprise Institute to initiate this series. Greenhaven is part of the Gale Group, a division of Thomson Learning.
• Each book squarely addresses the controversies surrounding its topic. For example, Endangered Species, by Randy T. Simmons, explores the difficulties of knowing how many species are actually endangered, looks at various efforts being made to save species, and raises the question of whether there is an underlying conflict, “species vs. people,” that obstructs the resolution of problems.
• In Global Warming, Jane S. Shaw examines the issue of whether the earth is warming, and, if so, whether human activity is a cause. She discusses how scientists study these questions and explores the possible outcomes of government efforts to try to control global warming. In Pesticides, Samantha Beres weighs the costs and the benefits of pesticide use, both in agriculture and to fight disease, and discusses alternatives to current ways of using pesticides.
• Forest Fires, by Linda Platts examines the issue of whether forest fires are a natural and necessary function to achieve healthy forests. She discusses the threat wildfires present to human life and property as well as the alternatives to fire such logging and thinning the forests. She discusses how scientists are exploring the question of whether fires should be allowed to burn and risks to human health.
• Jane S. Shaw and Manuel Nikel-Zueger use their book Energy to explore the possibility that we are running out of energy such as oil and consider what alternative types of energy are available. They examine whether our current forms of energy can be harmful to human health and how government policies influence our use of energy.
• These Greenhaven books (hardbacks) are generally sold directly to libraries. Others interested in purchasing these books may obtain them through PERC for $18 each by calling 888/406-9532.
• ----
• https://www.libertyandecology.org/jane-shaw-stroup/
• # Jane Shaw Stroup

Posted on July 23, 2019 by Jane Shaw Stroup

Chair of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, she was president of the center (then called the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy) from 2008 until 2015, when she retired. Stroup is a past president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education. She is married to economist Richard Stroup.

Jane Shaw Stroup (who also writes under the name Jane S. Shaw) is chair of the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal. She was president of the center (then called the Pope Center for Higher Education Policy) from 2008 until 2015, when she retired. 

Stroup spent 22 years with PERC, the Property and Environment Research Center in Bozeman, Montana, where she was a senior fellow. Previously, she was a journalist and was an associate economics editor of Business Week before she joined PERC. WithMichael Sanera, she coauthored Facts, Not Fear: Teaching Children about the Environment and initiated a book series for young people, Critical Thinking about Environmental Issues. She coedited A Guide to Smart Growth (Heritage Foundation) with Ronald Utt. 

Stroup is a past president of the Association of Private Enterprise Education. She is married to economist Richard Stroup.

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Dr. Michael Sanera

Email Address: msanera@johnlocke.org

Michael Sanera is Director of Research and Local Government Studies at the John Locke Foundation. He served as a policy analyst for the Washington, DC based The Heritage Foundation, and the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the California based Claremont Institute.

In the late 1990s, Sanera gained national recognition as a leading critic of biased environmental education at the K-12 grade levels. His research resulted in the book Facts, Not Fear: Teaching Children about the Environment (withJane Shaw). This book, in its second edition, was translated into Spanish, Turkish and was published in a Canadian edition. 

In the early 1990s, Sanera was the founding president of the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, a state-based think tank studying Arizona public policies. At that time, the 

Goldwater institute laid the groundwork for Arizona’s first in the nation school reforms including itsinnovative charter school legislation.

During the early 1980s, Sanera served in the Reagan Administration as the Assistant Director for Planning and Evaluation at the Office of Personnel Management. In this position, he assisted with President Reagan’s reforms of the federal civil service system. 

In addition to authoring Facts Not Fear and numerous policy reports, Sanera published two additional books: Steering the Elephant: How Washington Works (co-edited with Robert Rector) and

• Continuing the Conservative Revolution (co-authored with Stuart Butler and Bruce Weinrod).

Sanera was an Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Northern Arizona University from 1979 to 1995.

Sanera earned his PhD in political science in 1979 from the University of Colorado at Boulder and served as a U.S. Army military intelligence officer in Berlin, Germany in the early 1970s.

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Recent Research

Wake County Sustainability Task Force Report: An Alternate Opinion

Feb. 16th, 2012

This Regional Brief critiques the process used by the Wake County Sustainability Task Force and its final report. The author was a member of the task force.

Raleigh Convention Center: Throwing good money after bad

Feb. 13th, 2012

This report examines 52 contracts signed by the Raleigh Convention Center for the period of July–December 2011 and is a follow-up to the September 2008 John Locke Foundation report “The New Raleigh Convention Center: A taxpayer-funded money pit.”

First Annual North Carolina County Privatization Survey

Nov. 10th, 2011

County governments all over North Carolina are saving money by privatizing services. In an effort to assist in the exchange of information about these activities, the John Locke Foundation conducted a survey of all 100 counties asking county managers to tell us about governmental activities that they currently supply privately. We also asked them if they had problems in the past with a privatized activity that had caused them to return the activity to government provision.

More Research by Dr. Michael Sanera »

==

Michael Sanera is currently listed as a Research Director and Local Government Analyst at the John Locke Foundation.

Sanera served as and administration official under President Ronald Reagan. ^[1]

Sanera was formerly the director of the Center of Environmental Education Research, a project of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. His task at the CEI was to punch holes in environmental education, by claiming that it frightens children with doomsday scenarios (He is author of the book, with Jane Shaw, "Facts not Fear"), that it is not scientific, that it does not take sufficient consideration of economics, and that it does not cover all competing viewpoints ..... industrial/economic views primarily. Such issues as forest management, and endangered species he contends would be better served by the private sector than government.

Sanera's philosophy is neatly encapsulated in a brief article he wrote, titled "Environmental Education in Wisconsin", which appeared in the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Report. (The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute is funded by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, one of the largest foundations in the country supporting rightwing causes and organizations). ^[2]

• Advisory Board, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow ^[3]

Sanera and the Tobacco Industry

In an undated Phillip Morris memo, Sanera is listed as a "key scientist and academician supporting The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition. ^[4]

Resources

References

1. ↑ Leonard Kriegel, "Poker's Promise", New York Times Magazine, July 5, 1992, page 33.
2. ↑ Michael Sanera, [http://my.execpc.com/_{presswis/enviro.html} "Environmental Education in Wisconsin What the Textbooks Teach: An Executive Summary"], Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Report, June, 1996, Vol. 9, No. 5.
3. ↑ Advisory Board, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, accessed September 19, 2008.
4. ↑ "Partial Listing of Key Scientists and Academicians Supporting The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC)", Bates Number 2070270112, December 1994.

Related SourceWatch Articles

• Think tanks
• Tobacco industry

Categories: 

• North Carolina
• United States
• Think tanks
• Tobacco industry

==

John Locke Foundation | DeSmogBlog

www.desmogblog.com/john-locke-foundation

Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow | DeSmogBlog

www.desmogblog.com/committee-constructive-tomorrow

Fake science, fakexperts, funny finances, free of tax 2 - DeSmogBlog

desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/fake2.pdf

File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat Oct 23, 2012 ... Guide to Teaching Children about the Environment(1999) by Michael Sanera and Jane Shaw. The State of Humanity (1996) by Julian Simon.

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Scared Green! How John Stossel, ABC, Rightwing Think Tanks and the Chemical Industry are Colluding to Trash Environmental Education

by John F. Borowski

Who would have believed that Michael Sanera, avowed enemy of environmental education, would be given a forum for his snake oil diatribes by a company that bills itself as "friends of children"? Yes, the Wonderful World of Disney, power brokers for ABC News and their industry puppet, telejournalist John Stossel, have environmental education in their "cross-hairs."

An urgent e-mail from RISE (Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment) beckons their members to support Mr. Stossel and Mr. Sanera's Jihad on eco-education. RISE, affiliated with the American Crop Protection Association, a trade group founded to defend "urban usage of pesticides," apparently believes that a frontal assault on environmental education could be beneficial. The last line of their alert is most revealing: "Let's try to help Mr. Stossel. He treats industry fairly in his programs." So, the search for disgruntled parents and their "scared green" children to parade in front of a camera is in full swing.

While in St. Louis at a National Science Teachers' Convention last week, I stumbled uponMichael Sanera, who was peddling a book entitled "Facts Not Fear." His booth, sponsored by the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a rightwing think tank generously funded by the likes of Dow Chemical, General Motors, Texaco, and Philip Morris,was a strange sight. In the midst of all these science teachers, Mr. Sanera was akin to a carnival huckster, alerting the unsuspecting educators to the "evils" of environmental education. The main problem with his manifesto, "Facts not Fear," was that, on closer inspection, it proved to be light on scientific facts, while downplaying ozone loss and species extinction, and making misleading statements about forest issues. This transparent attack on ecological studies leaves little to the imagination. Yet, Mr. Sanera is apparently the "point person" and a favorite son of many think tanks troubled by the scientific enlightenment offered by environmental education.

Even more telling is that on the webpage for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, there is a "Save John Stossel.org" section. Apparently, the folks at CEI were dismayed by the tongue-lashing Mr. Stossel took for stating that organic food is no safer than agricutural products sprayed with pesticides. As it turns out, the tests that Stossel reported supposedly proving his thesis were - strangely -never done. CEI states in their webpage that Stossel should not be open to criticism because he has the "right to free speech." They warn their supporters that "politically correct causes and special interests" are prepared to place that freedom in "jeopardy." But aren't investigative reports supposed to be held to the same standards of accountability as scientific research?

With the current occupant of the White House downplaying everything from global warming to the dangers of arsenic in water, the timing of this environmental witchhunt could be invaluable to him in debunking environmental education programs in schools nationwide. The flood of corporate-generated "environmental education materials" pouring into schools is reaching a fever pitch:forest lessons from Weyerhauser, coloring books from the coal industry, and teacher less manuals from the biotech folks. Carefully coordinated with a well-financed attack on environmental education, the swamp of misinformation being created could numb our youngest citizens to the environmental challenges that will face them in the future.

So, here they are - environmental education and corporations - strange bedfellows, indeed - , but a coalition that possesses the weapons the arsenal it needs for a winning campaign: access to the media, a large cash flow from a consortium of powerful corporations and a "Madison Avenue" public relations plan "word-smithed" by topnotch professionals.

If Stossel's "Scared Green" spot succeeds in being aired (and I don't see any reason why it wouldn't), will there be equal time for the defenders of environmental education? Will educators such as myself, who have seen the power and enlightment of environmental science classes have the time, access, and money to combat this onslaught of formidable critics? The apparent Sanera, Stossel, and RISE connection only seems to reinforce that money and power guarantee access to a large public audience. And maybe even more apparent, are the nails that are sealing the coffin of the "liberal media," thereby further tilting the power of the media to the few and mighty. And in the end, somewhere between the commercials and the spin, the truth will shrink to an all-time low at the height of the age of information. But alas, I don't lose hope, because in classrooms around the country, some dedicated teacher will enlighten their charges with credible and sound data, providing the skills to make rational and sound decisions on ecological issues. And maybe that is what the foes of environnmental education fear the most.