October 2, 2013
Outraged by the misleading information on the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity’s website for children on coal, former coal miners and citizen groups in the coal country of southern Illinois have launched a CREDO petition to bring the state’s infamous coal education fiasco to an end.
Calling on statewide and national citizens groups and education organizations to join their efforts, the petition goes straight to the point: Gov. Quinn: Stop Lying to Kids About Coal.
Under Chapter 6, “How Does Coal Affect the Environment?” on Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity’s kids coal website.
As part of a coal education curriculum that has been widely denounced as inaccurate, deceiving and outdated—at best—the state continues to host a website for kids rife with erroneous marketing lingo that overlooks the workplace crisis of black lung disease among coal miners, as well as rising health and environmental costs from coal mining and burning, and climate change. The petition also cites a recent study that found the state of Illinois loses nearly $20 million annually to maintain the coal industry. For the rest of this story please click the link to EcoWatch: http://ecowatch.com/2013/illinois-hosts-nations-worst-website-for-kids/