Gaslighting (Big Oil Knew)

11/14/23 • 99 min

In this episode, Ralph and Luc spotlight what the oil companies knew about CO2’s impact on the climate, and how they lied to you to sustain their fossilized business model – even if it risks drilling us into oblivion... This argument will soon be heard in court as part of a series of lawsuits against Big Oil.

We start by looking into the history of scholarship on this issue, dating back to the 19th Century.
We highlight the record of what the oil companies such as Exxon and the American Petroleum Institute were saying behind closed doors – and contrast this with their contemporaneous public statements.

We draw upon scholarship uncovered by Naomi Oreskes and the #ExxonKnew movement.

Sources:
• If you would like to read California's lawsuit against ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP and the American Petroleum Institute for deceiving the public for decades, you can access it here:
https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/FINAL-9-15-COMPLAINT.pdf

• We quote from the 2010 book Merchants of Doubt; How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway.

• We also sample a couple clips from the 2014 documentary derived from it, also titled Merchants Of Doubt, directed by Robert Kenner and co-written by Kim Roberts.

• We cite reporting from this 2017 article from the Center for Public Integrity: “The United States of Petroleum” by Jie Jenny Zou, accessible at

https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/

• You can read Edward Teller’s “Energy Patterns of the Future” 1959 Presentation at the Energy and Man conference organised by the American Petroleum Institute in full here:
https://www.planetaryhealthforbusypeople.com/whats-now-and-whats-new/edward-teller

• We sample a couple clips from the 1981 British TV documentary by Thames Television called “Warming Warning”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMjnvfkeJJ0&list=PL7WD0g9dS3jlkXemuiPdoj4RF416JTpn6&index=3

• We read from Exxon's 1982 internal primer on the CO2 "Greenhouse Effect", which was made accessible thanks to reporting by Inside Climate News in 2015, and is accessible here:
https://insideclimatenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/1982-Exxon-Primer-on-CO2-Greenhouse-Effect.pdf

• We also read from the oil companies' advertorials, as highlighted in a 2017 research article: "Assessing ExxonMoblil’s climate change communications (1977-2014)" by Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran:

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa815f

• We refer to elements from the 2021 book The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet by Michael E Mann.

• We also cite the 2023 Science article "Assessing ExxonMobil’s global warming projections" by Geoffrey Supran, Stefan Rahmstorf, and Naomi Oreskes:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0063

• We excerpted a clip from Naomi Klein's June 2023 appearance on the podcast "The Audit", hosted by Dave Anthony and Josh Olson on David Sirota's Lever Network, which you can listen to in full here:

https://www.levernews.com/the-audit-the-climate-change-misinformation-machine

(This episode is also available as a video on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muNF_1mC3FI&list=PLwI-SH3khGtbDQ76_3VXTO3AaLkZ-sqnA&index=3 )

Chapters:
0:00:00 Introduction - Current lawsuits against Big Oil
0:07:16 History of science of C02 and climate change in the 1800s
0:12:10...

We draw upon scholarship uncovered by Naomi Oreskes and the #ExxonKnew movement.

• We quote from the 2010 book Merchants of Doubt; How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Climate by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway.

• We also sample a couple clips from the 2014 documentary derived from it, also titled Merchants Of Doubt, directed by Robert Kenner and co-written by Kim Roberts.

• We cite reporting from this 2017 article from the Center for Public Integrity: “The United States of Petroleum” by Jie Jenny Zou, accessible at

https://apps.publicintegrity.org/united-states-of-petroleum/

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/aa815f

• We refer to elements from the 2021 book The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet by Michael E Mann.

• We also cite the 2023 Science article "Assessing ExxonMobil’s global warming projections" by Geoffrey Supran, Stefan Rahmstorf, and Naomi Oreskes:

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0063

https://www.levernews.com/the-audit-the-climate-change-misinformation-machine

(This episode is also available as a video on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muNF_1mC3FI&list=PLwI-SH3khGtbDQ76_3VXTO3AaLkZ-sqnA&index=3 )

Chapters:
0:00:00 Introduction - Current lawsuits against Big Oil
0:07:16 History of science of C02 and climate change in the 1800s
0:12:10...

Previous Episode

Rainforest Restitution

In this episode, Ralph and Luc venture into the thorny discussions of what to do about the rainforest’s impact on the globe.
In the aftermath of Lula's conference in Belem, Brazil, in August 2023, we spotlight some good news: great strides are being made against deforestation, and South American leaders are keen to protect the Amazonian rainforest.
We also unpack criticisms and highlight pragmatic perspectives from Colombia and Ecuador, such as debt for nature swaps.

Sources:
• We sample a quote from climate scientist Stephen Schneider from this 1981 British TV documentary by Thames Television called “Warming Warning”. You can see the clip in context at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zHAbYOXjzk/

• A chart comparing Amazon deforestation between 2022 and 2023:
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cpsprodpb/E100/production/_131000675_amazon_deforestation_aug_update-nc.png.webp

• You can read the Belem declaration – which the Amazon rainforest countries signed at the end of the August 2023 conference – here (in Spanish): https://www.gov.br/mre/pt-br/canais_atendimento/imprensa/notas-a-imprensa/declaracao-presidencial-por-ocasiao-da-cupula-da-amazonia-2013-iv-reuniao-de-presidentes-dos-estados-partes-no-tratado-de-cooperacao-amazonica/

• Lula’s Speech closing the Belem conference (translated in English):
https://www.gov.br/planalto/en/follow-the-government/speeches/speech-by-president-luiz-inacio-lula-da-silva-at-the-amazon-summit-with-guest-countries-in-belem-brazil/

• Articles in the journal Nature criticising Lula’s ecological record (especially on drilling):
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02511-x/
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-02187-3/

• You can see Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s address at the Belem conference (in Spanish):
Read: https://www.cancilleria.gov.co/newsroom/news/prosperidad-descarbonizada-otro-tipo-sociedad-poder-economia-propone-presidente/
Or watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehsae42q_Mk/

• More information on Ecuador’s referendum on oil drilling in Yasuni:
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ecuador-says-it-will-honor-referendum-yasuni-oil-project-2023-08-24/

Next Episode

Talking Climate with Conservatives

In this episode, Ralph and Luc chat with Michael Jefferies, Regional Conservative Outreach Coordinator for the Citizens' Climate Lobby. Together, we get out of our filter bubbles and find some common ground.

We discuss Michael's faith-based journey on climate issues, bipartisan proposals on issues ranging from a carbon tax ("Carbon Fees and Dividends") and import tariffs, along with strategies to communicate about the environment to conservatives.

We also listen to excerpts from former Senator Bob Inglis talking about his experience as a pro-climate Republican.

We hear a political advertisement recorded by Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi together on a couch back in 2008.

We read excerpts of:
• Dorothy Sayers' "Why Work?" speech from 1942 and
• Pope Francis' "Laudato si'" encyclical from 2015.

If you'd like to connect with the Citizens' Climate Lobby, you can find them at:
https://cclusa.org/join

Chapters:
0:00:00 Introducing our guest, Michael Jeffries, Citizen Climate Lobby's Regional Conservative Outreach Coordinator
0:02:00 What Michael heard about climate change growing up in a conservative household (Rush Limbaugh)
0:05:38 How Dorothy L. Sayers' "Why Work?" WW2 speech got Michael to consider prioritising nature over growth from a Christian lens
0:13:10 From Saint Francis of Assisi to Pope Francis' Laudato Si: We are Nature
0:17:41 Michael's climate journey: Campus activism
0:19:55 How Michael started working at Citizens' Climate Lobby on pro-climate legislation with Indiana's very conservative senator Mike Braun
0:26:04 Bipartisan Bills with major climate provisions that passed under the Biden administration: Infrastructure and Jobs Act, CHIPS and Science Act, the Growing Climate Solutions Act
0:29:31 The PROVE It Act: getting the DOE to measure emissions worldwide
0:33:42 Carbon Tax: the French example of "Gilets jaunes": what went wrong to cause the yellow vest protest against it?
0:36:02 Carbon pricing: Citizens' Climate Lobby's proposal for a carbon fee and dividend
0:44:04 Republicans are scared of getting primaried for introducing a carbon tax
0:46:59 Newt Gingrich and Nancy Pelosi's couch commercial for climate action
0:48:02 How Republican Congressman Bob Ingliss lost his primary to Trew Gowdy after the Koch Brothers shifted their funding
0:52:41 The Bob Ingliss Mixtape: clips of former congressman talking about climate issues
0:59:12 How the climate discourse got polarised and stopped being a bipartisan issue
1:02:32 Michael's approach when talking to a conservative audience about climate
1:05:05 Wrap up: Michael Jeffries points out the contradiction of incremental fixes being insufficient to grapple with the issues of degrowth that moved him in the first place
1:08:11 Outro: Ralph and Luc briefly debrief the interview