Sneak Peek of Our New Series
We've been hard at work on a new website, multiple new investigations, and our first big cross-border reporting project, "The Real Free Speech Threat," focused on the increasing criminalization of environmental and climate protest around the world, so it's a shorter than usual newsletter this week, but I'm thrilled to bring you a preview of that series (below), along with our usual weekly reading list. If you have ideas for things we should cover in this new series, please get in touch!
This week's newsletter is sponsored by Generation180
Inside the PR Machine That Made Climate Denial Work
Check out Bloomberg's Zero Podcast this week, where Drilled's Amy Westervelt talks about the PR industry's role in crafting the narratives that have helped the fossil fuel industry obstruct climate progress for decades.
Bloomberg
(You can also listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify)
This Week's Climate Must-Reads
- Wildfire Decimates Lahaina, Once the Capital of the Hawaiian Kingdom - The wildfire on Maui is an absolute tragedy and for my money this piece by Sakshi Venkatraman and Kimmy Yam for NBC is the best coverage of it, weaving in the climate and colonialist roots of the disaster with today's impacts.
- What Should You Do With An Oil Fortune? Honestly I'm not sure how I feel about praising billionaires for not being terrible, BUT there are certainly worse things for an oil heiress to do than fund social movements to end fossil fuels, and this profile of Leah Hunt-Hendrix, from Andrew Marantz in the New Yorker, is a fascinating read.
- Saudi Arabia's Rush Into Global Sports - Sportswashing is a huge thing for fossil fuel companies. The top five ad buys for any oil major are almost always related to sports events, from Monday Night Football to ads that run during Premier League games. But the Saudis have taken it to a whole new level, buying football teams and players, along with golf tournaments, a new Formula 1 Grand Prix, and more. The Economist digs into accusations of sportswashing vs. Saudi claims that it's merely diversifying its economy.
- A Growing Movement Looks to End Oil Drilling in the Amazon - This story is particularly poignant given the murder of Ecuador's anti-corporate-corruption presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio this week. For Inside Climate News, Nicholas Kusnetz chronicles the move by various Indigenous and civil society groups to announce at a deforestation summit in Brazil this week the growing movement to stop all oil drilling in the Amazon.
- Britain's Hot New Import from America: The Climate Culture Wars - Britain loves to embrace America's worst ideas for some reason. Now it's diving head first into the idea that climate is a "culture war" issue, with prime minister Rishi Sunak vilifying the Labor party as "anti-motorist." It has big "they're gonna take your trucks and burgers" vibes, as Kate Aronoff reports for The New Republic.
Don't forget to check out this week's sponsor, Generatio180
