Message From the Editor

This week, Geoff Dembicki revealed that a pro-fossil fuel First Nations advocacy group, which has accused pipeline opponents of being controlled by secret funders, has in fact taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from one of Canada’s top oil and gas producers.

Corporate documents show Canadian Natural (CNRL) has been quietly donating to Alberta-based Indian Resource Council, whose CEO Stephen Buffalo is one of the most outspoken Indigenous voices in favor of oil and gas expansion. On multiple occasions he’s used his platform to attack the credibility of First Nations people and environmentalists who oppose the industry – saying “who’s really pulling the string here?”

Wet’suwet’en First Nation hereditary Chief Na’Moks, a vocal opponent of a gas pipeline project through his traditional territory, told DeSmog, “When you talk about money going from oil and gas to entities they helped create, that’s pretty biased in my opinion.”

Meanwhile, in Washington, D.C., Zach D. Roberts has photos and on-the-ground reporting from a climate blockade of the White House Correspondents Dinner. The protesters say they are frustrated with the disconnect between politicians’ climate rhetoric and their climate record, and called on President Biden to end fossil fuel drilling.

Law student Dylan Basescu explained that the group was targeting this gathering of society’s influential and powerful, who “all too often treat Washington, D.C., like their playground. It’s not a playground. This is a place where real people live, where real people are affected by climate change every single day.”

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [email protected]. Want to know what our UK team is up to? Sign up for our UK newsletter. 

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Investigative journalism like this is made possible by readers like you. Can you donate $10 or $20 right now to support more of this essential work?

Image credit: Zach D. Roberts

Protesters Blockade White House Correspondents Dinner Over Biden's Broken Climate Promises

— By Zach D. Roberts (5 min. read) —

The White House Correspondents Dinner has been an annual tradition since 1921. The gathering for media and political elites has the reputation for being the toughest ticket to get in Washington, D.C. This past weekend, the newly formed Climate Defiance group made it a bit harder to get in. 

Climate Defiance is a self-described youth-run collective that has been using direct action to disrupt events that lawmakers and newsmakers attend in order to draw attention to insufficient action on the climate crisis. Just last week, the collective interrupted a speech by Biden advisor John Podesta, chanting phrases such as “Keep your promise. No new drilling.” 

Oil Company Gave $200k to Group Accusing Pipeline Opponents of Taking Secret Money

— By Geoff Dembicki (3 min. read) —

A First Nations advocacy group whose leader has accused pipeline protesters of being beholden to hidden financial interests has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from one of Canada’s top oil and gas producers, newly reviewed corporate documents reveal. 

Stephen Buffalo, CEO of the Alberta-based Indian Resource Council, is one of the most outspoken Indigenous voices in favor of oil and gas expansion, testifying several times to Canada’s federal government and appearing frequently in mainstream media outlets.

Telegraph Columnist Allison Pearson Becomes Director of Climate Science Denial Group

— By Sam Bright (4 min. read) —

The Daily Telegraph’s chief interviewer and columnist Allison Pearson has joined the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), one of the UK’s principal climate science denial groups. 

This appointment adds to the influence of the GWPF in the press and potentially the amount of sway that it holds over the Conservative Party. 

The Former Extinction Rebellion Campaigners Rallying A Climate Majority

— By Rupert Read (3 min. read) —

Governments show time and again they won’t deliver adequate climate solutions of their own accord. If the world is ever going to get serious on climate, it will be because a mass movement of citizen action insists on it. 

Except, no such mobilisation of citizens yet exists across the global north. Accordingly, nothing like sufficient bottom-up pressure exists to hold governments accountable for inadequate climate pledges, let alone policies commensurate with climate science.

This scarcity of citizen energy is not lost on campaigners and activists in the climate movement.

Climate Crisis: Voices of Protection Event

— May 23, 2023 2pm EST —

With your support, DeSmog has reported for years on the harm caused by fossil fuel and petrochemical projects on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Now, we’d like to invite you to a special free online event we’re co-hosting with the Pocket Project on May 22 exploring the struggle to prevent new fossil gas projects in Louisiana and Texas.

We’ll be practicing a unique way of attending to the news in community called Global Social Witnessing (to learn more, click here). With Louisiana Bucket Brigade Director Anne Rolfes and our global investigations editor Matthew Green.

Hope to see you there!

From the Climate Disinformation Database: Macdonald-Laurier Institute

Macdonald-Laurier Institute for Public Policy (MLI) is an Atlas Network partner based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. MLI describes itself as “Canada’s only truly national public policy think tank” and claims to be “rigorously independent and non-partisan.” In 2013, MLI founded its ongoing “Aboriginal Canada and Natural Resource Economy” project, which produced a series of policy papers that “explored the biggest obstacles to resource development.” This project describes itself as facilitating collaboration between “the two sides” of historical colonial and post-colonial antagonism and conflict. A 2018 Atlas Network case study outlined MLI’s efforts to engage Indigenous groups to “create free-market change,” with an Indigenous advisory committee providing “a shield against opponents that is hard to undermine.”

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.