Message From the Editor

Looking back over the arc of environmental history, it’s clear that these are ominous times in the United States.

As COP29 enters its second week, Donald Trump’s push to drill, deregulate, and destroy environmental safeguards threatens to move climate progress back decades.

For instance, over the weekend, Trump tapped fracking CEO and long-time climate denier Chris Wright as energy secretary. Wright has notoriously claimed, “There is no climate crisis,” and that climate change “is far from the world’s greatest threat to human life.” Trump’s answer to the climate challenge amounts to being stuck in the past and hoping the future never comes.

The Wright selection comes just a week after Trump chose Lee Zeldin to head up the EPA, which I mentioned last week. This week, DeSmog’s Geoff Dembicki digs even deeper into Zeldin’s roots, uncovering an alarming connection — the ex-New York Congressman has hidden ties to Texas fracking billionaire and right-wing Christian Tim Dunn.

With significant investments in the fracking industry, Dunn's influence on Zeldin raises serious questions about potential conflicts of interest while also strengthening the new administration’s outmoded support for fossil fuels. Read more here.

It’s like the 1940s all over again, when Californians thought their major smog problem was caused just by burning trash, not car and oil refinery emissions.

Dunn’s and Zeldin’s history as climate deniers stretches back in time. But reporter Rebecca John went even further back in her bombshell report that Big Oil knew about the catastrophic impact of fossil fuel emissions 70 years ago – years earlier than previously thought. Not only that, but John uncovered never-before-seen documents showing how a deceptive PR strategy pioneered in the 1950s first exposed the risk of climate change and then helped the industry deny it.

This disturbing revelation illuminates how Big Oil pioneered the use of third-party front groups to influence public opinion, block clean air regulation, and stall climate action, something that’s a standard tactic in the industry’s climate denial playbook today. This deceptive approach, rooted in California history, is a major focus of climate litigation currently progressing through the state’s courts.

As French philosopher Voltaire once said, “History is the study of all the world’s crime.” I think when we all look back at the U.S.’s climate legacy, including Trump’s shift backward, that thought might come to mind.

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Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

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Image credit: YouTube/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Revealed: Big Oil Told 70 Years Ago That Fossil Fuel Emissions Could Impact ‘Civilization’

— By Rebecca John (18 min. read) —

New documents show how a deceptive PR strategy pioneered in 1950s California first exposed the risk of climate change and then helped the industry deny it.

Trump EPA Pick Lee Zeldin Backed by Texas Fracking Billionaire Tim Dunn

— By Geoff Dembicki (3 min. read) —

Zeldin is part of the America First Policy Institute, a pro-Trump think tank Dunn founded that pushes anti-climate policies.

World’s Biggest Meatpacker JBS Wants Public Money to Fight Climate Change

— By Gil Alessi (4 min. read) —

Major Brazilian polluter champions agribusiness as a solution to hunger at G20.

Havas Warns of Reputational Risks Over Fossil Fuel Clients Following Shell Backlash

— By Ellen Ormesher (3 min) —

Disclosure by the French communications group underscores growing calls for climate accountability in the advertising and public relations industry.

Canada Promises Climate Reparations at COP29 While Courting Big Oil at Home

— By Mitch Anderson (5 min. read) —

With spotlight on politicians and their pledges in Baku, fossil fuel lobbyists are racking up private meetings with Trudeau’s government.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: The American Petroleum Institute

The American Petroleum Institute (API) is the largest trade association for the oil and gas industry, representing over 600 corporate members. The API says its mission is to “influence public policy in support of a strong, viable U.S. oil and natural gas industry.” API has funded organizations that oppose regulations aimed at combating global warming including the Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE). A 1998 Communications Plan suggests that API was actively working to promote “uncertainty” about climate change science and links to fossil fuels. According to the document, “victory will be achieved when […] Average citizens ‘understand’ (recognize) uncertainties in climate science; recognition of uncertainties becomes part of the ‘conventional wisdom’” API is also heavily involved in direct lobbying on behalf of the oil and gas industry, having spent over $127 million on lobbying activities since 1998.

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