Origins of Climate Denial: Aggressive Think Tanks, Shouty Pundits, and a New Religious Argument

Drilled

Critical Frequency

True Crime, Earth Sciences, Social Sciences, Science

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2023

⏱️ 22 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science shows that not only did Exxon scientists suspect climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels was a growing problem that would lead to crisis if nothing changed, but they were terrifyingly accurate in their modeling and predictions. Alongside this special re-broadcast of Season 1 of Drilled, all about the origins of climate denial, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance. In this episode, we look at how oil companies and their public relations firms shifted culture, influencing everything from civil discourse to how religious groups viewed the issue of climate change. Support us: https://www.drilledpodcast.com

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back to Drilled, I'm Amy Westrot.
0:14.5	This month we are re-releasing season one of Drilled about the origins of climate
0:19.5	Nile because a new peer reviewed study in the journal Science has just been published
0:25.3	showing that scientists working for Exxon in the 1970s and 80s predicted climate change
0:32.4	with alarming accuracy.
0:35.4	I spoke with the lead author of that study, Jeffrey Supran, about how Exxon has been
0:40.0	responding to it and whether they are adopting any particular strategy to counteract the
0:46.1	study, especially given the wall-to-wall media coverage of it.
0:50.9	The fossil fuel industry's approach to reshaping narratives on climate change is the focus
0:55.5	of the episode you're about to hear as well, but first here is Supran.
1:03.4	How have you seen Exxon responding to this?
1:06.7	What seems to be the narrative we're going with?
1:10.2	Well, as you've probably seen, remarkably they've been quite muted in their response.
1:17.4	They've essentially just issued a blanket statement that we and everyone are just wrong.
1:24.4	The only counter-agumement they've made is to point to the 2019 judge's decision about
1:32.1	the New York lawsuit.
1:35.4	The latter is essentially a red herring because it's just pointing to some legal decision
1:42.2	about a completely irrelevant accounting issue.
1:46.0	Right.
1:47.0	The judge made very clear that he was not letting them off the hook for this stuff.
1:52.6	That's right.
1:53.6	I don't know.
	...

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