Origins of Climate Denial: Weaponizing False Equivalence

Drilled

Critical Frequency

True Crime, Earth Sciences, Social Sciences, Science

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 7 February 2023

⏱️ 23 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 and Exxon's role in it, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance. In this episode, the industry's role in creating and then weaponizing false equivalence on climate—the idea that the opinions of a handful of contrarians are equally valid to those of the majority of peer-reviewed studies on the topic.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome back to Drilled I'm Amy Westervelt.
0:15.8	This month we are re-releasing season one of Drilled about the origins of climate denial
0:21.8	because a new peer reviewed study in the journal Science has just been published and it
0:26.2	shows even more conclusively how much Exxon mobile scientists knew about climate change
0:32.8	as the company's executives were loudly proclaiming climate science to be uncertain.
0:39.2	I spoke with the lead author of that study, Jeffrey Supran, about how it is helping to
0:43.6	kill off a problem that we grappled with in the third episode of our first season, False
0:49.5	Equivalence.
0:50.7	The media's tendency to think balance means giving equal space to both scientists and
0:56.1	contrarians.
1:05.4	It's been really great to see the consistent increase in climate coverage over the last
1:10.8	few years.
1:11.8	Downsite of that is there is a fire hose of information coming out every week and it
1:17.4	can be hard to figure out what to focus on.
1:20.6	That's why we put out a weekly climate newsletter that gathers up not only the important media
1:25.6	stories you need to know about but also the latest peer reviewed studies in both the
1:29.5	physical and social sciences that we think folks ought to be paying attention to.
1:35.1	It shows up in your inbox every Friday and it's never more than a 10 minute read.
1:39.6	If you want to make sure that you're staying on top of climate news, subscribe at drillpodcast.com
1:45.6	and for folks that want to support our work, there's the option of upgrading to a paid
1:49.7	subscription which also gets you access to ad free podcast episodes and bonus content.
1:55.2	That's drillpodcast.com.
	...

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