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The Climate and Development Lab is a student-faculty think tank informing a more just, equitable and effective climate change policy.

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The CDL has ten active projects being advanced by small teams of students working with faculty and post-doctoral research fellows and external partners

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The Playbook: How to Deny Science, Sell Lies, and Make a Killing in the Corporate World Hardcover – July 12, 2022
by Jennifer Jacquet (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 37 ratings
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From an astute observer of business behavior and expert in climate denial comes a thought-provoking explanation of how corporations delay, distract, and deflect blame and spread disinformation surrounding health issues, pollution, and climate change.

“Brilliantly subversive and witty. If you want to be a vile, greedy capitalist, this how-to book will be a great help. And if you want to identify vile, greedy capitalists, it will show you how to recognize them. A landmark book.” —Brian Eno

Are you a corporation out to make your fortune at any cost? Are you worried about “facts” and “experts” getting in the way of your profits? Do you wish you could make scientists, journalists, and anyone who asks questions about your suspect business practices disappear? Now you can.

Whether you are selling tobacco, dealing in oil, or pushing pharmaceuticals, denying climate change or exploiting workers, The Playbook is here to help you obfuscate your way to what you want.

Including how to:
Massage the statistics to suit your needs. Or, even better, fund studies to make up some new ones
Attract and cultivate university professors who have an axe to grind and are short of cash
Make your problem somebody else’s problem—ideally the government’s
Remember: Tame journalists, PR firms, think tanks, lawyers, and threats of physical violence are your friends!

Follow these rules and you are guaranteed to make a killing. It’s economic sense, after all.

TUHO: Despite Advertising Carbon Capture, ExxonMobil Saw Marginal Role for It in Fighting Climate Change
Internal documents unearthed by a U.S. Senate panel show the oil giant modeled up to 500 CCS sites operating globally by 2050, far fewer than rival Shell.

Now, Jacques is digging into the root political reasons for their involvement. We talked to Jacques, whose research specialty is the politics of sustainability and global environmental change, about his work and its implications for the planet.

When did this climate change denial begin in earnest?
The conservative climate countermovement began in 1992 in opposition to the global environmentalism that was on display at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, also known as the Rio Earth Summit.

There was a fear that global environmentalism was the new “communism” taking over after the demise of the Soviet Union the year before. Leading conservatives from the United States attended the summit on a reconnaissance mission, as later revealed in an interview with conservative leader and former governor of Washington state Dixy Lee Ray. Ray said that she and political writer and founder of Washington, D.C.-based libertarian think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute Fred Smith were sent there by the Free Congress Committee, headed by Paul Weyrich.

https://www.monmouth.edu/magazine/from-red-scare-to-green-scare/

CSSN conference o klimatickych obstrukcich coming soon!

CSSN Climate Obstruction Across Europe 2024 Conference Promo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=55&v=yaPkmdcSs48&embeds_referring_euri=https://cssn.org/&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title

DAN_F: Byl jsem na tom před pár měsíci podobně, když jsem toto vše vč. D. Vávry objevil.
Přijde mi, že si tito lidé dávají pozor, aby se náhodou nedostali před kameru s někým, kdo by jim byl schopen slušně oponovat.

Pamatuji si, že jsem se kdysi díval na jeho výklad o Green Dealu (a to sám mám nějaké výtky), dle jeho monologu (i když kolem něj bylo více účinkujících) jsem usoudil, že v životě tento sbor dokumentů nečetl - a kdyby kohokoliv z jeho publika napadlo si dát jakékoliv tvrzení do googlu, tak mají během 5 vteřin jasno.

TUHO: jasně, a data z neexistujících satelitů

The new anti-ESG movement: same folks, different face
The original anti-ESG movement eventually appeared to fizzle. CSRwatch.com stopped being updated in late 2007 and the domain expired in 2008. Shortly after, The Free Enterprise Action Fund was merged into a separate mutual fund that had nothing to do with anti-ESG advocacy.

The Free Enterprise Education Institute was then acquired by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a much larger right-wing think tank funded by some of the similar players, including ExxonMobil. The NCPPR announced that Milloy and Borelli would remain at the head of the project, which would from then on be called the Free Enterprise Project.

At the time, Borelli said the merger would “significantly enhance our ability to educate the public on emerging threats to our free enterprise system.” And though it took about 14 years, it appears Borelli was correct.

The new anti-ESG financial firm backed by Peter Thiel and Bill Ackman, Strive Asset Management, is being led by Justin Danhof, the former executive Vice President of the NCPPR. In a recent interview with the Capitol Account newsletter, Danhof explained his qualifications: “I ran a program called the Free Enterprise Project,” he said. “We were really at the beginning of what you would call any sort of pushback against ESG, woke capital — before it was even a term.”

It may be more sophisticated today, but the anti-ESG movement is the same as it ever was: a political effort to delay climate action led by fossil fuel industry propagandists. It follows the classic playbook of climate disinformation by trying to “both sides” the idea of climate risk. But Witold Henisz, the director of the Wharton School’s ESG program, put it best: “Climate risk is investment risk. There is no credible other side, only an ideological opposition cynically seeking a wedge issue for upcoming political campaigns.”

The curious origins of the anti-ESG movement
https://heated.world/p/the-dirty-origins-of-the-anti-esg

Then, in 1996, Rupert Murdoch and Roger Ailes, a former Republican Party strategist, started Fox News with the explicit intention of making it a vehicle for spreading conservative ideas. It quickly became the 24/7 anti-government channel. The right-wing commentators on Fox dispensed misinformation about government programs and spread rumors about government malfeasance. They regularly resorted to malicious slurs against government officials, calling them “idiots,” “Nazis,” “communists,” “fascists,” and “Satanists.” Ever since then, they have played a crucial role in the anti-government movement with their continuous efforts to defame, denigrate, and delegitimize government. It is hard to underestimate how instrumental media outlets like Fox News and conservative talk radio have been in encouraging many Americans to distrust, fear, and even hate government.

Government is Good - The Anti-Government Campaign
https://governmentisgood.com/articles.php@aid=9&print=1

TUHO: Všichni zde přispívající mají můj velký obdiv, že jsou schopni toto sledovat, já to vždy po pár minutách nezvládnu, populismus v akci.

TUHO: According to the World Bank, oil and gas industries took in $3bn-a-day inflation-adjusted profits for the last 50 years (Carrington 2022). As one route to protect these profits, it was revealed that Saudi state-owned petroleum company Saudi Aramco financed “almost 500 studies over the past five years, including research aimed at keeping gasoline cars competitive or casting doubt on electric vehicles” (Tabuchi 2022)