(Roughly) Daily

The first two installments of what will be an on-going series from ProPublica and Drilled, covering fossil fuel companies in the 1990s who, even as they denied the reality of climate change, were quietly funding research that favored climate fixes that would protect their businesses…

An investigation by ProPublica and Drilled has found that fossil fuel companies have been funding climate research at prestigious U.S. universities for more than 30 years. Their support has helped amplify the work of scientists who promote the idea that we can stop the climate crisis without breaking our dependence on oil, gas, and coal.

The research produced by those schools in turn shaped global climate models, as well as the policy and technology solutions adopted by governments around the world.

Ultimately, it fostered a misperception that climate change could be solved without dramatically curtailing fossil fuels — a notion that has delayed emissions cuts by decades.

Corporate funders sponsored entire centers, paid the salaries of researchers, kept offices on campus and in some cases had veto power over projects.

Companies maintain they are supporting innovation and needed science. Universities say that with safeguards, sponsorship enhances research programs while preserving academic independence.

Still, the impact of funding constitutes a pattern that Benjamin Franta, an associate professor of climate litigation at University of Oxford, called the “colonization of academia.”…

“Why Carbon Capture Can’t Conceivably Solve Climate Change“- For decades, oil companies have funded universities’ research into climate change “solutions” that would not require the public to stop using oil and gas. Carbon capture is one of their favored ideas. One snag: It won’t fix the climate crisis. From Katie Worth and Lucas Waldron.

“How Oil Execs Shaped A Landmark Climate Study“- BP created an elite Princeton research center to address the climate problem without getting off fossil fuels. Its key work, a paper known as “Wedges,” shaped climate discourse for a generation. From Maddie Stone.

As the first piece concludes…

Climate experts know about the costs, technical troubles, and failures of CCS [Carbon Capture and Sequestration] test projects.

Yet many of them have continued to boost the technology, even as they have downplayed solutions showing greater progress.

For example, the same modelers who overestimated the potential of geological carbon storage repeatedly underestimated solar power — one of the energy technologies that would allow more oil to remain in the ground.

A distressing– but critically important– read. How the fossil fuel industry turned the plan to solve climate change into a plan to save itself: “Carbon Captured,” from @propublica.org and @drilledmedia.bsky.social.

And as a reminder that, while climate change is certainly reason enough, it’s by no means the only reason to care: “Five Americans die every hour from toxic vehicle emissions, study finds.”

* Bill McKibben

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As we face facts, we might give ourselves a short break on this, the anniversary of “Raspberry Beret,” by Prince & The Revolution, hitting #1 on the charts in 1985.

Here is the official video (now in 4K). Directed by his Purple Majesty himself, it features graphics and animation from Drew Takahashi, George Evelyn, and the crew at Colossal Pictures.