1 00:00:05,320 --> 00:00:09,040 Speaker 1: Previously on drilled, and so I think what happened is 2 00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:12,960 Speaker 1: they started to realize that this can actually affect our business. 3 00:00:13,360 --> 00:00:16,959 Speaker 1: I was very naive. I thought that if they realized 4 00:00:16,960 --> 00:00:20,279 Speaker 1: that climate change was real, they would start making big 5 00:00:20,320 --> 00:00:24,160 Speaker 1: investments in renewable energy. It's a huge company, They had 6 00:00:24,160 --> 00:00:28,680 Speaker 1: a huge amount of profits. Why couldn't they think some 7 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:31,400 Speaker 1: of their profits into a new area which was going 8 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:32,320 Speaker 1: to be new business. 9 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:36,199 Speaker 2: In the early nineteen eighties, Reagan replaced Carter in the 10 00:00:36,240 --> 00:00:40,360 Speaker 2: White House and promptly ripped out anything solar, dismantling subsidies 11 00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:44,120 Speaker 2: for alternative energy shortly after, but that did not mark 12 00:00:44,200 --> 00:00:47,440 Speaker 2: the immediate end of research into either climate change or 13 00:00:47,520 --> 00:00:51,200 Speaker 2: alternatives to fossil fuel. Republicans at the time were still 14 00:00:51,200 --> 00:00:54,840 Speaker 2: approaching global warming as a science and innovation problem, a 15 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:59,320 Speaker 2: business opportunity more than an economic threat ed. Garvey's tanker 16 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:02,240 Speaker 2: project was still underweight at Axon, the company was still 17 00:01:02,240 --> 00:01:06,080 Speaker 2: funding climate research, and climate science was continuing at various 18 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:10,000 Speaker 2: government agencies too. The nation was on track to tackle 19 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:12,920 Speaker 2: this global warming thing, or so it seemed. 20 00:01:13,440 --> 00:01:17,360 Speaker 3: It seems to me that the fundamental thing that underlies 21 00:01:17,400 --> 00:01:21,520 Speaker 3: it is this change in what I call the political 22 00:01:21,600 --> 00:01:23,240 Speaker 3: power within the corporation. 23 00:01:24,160 --> 00:01:27,160 Speaker 1: I think what happened is they started to realize that 24 00:01:27,160 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: this can actually affect our business. 25 00:01:29,600 --> 00:01:32,360 Speaker 4: It went from a really heady time to a really 26 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,040 Speaker 4: kind of despair where the company was shrinking, oil revenue 27 00:01:36,040 --> 00:01:38,880 Speaker 4: was shrinking, and the bell labs idea went out the window. 28 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:47,240 Speaker 2: I'm Amy Westerveldt, and this is drilled Beginning as early 29 00:01:47,360 --> 00:01:50,240 Speaker 2: as the early nineteen eighties, the various pieces of what 30 00:01:50,280 --> 00:01:54,320 Speaker 2: would become one of the most complex social influence campaigns 31 00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:57,760 Speaker 2: ever undertaken were already beginning to come together. 32 00:01:58,320 --> 00:02:01,400 Speaker 5: The emergence of this kind of I guess I'm going 33 00:02:01,480 --> 00:02:04,840 Speaker 5: to call it a public relations technology of political influence 34 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:09,639 Speaker 5: really comes out of the corporate response to the nineteen 35 00:02:09,880 --> 00:02:13,000 Speaker 5: sixties and early nineteen seventies social movements. We had a 36 00:02:13,040 --> 00:02:17,360 Speaker 5: whole series social movements. Ralph Nader this unsafe at any speed. 37 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:20,880 Speaker 5: We have a bunch of movements. Of course, the environmental movement. 38 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:24,720 Speaker 5: There's a movement against toxic waste and chemicals and response 39 00:02:24,840 --> 00:02:31,320 Speaker 5: to Rachel Carson's book. And these social movements initially had 40 00:02:31,360 --> 00:02:32,560 Speaker 5: a great deal of success. 41 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:37,760 Speaker 2: That's environmental sociologist Bob Bruligan for American companies that had 42 00:02:37,800 --> 00:02:41,560 Speaker 2: spent the nineteen forties and nineteen fifties being mostly admired 43 00:02:41,639 --> 00:02:45,400 Speaker 2: for their contributions to society. The emergence of consumer rights 44 00:02:45,440 --> 00:02:48,280 Speaker 2: campaigns as part of the social movements and protests of 45 00:02:48,360 --> 00:02:52,440 Speaker 2: the sixties and seventies were terrifying. They posed both a 46 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:57,080 Speaker 2: real and existential threat to the country's dominant industries. In 47 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:01,080 Speaker 2: addition to potential bottom line impacts, these test represented the 48 00:03:01,080 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 2: country's first challenged the long standing doctrine of manifest destiny, 49 00:03:06,200 --> 00:03:09,520 Speaker 2: the idea that resources belong to the men who colonize them, 50 00:03:09,840 --> 00:03:12,200 Speaker 2: that nature has been given to us by God for 51 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:15,400 Speaker 2: man to use, and that to do or even suggest 52 00:03:15,600 --> 00:03:21,080 Speaker 2: doing otherwise is both ungodly and an American brule has 53 00:03:21,120 --> 00:03:23,880 Speaker 2: a great example of just how threatened companies were by 54 00:03:23,960 --> 00:03:26,800 Speaker 2: this shift in the story of E. Bruce Harrison, the 55 00:03:26,880 --> 00:03:28,760 Speaker 2: man who invented greenwashing. 56 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:34,239 Speaker 5: So the father of environmental public relations is the fellow 57 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:37,800 Speaker 5: named E. Bruce Harrison, and E. Bruce Harrison was working 58 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:44,360 Speaker 5: at American Cyanamide when his boss comes in holding a 59 00:03:44,480 --> 00:03:49,800 Speaker 5: copy of Rachel Carson's book, saying it's pearl Harbor for 60 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:52,440 Speaker 5: the chemical industry, and what he's told to do is 61 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:55,880 Speaker 5: to go over to DuPont, who has a long term 62 00:03:55,920 --> 00:03:59,320 Speaker 5: public relations campaign and knows how to deal with this 63 00:03:59,440 --> 00:04:02,400 Speaker 5: kind of stuff, and work with them to develop it. 64 00:04:02,920 --> 00:04:06,840 Speaker 2: As companies were mobilizing to deal with social movements, factions 65 00:04:06,840 --> 00:04:10,440 Speaker 2: within these companies began battling amongst themselves too, with some 66 00:04:10,760 --> 00:04:13,760 Speaker 2: wanting to continue the corporate innovation programs of the nineteen 67 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:17,479 Speaker 2: seventies and others seeing those programs aimed at research in 68 00:04:17,520 --> 00:04:20,880 Speaker 2: the public interest as anethema to everything that made American 69 00:04:20,920 --> 00:04:24,719 Speaker 2: business great. Former ex On scientist Moral Cohen describes this 70 00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:28,240 Speaker 2: as different politics within the company. He noticed a shift 71 00:04:28,279 --> 00:04:30,760 Speaker 2: as the price of oil began to drop. It hit 72 00:04:30,839 --> 00:04:32,360 Speaker 2: rock bottom in nineteen eighty three. 73 00:04:33,320 --> 00:04:37,240 Speaker 3: It seems to me that the fundamental thing that underlies 74 00:04:37,279 --> 00:04:41,400 Speaker 3: it is this change in what I call the political 75 00:04:41,480 --> 00:04:46,440 Speaker 3: power within the corporation. They became much more conservative, much 76 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:53,080 Speaker 3: more concerned with the business, the traditional lines of business, 77 00:04:53,640 --> 00:04:59,039 Speaker 3: and bottomatically, much more focused on preserving that. 78 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:03,560 Speaker 2: After that, Cohen remembers putting his postdoc assistant on a 79 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:06,839 Speaker 2: research project. He wanted him to compile an inventory of 80 00:05:06,880 --> 00:05:10,839 Speaker 2: extreme weather events alongside climate change data. It was the 81 00:05:10,880 --> 00:05:13,359 Speaker 2: sort of project that would have been totally normal a 82 00:05:13,400 --> 00:05:16,240 Speaker 2: couple of years earlier, but now things had changed. 83 00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:21,640 Speaker 3: So another week later I saw him and I said, well, 84 00:05:21,640 --> 00:05:26,280 Speaker 3: have you made any progress? He said, that's not the 85 00:05:26,400 --> 00:05:33,360 Speaker 3: kind of project to do here at Excellon. I mean 86 00:05:33,440 --> 00:05:38,320 Speaker 3: he was already sensing that there was a response in 87 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:42,440 Speaker 3: the atmosphere of the research laboratory, probably in response to 88 00:05:42,560 --> 00:05:44,600 Speaker 3: what was going on in the larger company. 89 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:49,920 Speaker 2: It wasn't long before major cuts to research funding began. 90 00:05:50,720 --> 00:05:54,000 Speaker 2: Richard Worthemer had been an executive at the Exon Engineering 91 00:05:54,040 --> 00:05:58,640 Speaker 2: and Research Company, overseeing various projects. One was the Tanker Project, 92 00:05:58,720 --> 00:06:01,159 Speaker 2: which was gathering important doat on the absorption of CO 93 00:06:01,360 --> 00:06:03,719 Speaker 2: two in the oceans and what happens with the missions 94 00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:07,240 Speaker 2: at the equator. By eighty three, Worthimer had been transferred 95 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:09,480 Speaker 2: to the head office and was in on the budget 96 00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:10,480 Speaker 2: cutting discussions. 97 00:06:10,960 --> 00:06:15,960 Speaker 6: The exit management desperately wanted to keep earnings up and 98 00:06:16,040 --> 00:06:19,480 Speaker 6: so that what do we dump overboard? And research is 99 00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:23,360 Speaker 6: always the easiest to dump overboard in any financial crunch. 100 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:25,520 Speaker 6: I mean, isn't there excellent We're going to go broke. 101 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:28,080 Speaker 6: But they really didn't want to cut earnings or show 102 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:31,400 Speaker 6: earnings loss. So by this time I was in New York, 103 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:33,599 Speaker 6: and my boss came up to me and said, do 104 00:06:33,640 --> 00:06:36,560 Speaker 6: you really think we should continue to fund the tanker project? 105 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:38,839 Speaker 6: And it was costing about half million dollars a year 106 00:06:39,560 --> 00:06:42,400 Speaker 6: in retrospect. I should have said, very important that you 107 00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:45,800 Speaker 6: keep the tanker project, but my boss is pressing me, 108 00:06:46,320 --> 00:06:48,720 Speaker 6: and it's clear what answer he wants. He wants to 109 00:06:48,760 --> 00:06:52,040 Speaker 6: go upstairs and say we can cut the tanker project 110 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:53,440 Speaker 6: along with a lot of other things. 111 00:06:53,880 --> 00:06:56,480 Speaker 2: At Garvey is one of the scientists on that project. 112 00:06:56,760 --> 00:06:58,720 Speaker 2: He had been working on a design for a new 113 00:06:58,800 --> 00:07:02,840 Speaker 2: lab for it at XO planned Clinton, New Jersey Research Campus, 114 00:07:03,279 --> 00:07:04,680 Speaker 2: but that all went out the window. 115 00:07:04,920 --> 00:07:08,200 Speaker 4: They sold off their different research divisions or transferred the 116 00:07:08,240 --> 00:07:11,800 Speaker 4: technology to other firms and stuff that came. Actually it 117 00:07:11,880 --> 00:07:13,880 Speaker 4: started in nineteen eighty two. I think that one of 118 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:16,520 Speaker 4: the first divisions to go was the Solar Group. I 119 00:07:16,520 --> 00:07:20,120 Speaker 4: think that was I remember the scientists leaving there said 120 00:07:20,120 --> 00:07:23,680 Speaker 4: about it, and that all got squashed because all that 121 00:07:23,760 --> 00:07:26,200 Speaker 4: investment that it was being done to Ed David all 122 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:28,880 Speaker 4: got squashed when the bottom fire oil market, Nixon said 123 00:07:29,080 --> 00:07:31,200 Speaker 4: we're done here, weekend spend money like this anymore. It 124 00:07:31,240 --> 00:07:34,040 Speaker 4: went from a really heady time to kind of despair 125 00:07:34,080 --> 00:07:36,760 Speaker 4: where the company was shrinking, oil revenue was shrinking, and 126 00:07:37,240 --> 00:07:38,920 Speaker 4: the Bell Labs idea went out the window. 127 00:07:39,320 --> 00:07:41,920 Speaker 2: The company began laying off all the scientists that had 128 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:45,160 Speaker 2: hired just five years earlier, and dozens more began leaving 129 00:07:45,240 --> 00:07:47,680 Speaker 2: of their own accord as it became clear that the 130 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:50,840 Speaker 2: Bell Labs of energy idea was no longer of interest 131 00:07:50,880 --> 00:07:54,240 Speaker 2: to management. In just five years, Exxon had gone from 132 00:07:54,280 --> 00:07:57,480 Speaker 2: a place of great innovation, truly an energy company, to 133 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:02,520 Speaker 2: a fairly standard, conservative oil company. If they'd stopped there, 134 00:08:02,840 --> 00:08:05,160 Speaker 2: it would have been a shame, but we probably wouldn't 135 00:08:05,160 --> 00:08:10,000 Speaker 2: still be talking about it thirty years later. As Exxon 136 00:08:10,080 --> 00:08:12,240 Speaker 2: and the rest of the oil industry was turning away 137 00:08:12,280 --> 00:08:15,680 Speaker 2: from innovation, doubling down on being oil men, the science 138 00:08:15,720 --> 00:08:19,680 Speaker 2: continued on without them. And then came the summer of 139 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:24,240 Speaker 2: nineteen eighty eight and a catastrophic fire in Yellowstone that 140 00:08:24,280 --> 00:08:29,080 Speaker 2: seems downright commonplace today. As the News documented the hottest 141 00:08:29,120 --> 00:08:32,360 Speaker 2: summer on record, a young atmospheric scientist at the NASA 142 00:08:32,400 --> 00:08:36,160 Speaker 2: Goddard Institute for Space Studies dropped a bomb on Congress. 143 00:08:36,840 --> 00:08:40,080 Speaker 6: The greenhouse effect has been detected, and it is changing 144 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:40,679 Speaker 6: our climate. 145 00:08:40,760 --> 00:08:45,880 Speaker 2: Now James Hansen told regulators and the world that climate 146 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,040 Speaker 2: change was upon us. It was no longer a question 147 00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:51,240 Speaker 2: of when is this going to happen, how bad is 148 00:08:51,280 --> 00:08:53,400 Speaker 2: it going to be. It was here and it was 149 00:08:53,480 --> 00:08:56,480 Speaker 2: going to get worse if we didn't do something, And 150 00:08:56,520 --> 00:08:59,760 Speaker 2: he was not some fringe lefty tree hugger. At this point, 151 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:02,960 Speaker 2: Republicans and Democrats were still united in the sense that 152 00:09:03,080 --> 00:09:05,600 Speaker 2: something needed to be done about global warming, and that 153 00:09:05,679 --> 00:09:08,920 Speaker 2: it was a science and technology problem well that American 154 00:09:08,920 --> 00:09:13,280 Speaker 2: innovation could solve. Here's George Bush Senior on the campaign 155 00:09:13,280 --> 00:09:14,840 Speaker 2: trail in nineteen eighty eight. 156 00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:18,319 Speaker 7: Some say these problems are too big, that it seemed 157 00:09:18,360 --> 00:09:22,040 Speaker 7: possible for an individual or even a nation as great 158 00:09:22,080 --> 00:09:26,160 Speaker 7: as ours, to solve the problem of global warming, or 159 00:09:26,200 --> 00:09:30,280 Speaker 7: the loss of forests or the deterioration of our oceans. 160 00:09:31,280 --> 00:09:35,120 Speaker 7: My response is simple, it can be done, and we 161 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:38,800 Speaker 7: must do it. Let's not forget all that we've accomplished, 162 00:09:39,600 --> 00:09:43,400 Speaker 7: all that we've accomplished since America first concentrated its attention 163 00:09:43,920 --> 00:09:49,960 Speaker 7: on preserving the environment under a Republican administration back in 164 00:09:50,040 --> 00:09:50,880 Speaker 7: nineteen seventy. 165 00:09:52,800 --> 00:09:55,240 Speaker 2: This was the moment Exon had been planning for in 166 00:09:55,280 --> 00:09:58,600 Speaker 2: the late seventies and early eighties. But by nineteen eighty 167 00:09:58,600 --> 00:10:01,200 Speaker 2: eight that planning had been so scrapped along with the 168 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:04,120 Speaker 2: leaders who had conceived a bit. The research was gone. 169 00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:08,160 Speaker 2: The alternative energy programs were gone too. Now regulation was 170 00:10:08,240 --> 00:10:11,400 Speaker 2: hurtling toward the oil industry, and oil execs had lost 171 00:10:11,480 --> 00:10:12,640 Speaker 2: their seat at the table. 172 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:16,959 Speaker 6: By shutting down the experiment before it was finished or 173 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:21,760 Speaker 6: could be finished, Exon did lose place at the table. 174 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:25,679 Speaker 2: Something had to be done. Oil companies couldn't just rely 175 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:30,160 Speaker 2: on the same old tactics lobbying, advertising, the occasional op ed. 176 00:10:30,559 --> 00:10:34,280 Speaker 2: They had to ensure that regulation would not happen. And 177 00:10:34,320 --> 00:10:36,680 Speaker 2: to do that they needed to hit not just media 178 00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:41,120 Speaker 2: and government, but science schools and the culture at large. 179 00:10:41,160 --> 00:10:43,679 Speaker 2: They needed to stamp out the ideals that had driven 180 00:10:43,720 --> 00:10:47,040 Speaker 2: those protests in the nineteen sixties and nineteen seventies, to 181 00:10:47,080 --> 00:10:49,400 Speaker 2: make people think those protests were a threat to the 182 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:53,439 Speaker 2: very idea of America, that the idea of regulating emissions 183 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:56,480 Speaker 2: was tantamount to stopping progress and that was just a 184 00:10:56,520 --> 00:11:00,560 Speaker 2: thing real Americans did not do. And so as it 185 00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:03,960 Speaker 2: was cutting funding for climate science research, Exon began to 186 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:06,800 Speaker 2: wage an information war on climate science. 187 00:11:07,520 --> 00:11:09,880 Speaker 1: And even though we were writing all these papers which 188 00:11:09,920 --> 00:11:13,719 Speaker 1: were basically supporting the idea that climate change from CO 189 00:11:14,000 --> 00:11:16,880 Speaker 1: two emissions was going to change the climate of the 190 00:11:16,920 --> 00:11:21,920 Speaker 1: Earth according to our best scientific understandings, the freight office, 191 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:26,040 Speaker 1: which was concerned with promoting the products of the company, 192 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:31,880 Speaker 1: was also supporting people that we call climate change deniers, 193 00:11:31,960 --> 00:11:34,000 Speaker 1: and so they were supporting at the same time they 194 00:11:34,000 --> 00:11:36,400 Speaker 1: were giving me money to be a consultant, not that 195 00:11:36,600 --> 00:11:40,400 Speaker 1: much but still nice. They were giving millions of dollars 196 00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:46,080 Speaker 1: to other entities to support the idea that the COO 197 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:48,920 Speaker 1: two Greenhouse was a hoax. 198 00:11:49,320 --> 00:11:52,400 Speaker 2: In addition to funding various scientists working on so called 199 00:11:52,440 --> 00:11:56,280 Speaker 2: contrarian theories of climate change and supporting thing tanks that 200 00:11:56,280 --> 00:11:59,280 Speaker 2: would fund more of the same, Exon began shifting the 201 00:11:59,520 --> 00:12:03,720 Speaker 2: entire industry via the American Petroleum Institute or the API. 202 00:12:04,679 --> 00:12:08,320 Speaker 6: The key is the American Petroleum Institute. Excellon had a 203 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:13,880 Speaker 6: huge influence, rightly so in the API, and I think 204 00:12:15,320 --> 00:12:21,160 Speaker 6: the API changed its tune and probably other majors went 205 00:12:21,200 --> 00:12:26,000 Speaker 6: along with that, so I suspect that's how it all happened. 206 00:12:26,400 --> 00:12:29,200 Speaker 2: Then the oil industry banded together with other industries that 207 00:12:29,280 --> 00:12:33,640 Speaker 2: might also be impacted by the regulation of carbon emissions utilities, 208 00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:38,160 Speaker 2: car manufacturers, manufacturers in general, even the US Chamber of Commerce. 209 00:12:38,559 --> 00:12:42,080 Speaker 2: By the early nineteen nineties, they were drafting comprehensive social 210 00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:46,400 Speaker 2: influence campaigns, campaigns that go way beyond garden variety lobbying 211 00:12:46,440 --> 00:12:49,440 Speaker 2: and PR. They aimed to shift the entire trajectory of 212 00:12:49,480 --> 00:12:53,200 Speaker 2: society by targeting specific people or groups of people with 213 00:12:53,320 --> 00:12:57,080 Speaker 2: messages crafted precisely for them. It's showing up at obscur 214 00:12:57,200 --> 00:12:59,599 Speaker 2: city council meetings and planting the right people at the 215 00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:04,160 Speaker 2: right day. More spycraft than lobbying or PR. It's the 216 00:13:04,200 --> 00:13:06,520 Speaker 2: sort of thing Ebruce Harrison had begun working on a 217 00:13:06,559 --> 00:13:09,800 Speaker 2: decade earlier. Here's our document guy, Kurt Davies. 218 00:13:09,840 --> 00:13:14,280 Speaker 8: Again, this is early nineteen ninety one. To set the context, 219 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:17,920 Speaker 8: the IBCC has been born. We're talking about the Rio 220 00:13:18,000 --> 00:13:21,640 Speaker 8: Earth Summit coming in nineteen ninety two. The issue is 221 00:13:22,000 --> 00:13:25,240 Speaker 8: on people's minds, you know, the summer of nineteen eighty 222 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:29,839 Speaker 8: eight and Jim Hansen's testimony and the burning Planet on 223 00:13:29,880 --> 00:13:33,480 Speaker 8: the cover of Time magazine. It's it's becoming an issue. 224 00:13:33,559 --> 00:13:36,480 Speaker 8: And the Edison Electric Institute, which is all of the 225 00:13:36,600 --> 00:13:40,440 Speaker 8: utilities an organizations still in existence, still a heavy hitter 226 00:13:40,480 --> 00:13:44,400 Speaker 8: in Washington, they're the trade association for electric power companies. 227 00:13:44,440 --> 00:13:47,920 Speaker 8: Across the country, they team up with the Western Fuels 228 00:13:47,960 --> 00:13:52,880 Speaker 8: Association and form a campaign that they call the Information 229 00:13:53,120 --> 00:13:54,520 Speaker 8: Council on the Environment. 230 00:13:54,960 --> 00:13:58,559 Speaker 2: That document emerged in the mid nineties via journalist Ross 231 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:01,679 Speaker 2: Gelbspan and the environ mental group ozone Action. 232 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:08,440 Speaker 8: The strategies quote unquote include repositioning global warming as a theory, 233 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:14,079 Speaker 8: parentheses not fact, targeting print and radio media for maximum effectiveness, 234 00:14:14,600 --> 00:14:18,600 Speaker 8: achieving broad participation across the entire electric utility industry. So 235 00:14:18,640 --> 00:14:22,040 Speaker 8: they have a very exact plan to go national by 236 00:14:22,080 --> 00:14:24,920 Speaker 8: the fall of nineteen ninety one with a media program, 237 00:14:25,000 --> 00:14:27,560 Speaker 8: and the final strategy is to use spokesmen from the 238 00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:31,680 Speaker 8: scientific community. And in Arizona they did, for example, telephone 239 00:14:31,720 --> 00:14:35,520 Speaker 8: interviews with five hundred adults in Flagstaff, Arizona, and the 240 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:39,160 Speaker 8: data indicates, quote eighty nine percent say they have heard 241 00:14:39,200 --> 00:14:43,600 Speaker 8: of global warming, eighty two percent claim some familiarity with 242 00:14:43,640 --> 00:14:47,680 Speaker 8: global warming, eighty percent claim the problem is somewhat serious, 243 00:14:47,960 --> 00:14:51,200 Speaker 8: while forty five percent claim it is very serious, and 244 00:14:51,280 --> 00:14:56,000 Speaker 8: thirty nine percent back federal legislation without any quantification of cost, 245 00:14:56,400 --> 00:14:59,960 Speaker 8: and only twenty two percent of those consider themselves green consumers, 246 00:15:00,120 --> 00:15:04,720 Speaker 8: so it's penetrated. A vast majority have heard of the issue, 247 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:08,360 Speaker 8: think it's serious, and the campaign is to reverse that, 248 00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:12,160 Speaker 8: is to change that. So they've hired an outside firm 249 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:15,320 Speaker 8: to design this campaign and as part of the focused 250 00:15:15,320 --> 00:15:19,800 Speaker 8: group testing of these messages that they're inserting, which are 251 00:15:20,040 --> 00:15:24,240 Speaker 8: basically it's not that bad and it could be a 252 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:29,160 Speaker 8: non problem. But they talk about specifically the target audiences 253 00:15:29,280 --> 00:15:33,400 Speaker 8: of this test round that they're going to do to 254 00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:36,040 Speaker 8: see if their theory works, that they can move people, 255 00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:40,760 Speaker 8: and it says people who respond favorably to such statements 256 00:15:40,800 --> 00:15:45,960 Speaker 8: are quote, older, less educated males from larger households who 257 00:15:46,000 --> 00:15:49,960 Speaker 8: are not typically active information seekers and are not likely 258 00:15:50,040 --> 00:15:51,960 Speaker 8: to be green consumers. 259 00:15:53,200 --> 00:15:57,560 Speaker 2: Older men who are quote not active information seekers. If 260 00:15:57,560 --> 00:16:01,080 Speaker 2: you were living in America during the twenty sixteen presidential campaign, 261 00:16:01,240 --> 00:16:04,560 Speaker 2: that demographic might sound familiar. And to put some of 262 00:16:04,560 --> 00:16:08,560 Speaker 2: those data points from the ICE pull into perspective, here's 263 00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:12,840 Speaker 2: a more recent stat In twenty seventeen, fifty two percent 264 00:16:12,920 --> 00:16:17,680 Speaker 2: of Americans believed the threat of climate change has been exaggerated. 265 00:16:18,400 --> 00:16:21,320 Speaker 2: That's despite the fact that we have more scientific evidence 266 00:16:21,400 --> 00:16:24,560 Speaker 2: now and more extreme weather events showing us it's a 267 00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:28,440 Speaker 2: problem every year. In other words, these influence campaigns have 268 00:16:28,520 --> 00:16:32,920 Speaker 2: been remarkably effective, and they're still in play today. That's 269 00:16:32,960 --> 00:16:35,120 Speaker 2: not due to any one campaign, of course, or even 270 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:39,040 Speaker 2: one type of influence. For decades, climate change has been 271 00:16:39,040 --> 00:16:42,080 Speaker 2: the issue on which various industry groups and their pr 272 00:16:42,160 --> 00:16:46,160 Speaker 2: firms test out tactics. Remember what I called the creation 273 00:16:46,240 --> 00:16:49,720 Speaker 2: of climate denial patient zero in the modern US propaganda war. 274 00:16:50,440 --> 00:16:53,320 Speaker 2: That wasn't an overstatement, And we're going to spend the 275 00:16:53,360 --> 00:16:59,640 Speaker 2: next few episodes unpacking what exactly that means. Basically, Putin's 276 00:16:59,640 --> 00:17:07,560 Speaker 2: gotten on America's captains of industry. Drilled is produced and 277 00:17:07,640 --> 00:17:12,119 Speaker 2: distributed by Critical Frequency. The series was reported by me 278 00:17:12,359 --> 00:17:17,960 Speaker 2: Amy Westerbelt. Our producer and composer is David Whited. Richard 279 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:22,280 Speaker 2: Wiles is our executive producer. Our story and concept development 280 00:17:22,359 --> 00:17:27,280 Speaker 2: consultant is Raka Murphy. Lucas Lisakowski designed our cover art. 281 00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:33,080 Speaker 2: Katie Ross, Michael Ann Petrella and Julia Ritchie provided additional editing. 282 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:36,560 Speaker 2: Drilled is supported in part by a generous grant from 283 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:41,240 Speaker 2: the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development. You can find Drilled. 284 00:17:41,240 --> 00:17:44,240 Speaker 2: Wherever you get your podcasts, Please remember to rate and 285 00:17:44,280 --> 00:17:48,479 Speaker 2: review the podcast. It helps us find listeners. Thanks for listening.