In the second episode of The Black Thread, we drill into “petroganda” – the pervasive phenomenon of oil industry manipulation that a growing number of experts and commentators suggest is at work in Norway – shaping support for the country’s oil industry, influencing culture and politics, and guiding the information that the public receives, or doesn’t receive, about the relationship between oil and climate change.

We’ll explore these claims, hearing from those who study and observe the industry, as well as those working within it, about how the story of oil in Norway is told – and who is shaping it. 

For more information and references: https://communicatingclimatechange.com/the-black-thread

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For decades, the meat and dairy industries managed to successfully avoid any attention for the planet-heating emissions they pump into the atmosphere; once governments started talking about regulating methane, though, they started working on efforts to avoid them. In today's episode, Silvia Secchi (University of Iowa) and Kathrin Lauber (University of Edinburgh) join us to walk through "agricultural exceptionalism" and the strategies the animal ag industry uses to keep regulation and climate policy at bay.

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The coal, utilities, and transportation industries have all mounted efforts to stop governments from regulating emissions or transitioning to cleaner energy. In this episode we look at how those efforts took shape around the world, and what tactics they used to block progress. Jen Schneider, at Boise State University and Gregory Trencher, at Kyoto University, join us to walk through the peer-reviewed research on these efforts.

You can now download a FREE copy of the book Climate Obstruction: A Global Survey here!

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In this first episode of The Black Thread, we meet the Norwegians and explore how social norms and cultural values shape their identity as a good, caring, and nature-loving people. We also learn what happens when those values come into conflict with the reality of Norway’s outsized impact on climate change, and discover how and why oil influences peoples’ response to this dilemma. 

For more information and references: https://communicatingclimatechange.com/the-black-thread

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There’s no avoiding it: Things feel pretty bleak. To witness venture-capital-fueled AI domination, democracy’s steady drift toward authoritarianism, state-sanctioned genocide, and, of course, the collapse of one climate boundary after another, is to encounter a profound, at times overwhelming, sense of despair.

But what if the path forward lies in accepting, rather than resisting, this despair? In his new book, Learning to Live in the Dark: Essays in a Time of Catastrophe, climate activist and journalist Wen Stephenson argues that the only way to confront the crises of our time is to meet this despair head-on—to see it for what it is, to feel it, and to accept what it means about where we are and where we must go. In this episode, Wen discusses how he's dealt with his own climate despair and how we can all "live into this era of climate and political and social catastrophe…while holding on to our humanity.”

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Climate obstruction isn’t just something the fossil fuel industry does, but they’ve certainly spearheaded and masterminded a lot of efforts. In this ep, an academic (Kristoffer Ekberg, from the University of Lund in Sweden), a nonprofit researcher (the legendary Kert Davies, of the Center for Climate Integrity), and a journalist (Geoff Dembicki, global managing editor of DeSmog) walk us through what we know so far about those efforts.

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Obstruction would never have been as effective as it has been without the help of the PR industry and the willful ignorance of the media. Today, Melissa Aronczyk, of Rutgers University, and Max Boykoff, of the University of Colorado, join us to walk through why getting a handle on the media's role in climate obstruction is critical to solving the problem.

The book Climate Obstruction: A Global Survey, is available from Oxford University Press here, and will be available for free download beginning October 14th.

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If you want to understand how misinformation works in general…and anyone who cares about democracy should right now…there’s no one better to talk to than researchers who have been studying climate misinformation for years. In today's episode, John Cook (University of Melbourne) and Dominik A. Stecuła (Colorado State University) join to walk us through everything the research is telling us so far.

Reminder that you can get a copy of the book Climate Obstruction: A Global Survey here (and download a free digital version beginning October 14th!)

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Jesse Bryant (Yale) and Dieter Plehwe (University of Kassel) join us for a look at the intersection between the rise of rightwing populism and increasing resistance to acting on climate, with a particular focus on rising authoritarianism in the U.S., UK, and Europe.

For more on this topic, check out the book Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment (also downloadable free after Oct 14th!): https://global.oup.com/academic/product/climate-obstruction-9780197787151?cc=us&lang=en&

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For at least a decade now, there’s been growing agreement around the fact that what’s stopping the world from addressing the climate crisis is not a lack of data or scientific certainty, or a lack of technological or policy measures available to address it. The problem is a lack of political will. And that didn't just happen; political will has been intentionally obstructed at every turn. As we gear up for the 30th UN climate summit, a new book pulls together everything we know about how this happened and what can be done about it. To prep for COP, Amy's reading the whole thing and talking to the researchers along the way. In today's episode, Amy's joined by Timmons Roberts (Brown University), Jennifer Jacquet (University of Miami), Carlos Milani (Rio de Janeiro State University), and Christian Downie (Australian National University) to through an overview of what we're dealing with and what we can expect in the year ahead.

You can check out the book here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/climate-obstruction-9780197787151?cc=us&lang=en&

And download it for free from that same link after October 14th!

You can also check out the Climate Social Science Network here: https://cssn.org/

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