Stop Funding Heat - Sounding the Alarm on Climate Misinformation

In our final episode of season 2 we speak to Laura and Merlin, two grassroots volunteers helping fight climate misinformation every morning in the UK.

The Stop Funding Heat podcast is produced by Stop Funding Heat. Read our latest report "Cashing in on Climate Delay - Big Tech's Role in Greenwashing the Fossil Fuel Industry" at www.stopfundingheat.info/greenwashing

References

Check out similar campaigns based on the same theory of change as Stop Funding Heat:

Stop Funding Hate https://stopfundinghate.info/ 

Check My Ads https://checkmyads.org/ 

Sleeping Giants https://twitter.com/slpng_giants 

The Telegraph falsely blame UK climate policies for food shortages https://archive.is/DMmwe 

Fox News Offshore wind farms are devastating whale populations - mostly killed by boat strikes etc https://archive.is/DGvTN

Daily Express implies without evidence that Ukraine invasion is due to UK net zero policies, and a relationship between Just Stop Oil and Putin https://archive.is/pNobn

Tesco accused of greenwashing over biodegradable teabags https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/feb/28/tesco-accused-of-greenwashing-over-biodegradable-teabags 

The various fallacies of climate misinformation https://crankyuncle.com/a-history-of-flicc-the-5-techniques-of-science-denial/ 

Telegraph cherry picking biomass element of net zero policy https://archive.is/TP80l 

Protonmail remove ads from Sun article https://twitter.com/stopfundingheat/status/1496134888273109002 

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands by Kate Beaton https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/ducks-two-years-in-the-oil-sands-kate-beaton/7014994 

Katherine Hayhoe talk about climate change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BvcToPZCLI 

Welcome to episode 6! Today we speak to Josh Gabbattis at Carbon Brief about climate misinformation in the UK media - who's writing it, and what does it say?

The Stop Funding Heat podcast is produced by Stop Funding Heat. Read our latest report "Cashing in on Climate Delay - Big Tech's Role in Greenwashing the Fossil Fuel Industry" at www.stopfundingheat.info/greenwashing

Thanks to our guest today, Josh Gabbatiss! You can find him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/josh_gabbatiss

Sign up to Carbon Brief's newsletter at https://www.carbonbrief.org/

References

Costa Del Snow headline in the Daily Mail https://archive.is/o4f6A

Dale Vince says greenwashing is good (it's not) https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/02/greenwashing-is-a-good-thing-according-to-one-renewable-energy-tycoon.html

Shell's "green investment" actually supporting fossil gas https://www.globalwitness.org/en/campaigns/fossil-gas/shell-faces-groundbreaking-complaint-misleading-us-authorities-and-investors-its-energy-transition-efforts/

How UK newspapers changed their minds about climate change since 2011 https://interactive.carbonbrief.org/how-uk-newspapers-changed-minds-climate-change/

Carbon Brief's database of newspaper editorials since 2011 https://www.carbonbrief.org/editorials-where-uk-newspapers-stand-on-climate-change-and-energy/

Studies on discourses of climate delay. The new climate misinformation? Global Sustainability journal https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/global-sustainability/article/discourses-of-climate-delay/7B11B722E3E3454BB6212378E32985A7

A rise in support for fracking in 2022, based on the Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's Public Attitudes Tracker  https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/public-attitudes-tracking-survey

You're more likely to believe climate misinformation if you read certain UK papers. Results from Climate Action Against Disinformation survey https://caad.info/report/the-impacts-of-climate-disinformation-on-public-perception-2/

The Sun's headline from 2013: "Get rid of the green crap" https://archive.is/W9AV1

Meanwhile cutting that "green crap" in the last 10 years has added £2.5 billion to our energy bills. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-cutting-the-green-crap-has-added-2-5bn-to-uk-energy-bills/

Latest tranche of onshore wind projects over will be nine times cheaper than fossil gas https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-record-low-price-for-uk-offshore-wind-is-four-times-cheaper-than-gas/

Welcome to episode 5! Today we speak to Barnaby Pace at Global Witness about the real world impacts of fossil fuel information and influence campaigns, spotlighting in particular last year's global climate negotiations, COP27.

The Stop Funding Heat podcast is produced by Stop Funding Heat: www.stopfundingheat.info

Read our latest report "Cashing in on Climate Delay - Big Tech's Role in Greenwashing the Fossil Fuel Industry" at www.stopfundingheat.info/greenwashing

Thanks to our guest today, Barnaby Pace! Find him on twitter at twitter.com/barnabypace

References

Global Witness's report on fossil fuel lobbyists at COP27 https://www.globalwitness.org/en/press-releases/over-100-more-fossil-fuel-lobbyists-last-year-flooding-crucial-cop-climate-talks/

Natural gas enters EU taxonomy as potentially green energy https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20220701IPR34365/taxonomy-meps-do-not-object-to-inclusion-of-gas-and-nuclear-activities

A Crack In The Shell report https://www.ciel.org/reports/a-crack-in-the-shell/

Head of UAE state oil company named as president of COP28 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-64269436

Fossil Free Politics coalition https://www.fossilfreepolitics.org/

Conflict of interest background at COP27 from Corporate Accountability https://corporateaccountability.org/resources/primer-conflicts-of-interest-at-the-unfccc/

Conflict of interest background in European Parliament from Corporate Europe Observatory https://corporateeurope.org/sites/default/files/new_code_old_conduct_report.pdf

Climate town videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuVLG9pThvBABcYCm7pkNkA

Hello! Stop Funding Heat is back with four brand new episodes all about climate misinformation. In this episode we speak to Silvia Pastorelli of Greenpeace. We discuss the growing movement asking, isn't it time we banned greenwashing adverts, just like we did with tobacco?

The Stop Funding Heat podcast is produced by Stop Funding Heat: www.stopfundingheat.info

Read our latest report "Cashing in on Climate Delay - Big Tech's Role in Greenwashing the Fossil Fuel Industry" at www.stopfundingheat.info/greenwashing

Thanks to our guest today, Silvia Pastorelli! Read about the protest that took place at Leutzerath here:  https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/jan/24/eviction-lutzerath-village-destroyed-coalmine-a-photo-essay

References

Ryanair is the first non-coal company to enter top 10 emitters list in the EU https://www.theguardian.com/business/2019/apr/01/ryanair-new-coal-airline-enters-eu-top-10-emitters-list

Hyundai: "I expect you to save our planet" real advert https://adsofbrands.net/en/ads/hyundai-expecting-generation-one-2/13614

Toyota spoof advert: "Let's ruin everything" advert https://twitter.com/BrandalismUK/status/1614888011765846016

Exxon made breathtakingly accurate predictions about global warming decades ago. Article in Science https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abk0063 

Measuring the CO2 impact of adverts for cars and airlines, by Badvertising https://www.badverts.org/latest/new-report-advertising-climate-chaos-measuring-the-co2-emissions-associated-with-adverts-for-cars-amp-airlines 

5 'supermajor' oil companies spend $750 million per year on climate-related communication activities https://influencemap.org/report/Big-Oil-s-Agenda-on-Climate-Change-2022-19585

In the final episode of our pilot run, we flip the script as Aggy interviews Sean on his research regarding climate misinformation on Facebook. Then Aggy speaks to Jennie King about the “war room”, where a team of analysts was working round the clock to combat climate misinformation live during COP26. 

The Stop Funding Heat podcast is produced by Stop Funding Heat: www.stopfundingheat.info 

Thanks to our guests today! Find them at https://www.isdglobal.org/

References

On The Back Burner report - building the case around Facebook's spread of climate misinformation: https://bit.ly/33fgcEu 

In Denial report - comprehensive report on how much climate misinformation there is on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3HIlA6m 

Daily Express removed an article citing Naomi Seibt SFH site: https://bit.ly/2NXVULj

Advertisers pulled their money from GB News: https://bit.ly/3vqVrFa

Climate change already causing 150,000 deaths annually: https://bit.ly/3spAn02

Why did we look at Facebook? Facebook has 2.91 billion monthly users: https://bit.ly/3hqeJm1

More about Facebook’s Climate Science Center - like feeding someone poison then giving them a brochure about vegetables: http://archive.is/Pfees

Facebook Papers leak - information about staff conversations: https://bit.ly/3JZSYFS

Facebook allege that data in Stop Funding Heat report is wrong, despite it being their own data: https://bit.ly/35DvGH6

More about the COP26 war room: https://n.pr/3IwnmaE

The final report from the war room is still pending, but we will share it out on our social channels as soon as it’s ready!

False claim that COP26 was running on diesel: https://reut.rs/36Q5wkY

“Grey speech” of delayism is becoming more common in climate misinformation culture wars: https://lat.ms/3tjpKei

Not Sure About That - I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here to be held in Wales to combat climate change: https://bbc.in/3HutBdB

Not Sure About That - Ant and Dec poke fun at Downing Street Christmas party: https://bit.ly/3prjrV7

Contrary to popular belief, it’s not just your crazy relative spreading falsehoods online. In part 2 of our 3-part series, Sean and Aggy uncover where climate misinformation comes from - and why is it put out there in the first place?

The Stop Funding Heat podcast is produced by Stop Funding Heat: www.stopfundingheat.info 

Thanks to our guests today! Find them at https://desmog.com/ and https://influencemap.org/ 

References 

We do our best to reference as many of the conversation points we cover in our interviews. If there’s something missing, please do get in touch at [email protected]

For an interesting look at how the tobacco industry’s tactics are mirrored by fossil fuel industries, check out this BBC podcast https://bbc.in/3uYlqDI

Climate gate - debunked: https://bit.ly/3oY7SVg

2021’s Counter-COP summit run by Heartland Institute, as reported by Channel 4 https://bit.ly/3sUHtJ7

Brexit climate denier map: https://bit.ly/34K3get

Monsanto hiring firms to target journalists and activists: https://bit.ly/3sUHqwV

Majority of UK want a net zero referendum - debunked: https://bit.ly/3gV5UQK

Climate denier ads paid for by Centre for Brexit Policy: https://bit.ly/3s1MVKE

InfluenceMap found 25,000 ads from 25 entities seen over 430 million times in 2021 https://bit.ly/3JDXj1c

Ballot Measure 1 to increase fossil fuel taxes in Alaska falls https://bit.ly/3H1KKeH

Climate Action Tracker https://climateactiontracker.org/

European Citizens Initiative to ban fossil fuel ads like with tobacco https://banfossilfuelads.org/

Science Museum strikes new deal with fossil fuel company Adani https://bit.ly/3BtZba9

Fossil fuel companies have spent $1 billion on climate brand building in just 4 years https://bit.ly/3v0XbVI

“Japan Climate Leaders Partnership” successfully lobbies Japanese government to set more ambitious climate goals https://bit.ly/3oTTo8L

Frackfeed is still offline at time of launch https://www.frackfeed.com/ 

Not Sure About That - Executives from oil companies refuse to pledge not to spend money to oppose efforts to reduce climate change

Not Sure About That - Oil companies hearing - will not do anything about their climate misinformation: https://nyti.ms/3LVsLu7

Not Sure About That - “William Shatner did not go to space”: https://bit.ly/3LJA340

Not Sure About That - Concrete can grow: https://bit.ly/3JCBRK9

Not Sure About That - Boris Johnson calls Net Zero by 2050 “heroic” https://bit.ly/3LMbWBJ 

In the first of our three-part series we discuss a fascinating theory of change - can you influence what's published online by talking to directly to those that fund it - the advertisers?

The Stop Funding Heat podcast is produced by Stop Funding Heat: www.stopfundingheat.info 

Thanks to our guests today! Find the Conscious Advertising Network and their manifestos at https://www.consciousadnetwork.com/

Find CheckMyAds at www.checkmyads.org and become a "Checkmate" at https://checkmyads.org/membership/ 

References
We do our best to reference as many of the conversation points we cover in our interviews. If there’s something missing, please do get in touch at [email protected]

Not Sure About That - Is Coral Improving in the Great Barrier Reef? https://climatefeedback.org/claimreview/coral-cover-great-barrier-reef-improved-2021-but-doesnt-mean-reef-growing-quickly-contrary-to-daily-wire/ 

Not Sure About That - No, Electric Vehicles Are Not 7 Times More Expensive Than Petrol Equivalents https://climatefeedback.org/claimreview/electric-cars-arent-seven-times-more-expensive-than-gasoline-powered-cars-as-claimed-on-facebook/ 

Not Sure About That - Patrick Moore’s graph makes no sense https://archive.is/2Jqjr 

Fake news travels six times faster than the truth on Twitter - Harvard Study - https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aap9559 

Vice asks ad industry to re-think LGBTQ blacklists https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/10/15/vice-asks-industry-rethink-blacklists-lgbtq-and-important-issues-are-avoided 

70% of climate safe content in unmonetized - appears in Change The Narrative report via CHEQ Inc and Media Bounty https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1I_KDqD4vBylcMz39Rk3107gAhl5IWQk9AY-BnUZTfVE/edit#slide=id.p 

The Times - Advertising funding terrorist content (2017) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/big-brands-fund-terror-knnxfgb98 

Google introduces demonetization of climate misinformation content https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11221321?hl=en 

WARC Guide to Conscious Media Investment - Explainer https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/opinion/conscious-media-investment-the-moral-and-commercial-imperative/4391 

The Sleeping Giants campaign https://twitter.com/slpng_giants 

Join Aggy and Sean and a rotating set of guests as they explore the ins and outs of climate misinformation - what on earth is it, who's putting it out there, and what can we do about it?