explore fossil-think

3 files changed, 303 insertions, 1 deletions

diff --git a/bibliography.bib b/bibliography.bib
index c299e9e..645be1d 100644
--- a/bibliography.bib
+++ b/bibliography.bib
@@ -1,3 +1,113 @@
+@inbook{denial-deception,
+	author={Bush, Martin J.},
+	title={Denial and Deception},
+	booktitle={Climate Change and Renewable Energy},
+	booksubtitle={How to End the Climate Crisis},
+	date={2020},
+	publisher={Springer International Publishing},
+	address={Cham},
+	pages={373--420},
+	isbn={978-3-030-15424-0},
+	doi={10.1007/978-3-030-15424-0_8},
+}
+
+@report{smoking-health-proposal,
+	title={Smoking and health proposal},
+	date={1969},
+	url={https://www.industrydocuments.ucsf.edu/docs/psdw0147},
+	urldate={2026-07-02},
+	publisher={UCSF Industry Documents Library, Brown & Williamson Records, Minnesota Documents, Tobacco Industry Influence in Public Policy, Master Settlement Agreement},
+	addendum={bates numbers 690010951--690010959},
+}
+
+@article{brulle-2014,
+	journal={Climatic Change},
+	date={2014},
+	volume={122},
+	pages={681--694},
+	doi={10.1007/s10584-013-1018-7},
+	title={Institutionalizing delay},
+	subtitle={foundation funding and the creation of U.S. climate change counter-movement organizations},
+	author={Brulle, Robert J.},
+}
+
+@article{sassan-2023,
+	author={Sassan, Caroline and Mahat, Priyanka and Aronczyk, Melissa and Brulle, Robert J.},
+	date={2023},
+	title={Energy Citizens "Just Like You"?},
+	subtitle={Public Relations Campaigning by the Climate Change Counter-movement},
+	journal={Environmental Communication},
+	volume={17},
+	number={7},
+	pages={794--810},
+	doi={10.1080/17524032.2023.2255388},
+}
+
+@article{spampatti-2025,
+	title={Truth discernment may not help to overcome misinformation},
+	journal={Nature Climate Change},
+	date={2025-10},
+	pages={1006--1009},
+	volume={15},
+	number={10},
+	author={Spampatti, Tobia},
+	address={London},
+	publisher={Nature Publishing Group UK},
+}
+
+@article{farrell-2019,
+	title={Evidence-based strategies to combat scientific misinformation},
+	author={Farrell, Justin and McConnell, Kathryn and Brulle, Robert},
+	address={London},
+	publisher={Nature Publishing Group UK},
+	journal={Nature climate change},
+	date={2019-03},
+	volume={9},
+	number={3},
+	pages={191--195},
+}
+
+@article{brulle-2023,
+	author={Brulle, Robert J.},
+	title={Advocating inaction},
+	subtitle={a historical analysis of the {Global Climate Coalition}},
+	journal={Environmental Politics},
+	volume={32},
+	number={2},
+	pages={185--206},
+	year={2023},
+	publisher={Routledge},
+	doi={10.1080/09644016.2022.2058815},
+}
+
+@book{doubt-is-our-product,
+	title={Doubt Is Their Product},
+	subtitle={How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health},
+	author={Michaels, David},
+	publisher={Oxford University Press},
+	date={2008-04-23},
+}
+
+@article{leah-2011,
+	title={Manufactured Scientific Controversy},
+	subtitle={Science, Rhetoric, and Public Debate},
+	author={Ceccarelli, Leah},
+	date={2011},
+	journal={Rhetoric & Public Affairs},
+	volume={14},
+	number={2},
+	publisher={Michigan State University Press},
+	pages={195--228},
+	doi={10.1353/rap.2010.0222},
+}
+
+@article{hulac-jul-2016,
+	title={Document trove details links between tobacco, oil industries},
+	date={2016-07-20},
+	author={Hulac, Benjamin},
+	journal={ClimateWire},
+}
+
 @inbook{visions-in-apocalyptic-handbook,
     title={Dreams and Visions in Early Jewish and Early Christian Apocalypses and Apocalypticism},
     booktitle={The Oxford Handbook of Apocalyptic Literature},
diff --git a/chapter4.md b/chapter4.md
index 1e2b093..482adde 100644
--- a/chapter4.md
+++ b/chapter4.md
@@ -95,10 +95,20 @@ for a minority cognition is still necessary.
 Recall that, as Thompson [@thompson-revelation] argued, St. John needed to use
 minority cognition in order to resist the overwhelming weight of the majority
 epistemology of Greek society, which would have pressed his audience into
-submission to the imperial cult. Likewise, in our society, there is are
+submission to the imperial cult. Likewise, in our society, there are
 empire-like forces constantly reinforcing dominant epistemologies, and among
 these is the fossil fuel industry.
 
+'Doubt is our product,' declared an infamous memo by ? to ? \[CITE\],
+describing their strategy of manufacturing scientific controversy on the health
+effects of smoking in order to defend the tobacco industry's profits. The
+fossil fuel industry has consistently employed the same PR contractors and even
+scientific researchers in their efforts to use science to defend their profits
+[@hulac-jul-2016]. Fossil fuel companies used balancing norms in journalism and
+American values of fairness to demand an equal public hearing for climate
+sceptics over their opponents, creating a public impression that the experts
+are divided [@leah-2011, pp. 204-208].
+
 The fossil fuel industry has repeatedly bought out the science \[EVIDENCE\]. It
 continues to do so \[EVIDENCE\]. It has also reinforced conceptual frameworks
 such as 'carbon footprinting' which serve its interests by shifting blame for
@@ -199,3 +209,11 @@ and likewise adopted a minority epistemology -- an eschatological vision -- in
 order to convince his audience that the good fight was worth fighting.
 
 \[EXAMPLES\]
+
+### TODO
+
+- Cite page numbers / find quotations from _Silent Spring_
+- Find evidence that the fossil fuel has and continues to buy the science
+- Find examples of green tribulation discourse
+- Find examples of green utopian end-time speculation
+- Read all about the Green New Deal and incorporate evidence
diff --git a/log.md b/log.md
index f4ef173..2fff1f2 100644
--- a/log.md
+++ b/log.md
@@ -4,6 +4,180 @@ title: Dissertation log
 author: Joe Carstairs
 ---
 
+## 2026-07-02
+
+### @{smoke-mirrors-hot-air}
+
+A 2007 report from the Union of Concerned Scientists arguing that ExxonMobil is
+using the same tactics as the tobacco industry to mislead the public about the
+scientific evidence relating to global warming.
+
+Their strategies include:
+
+- Manufacturing uncertainty
+- Information laundering
+- Promoting scientific spokespeople who deceive the public
+- Deflecting focus from climate action by calling for "sound science"
+- Exerting influence over the government
+
+### @{denial-deception}
+
+Fossil fuel companies realised early on that burning fossil fuels was causing
+global warming, and that if governments were to act in the interests of their
+citizens according to the knowledge of the scientific facts, their profits
+would suffer. Therefore, they set about minimising public knowledge of the
+scientific facts. At first, they denied that climate change was real, but this
+eventually became unsustainable. Then they switched to manufacturing
+uncertainty and doubt (MUD) by encouraging scientists under their employ to
+author papers which use dodgy statistical methods and cherry-picked, or
+fabricated, data to come to conclusions out of step with the truth of the
+reality of climate change, and publishing in-house journals in which to publish
+such papers.  Once these papers are published, the peer-review process ensured
+that they created controversy, increasing the perception that the science is
+uncertain. (Pretty unevidenced up to here.)
+
+The GCC was formed in 1989, and engaged in lobbying, attended COPs, put out
+adverts, and sent spokespeople to represent them in the news media. In so
+doing, they attacked the IPCC, made ad hominem attacks against scientists and
+environmentalists, and criticised climate models.
+
+In 1991, the Informed Council on the Environment, or ICE, was set up. It was
+a PR campaign set up by a consortium of US electric companies. Thanks to a leak
+to the New York Times, we know that it was a deliberate attempt to 'reposition
+global warming as theory (not fact).'
+
+In 1998, Exxon set up the Global Climate Science Team (GCST) and gave it an
+'Action Plan,' since leaked, aiming to create public uncertainty about climate
+science and to make people supporting Kyoto on the basis of scientific evidence
+appear 'out of touch with reality.'
+
+I only got as far as the section on Exxon, about a third of the way through.
+
+### @{brulle-2014}
+
+Brulle argues that the climate change counter-movement in the US is a subset of
+the conservative movement; that as a result, conservative think-tanks play a
+key role by creating ideas and funding movement organisations; and that fossil
+fuel companies have been playing an increasingly important role in funding
+conservative think-tanks, though they have also gotten much better at hiding
+their financial involvement through the Donors Trust/Donors Capital Fund,
+which, because they are a kind of legal entity called a 'donor foundation,'
+allow donors to legally tell them where to put their donated money without
+publicly disclosing their identity. Brulle makes heavy use of publicly
+available funding data and engages widely with the relevant literature.
+
+### @{sassan-2023}
+
+A study of four climate-related information campaigns, investigating their
+strategies, in order to understand how the climate change counter-movement
+has come to succeed in achieving political outcomes favourable to fossil fuel
+companies over the public interest, and how companies have come to play an
+influential role in American democratic discourse.
+
+Campaign activities:
+
+- Advertisements
+- Creating social media discussion fora
+- Astroturfing
+- Lobbying
+- Summits
+
+Rhetorical frames:
+
+- They appeal to jobs and the economy
+- They manufacture scientific controversy
+- They appeal to 'energy security,' presenting alternatives as dangerous
+- They portray their stance as most in line with American values
+- They say their stance is most in line with the everyman's interests
+
+### @{spampatti-2025}
+
+Misinformation research tends to aim for truth-discernment as the ultimate sign
+of success. But in the case of climate misinformation, this misses the mark.
+For one thing, some falsehoods are relatively benign, such as 'the world may
+warm by up to 20 deg C'. Further, some truths are relatively harmful, such as
+'the world today has warmed by 0.4 deg C'. What actually matters is people's
+behaviours, not the accuracy of their beliefs.
+
+### @{farrell-2019}
+
+Misinformation aims to obstruct the public from accepting the truth that
+climate change is real. Misinformation campaigns won when Trump withdrew from
+the Paris Agreement shoulder-to-shoulder with Myron Ebell, who is a 'climate
+science contrarian' and has received lots of fossil money. Misinformation
+campaigns also won when the EPA was given a cap of scientific papers they could
+consider when making decisions, largely because of the influence of Steve
+Milloy, who has a long history of working for misinformation campaigns for the
+tobacco and fossil fuel industries.
+
+The authors propose four strategies for fighting misinformation.
+
+First, there must be public inoculation campaigns against misinformation, by
+telling the public where misinformation comes from and why it can't be trusted.
+We know this is needed because just telling the public that there is a
+scientific consensus in favour of anthropogenic climate change and the
+necessity of climate action isn't persuasive, because people interpret that
+information through their cultural lenses informed by their political
+affiliation, religion, trust in science and other public institutions,
+geographical location, etc.
+
+Second, there must be stronger legal challenges against fossil fuel companies.
+This will be enabled by more research into the misinformation network's
+knowledge, internal decision-making, funding streams and uncovering deliberate
+harrassment campaigns against scientists.
+
+Third, there must be resistance against the misinformation network's efforts to
+attach their misinformation to political issues and thus make it in the
+interest of certain political actors to promote their misinformation. In
+particular, there should be more social science to understand the
+misinformation network's strategies (e.g.  hiring paid actors to stand as vox
+pop), investors should divest from fossil fuel companies, and there should
+exist targeted local campaigns, viz. media campaigns, inoculation campaigns,
+and legal activism campaigns.
+
+Fourth, if there were stronger financial transparency laws, much of the money
+which currently gets funnelled secretly into misinformation would not be so
+funnelled.
+
+This article seems to me to have a confused understanding of the issues,
+frequently say things that don't make sense, and often wants evidence.
+
+## 2026-07-01
+
+### @{brulle-2023}
+
+An historical survey of the activities of the Global Climate Coalition, a
+fossil fuel industry lobby group which folded in 2001.
+
+### @{doubt-is-our-product}
+
+A widely-quoted popular book documenting how various industries in the USA have
+created doubt, including by the production of science and public science
+communications, in order to protect their profits against the public interest.
+Michaels does not deal with the issue of global warming.
+
+### @{leah-2011}
+
+An article exploring corporate strategies for manufacturing scientific
+controversy, taking three case studies, of which one is global warming. She
+focuses on how fossil fuel companies exploit American norms of journalistic
+balance, freedom of thought, and public, democratic politics to make an equal
+space for climate sceptics alongside their dialectical opponents, creating an
+illusion that the scientific community as a whole is equally split. She has a
+brilliant response to one call in a newspaper's letters section for a
+'moratorium' on publishing letters about global warming that aren't by
+qualified scientists, pointing out that this falls perfectly into the
+rhetorical trap that has been laid for them, confirming for their audience the
+view planted by fossil interests that the mainstream scientific community is
+ruled by exclusive, oppressive group-think opposed to free thought and public
+debate.
+
+### @{hulac-jul-2016}
+
+A ClimateWire long-form journalism article about the links between the tobacco
+industry and the fossil fuel industry in their attempts to fight against
+inconvenient scientific evidence.
+
 ## 2026-06-12
 
 ### @{anthropocene-or-capitalocene}