Drilled

A true-crime podcast about climate change. Reported and hosted by a team of investigative climate journalists, Drilled examines the various obstacles that have kept the world from adequately responding to climate change.

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Episodes

S2E1: A Crisis, a Cover-Up, and a Community on the Front Lines of Climate Change

In 2015, West Coast crab fishermen were shut down by climate change. Atmospheric changes had warmed waters and upended everything from the food chain to ocean upwelling. They didn't realize it would be their new normal, or that scientists had been telling the oil industry this would happen since the 1960s. Welcome to season 2 of Drilled: Hot Water. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apr 22, 2019•22 min

Coming Soon: Hot Water, a New Drilled Series

In 2015 a warm water "blob," the result of both warming oceans and shifting wind patterns, wreaked havoc on West Coast fishing towns. Three years into a new reality in which climate change has shifted the marine food web, they're fighting back. West Coast crab fishermen just became the first industry to take on Big Oil for its role in not only contributing to climate change but creating climate denial. Get the full story of these unlikely climate activists in a new six-part series, dropping Apri...

Apr 03, 2019•2 min

Big Oil's New Story: The First Amendment Covers Climate Denial

In a batch of aggressive countersuits, Exxon is accusing the counties, cities, and states of conspiring to quash its First Amendment rights to political speech. It's an idea with a long and twisting history that we dig into in this episode.Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Feb 05, 2019•27 min

Winning the War

Fossil fuel industry influence campaigns ensured that we lost a critical 30 years not taking action on climate change. But all is not lost. The technology to address climate change exists, and if there's one thing history teaches us about America it's that radical social change is entirely possible here. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oct 09, 2018•23 min

Campaigns So Successful They've Landed in Court

The fossil fuel industry's decades-long information war was so successful that even though oil companies themselves began publicly accepting climate science years ago, the public remains skeptical. Fewer Americans believe in the need to act on climate today than did 30 years ago, despite insurmountable evidence. Industry campaigns were so successful they've now landed oil companies in court, facing multiple suits attempting to hold them accountable for the damages inflicted by unchecked climate ...

Oct 02, 2018•19 min

The First Step to Influencing Policy: Setting Research Agendas

If you unravel climate policy back to its origins, eventually you get to academic research. Although oil companies dramatically reduced their own scientific research on climate in the 1990s, by the early 2000s they began funding research centers at prestigious universities throughout the country, subtly shaping the research that any eventual policy would be based upon. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 25, 2018•18 min

Aggressive Think Tanks, Shouty Pundits, and a New Religious Argument

To make media manipulation and lobbying truly effective, oil companies and their public relations firms also had to shift the culture, influencing everything from civil discourse to how religious groups viewed the issue of climate change. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 18, 2018•20 min

Weaponizing False Equivalence

As climate disinformation campaigns ramped up in the 1990s, oil companies and their PR firms exploited weaknesses in the U.S. media system and propped up "contrarian" scientists to push the narrative of scientific uncertainty and shift how journalists covered the issue. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 11, 2018•20 min

The Turn

As the price of oil dipped in the early 1980s, management changed at most oil companies and the industry as a whole became more concerned with preserving its core business than expanding in new directions and being "energy companies." Then the campaigns to undermine the science began. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sep 04, 2018•21 min

The Bell Labs of Energy

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Exxon wanted to be the Bell Labs of energy. It hired brilliant scientists who conducted cutting-edge research on everything from the "greenhouse effect" to renewable energy. At the time, there was bipartisan support around the idea of tackling global warming, and a sense that American innovation was up to the task. To see the documents referenced in this episode, check out the timeline on drilledpodcast.com. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more abo...

Aug 29, 2018•19 min

Exploiting Scientists' Kryptonite: Certainty

In addition to using journalists' views on their own objectivity against them, oil companies exploited various weaknesses in science, namely scientists' tendency toward not prioritizing or valuing good communication skills, and their absolute refusal to be certain about anything. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aug 28, 2018•16 min

Drilled: A True Crime Podcast about Climate Change

Launching November 14th, Drilled is a limited series investigative true-crime podcast about the crime of the century: the creation of climate denial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

May 28, 2018•2 min

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