Episode description

This week, Ben Franta joins the show to talk about his latest paper, "Weaponizing Economics: Big oil, economic consultants, and climate policy delay”. He explains how fossil fuel companies knew for decades that their product was warming the planet and instead of investing in new energy options, leveraged economic experts to help slow necessary action to combat the climate crisis. We also discuss Harvard University's decision to divest from fossil fuels, which Ben advocated for as a student of Harvard University almost a decade ago.

Ben is currently a graduate student at Stanford University focusing on the history of denial and delay tactics by the fossil fuel industry. He is also cofounder and current Director of Accountability Research for the Climate Social Science Network, a global network of social science scholars doing research on climate politics headquartered at Brown University.

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