Message From the Editor

As you know, writing about the deniers blocking or delaying climate action, or distracting us with false solutions, is our bread and butter here at DeSmog.
Last week, we published an essay from Clara Vondrich, the inaugural director of Divest Invest, a fossil fuel divestment and renewable energy investment start-up. In the essay, Clara posits that these deniers aren’t actually the biggest threat to climate action today.
Instead, in Clara’s words, the biggest threat comes from “the elite business and political leaders who advance incremental solutions to the most radical issue of our time.”
She goes on to argue that what we need to combat this incrementalism and the climate crisis is quantum social change, a concept pioneered by former IPCC scientist Karen O’Brien, panpsychologist Zhiwa Woodbury, science journalist Lynn McTaggart, and others.
“Just as quantum physics disrupted our view of matter and energy … quantum social change disrupts our beliefs about what’s possible, how fast, and by whom,” she writes. “Quantum social change is the ultimate rebuttal to energy realists and their incremental path to climate breakdown.”
Whether or not you agree with Clara that incrementalism is the biggest threat to climate action, the harms of inaction are undeniable. This week, Nick Cunningham brought us a sobering story based on a new study that found that children living within roughly 1.2 miles of fracking sites were two to three times more likely to develop acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer.
Letting oil and gas development continue to proliferate, as activists fear the “side deal” negotiated by Sens. Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin will do, will only deepen those harms to the climate and fossil fuel communities.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: editor@desmog.com. Our UK team has been charting the fossil fuel ties of potential successors to Boris Johnson. Stay in the loop with our UK newsletter!
Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director
P.S. Our powerful public interest journalism is made possible by our generous donors. If you’d like to help, can you chip in $10 or $20 right now?

Image credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, Public Domain.

Reality Is Not What It Seems. And That Might Just Save the Climate.

— By Clara Vondrich (7 min. read) —

As the world gasped in wonder at the first images of our infant universe from the James Webb Space Telescope last month, we were reminded that human beings are still capable of acts that elevate us all and advance our collective potential.

“[When] my grandchildren … look up at a star, point to it and say ‘there’s life!’ — that’s going to be a moment more profound than the Copernican moment that took Earth out of the center of the universe. It’s going to put an end to cosmic loneliness,” said project team member Natalie Batalha, a planet hunter and astronomer at UC Santa Cruz.

Children Living Close to Fracking Sites Have Two to Three Times Higher Risk of Leukemia

— By Nick Cunningham (4 min. read) —

Children living close to fracking sites in Pennsylvania are two to three times more likely to be diagnosed with leukemia, and contamination of drinking water is suspected as an avenue of exposure, according to a new study.

“Unconventional oil and gas development can both use and release chemicals that have been linked to cancer, so the potential for children living near UOG to be exposed to these chemical carcinogens is a major public health concern,” the study’s senior author, Nicole Deziel, associate professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, said in a statement.

Activists Arrested While Protesting ‘Dirty Pipeline Deal’ Outside Schumer’s Office

— By Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams (3 min. read) —

Climate campaigners were arrested on Thursday after demonstrating outside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-NY) Manhattan office, where they expressed opposition to the fossil fuel-friendly permitting reforms the New York Democrat agreed to bring to the floor to secure Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-WV) support for the Inflation Reduction Act.

“Sen. Schumer is sacrificing frontline communities and our clean energy future, all to placate a coal baron,” Food & Water Watch senior New York organizer Laura Shindell, one of 10 activists taken into custody, said in a statement.

LNG Exporter Downplays Emissions to Justify Expansion

— By Nick Cunningham (5 min. read) —

A major exporter of U.S. liquefied natural gas is “seeking to greenwash” its operations in order to portray gas exports as a climate solution and clear the way for further expansion, according to a new report.

Global demand for gas has soared in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine, sparking a scramble by U.S. gas exporters to increase export volumes, with the backing of the Biden administration. But building out LNG infrastructure to address an energy crisis is at odds with governments simultaneously trying to slash emissions to address the climate emergency.

‘Blue Hydrogen Cheerleader’: UK Government’s Choice of Hydrogen Champion Draws Criticism

— By Adam Barnett and Phoebe Cooke (3 min. read) —

The UK government has been accused of appointing a “cheerleader for climate-wrecking blue hydrogen” as its hydrogen champion while claiming to support clean energy.

Jane Toogood was named as the new “hydrogen champion” by Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng in July and will liaise between industry and government to “accelerate hydrogen production” to help the country reach its net zero goal.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: Net Zero Scrutiny Group

The Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG) is made up of backbench Conservative MPs, including former government ministers, and opposes many of the government’s net zero policies. The NZSG was formed in 2021 ahead of the UN COP26 climate summit, hosted by the UK in Glasgow, Scotland, and publicly launched in January 2022. The NZSG claims to accept climate science, but the group has a number of strong institutional links with the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF), the UK’s most prominent climate science denial organization.
Read its full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.