disinformation campaign
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Project 2025’s hidden agenda: training videos reveal tactics for the next conservative administration
Project 2025’s training videos reveal how a future conservative administration plans to reshape the federal government by avoiding oversight and dismantling progressive policies, including on climate change.
Andy Kroll reports for ProPublica and Nick Surgey reports for Documented.
In short:
- Project 2025’s videos train political appointees on bypassing government bureaucracy and avoiding Freedom of Information Act disclosures.
- The videos emphasize eradicating climate change policies, altering gender equity initiatives and expanding certain federal agencies to control regulations.
- Trump’s connections to Project 2025 are downplayed in public, but the video content closely aligns with his previous administration's goals.
Key quote:
“The discovery that the vast majority of speakers in Project 2025 training videos are alumni of the Trump administration or have other close ties to Trump’s political operation is unsurprising further evidence of the close connection there.”
— Noah Bookbinder, president of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
Why this matters:
If this plan gets the green light, it could roll back decades of environmental progress, putting the health of our planet—and everyone on it—at serious risk. Read more: Supreme Court undoing 50 years’ worth of environmental progress.
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Credit: Peter Massas/Flickr
Big oil spent decades sowing doubt about fossil fuel dangers, experts testify
Experts and lawmakers, during a Senate hearing, revealed a strategic shift by the fossil fuel industry from outright climate denial to more sophisticated disinformation campaigns aimed at protecting profits while undermining climate policy.
In short:
- A Senate report, backed by subpoenaed documents, showcases how the fossil fuel sector transitioned from denying climate change to deceiving the public through disinformation.
- Lawmakers cited the industry's greenwashing efforts, emphasizing its dual messaging: acknowledging climate change privately while publicly downplaying it.
- Democrats argued that oil companies should bear the financial burden of climate change impacts, rather than taxpayers.
Key quote:
“In my view, it should not be state government or the federal government having to pick up the bill. I think it’s time to ask the people who caused that problem, who lied about that situation, to pick up the bill.”
— Vermont Senator, Bernie Sanders
Why this matters:
The fossil fuel industry's influence on climate change narratives has impacted public understanding and delayed policy action, contributing to worsening climate crises. Read more: Climate change denial and me.
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Credit: Andra Brinzaniuc/Flickr
Derrick Z. Jackson: Why cold weather isn't the 'gotcha!' climate change deniers think it is
It’s important to remember that the cold snap is, for many of us, just a moment of discomfort, while climate change is a long-term disaster.
Photo by Antoine GIRET on Unsplash
Weeklong negotiations for landmark treaty to end plastic pollution close, marred in disagreements
Negotiators at United Nations-led talks in Nairobi, Kenya have failed to agree on how to advance toward the development of a global treaty to end plastic pollution.
Research by public health experts shows ‘damning’ evidence on the harms of fracking
The natural gas industry answers with its own reviews of research, finding a lack of evidence to establish a clear link between fracking and negative health outcomes.
Most Americans comfortable with solar panels, turbines in their communities, Post-UMD poll finds
Many Americans support renewable energy infrastructure, but experts say progress can be impeded by a small, yet vocal, opposition.
Electric cars draw a backlash across the U.S. and Europe
The push to move away from the internal combustion engine is becoming an election issue on two continents.
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