🕵️♀️ The Climate Propagandist Newsletter #1
Welcome to The Climate Propagandist's bi-weekly playbook for communication activists 🔦
Something tells me this newsletter was tailor-made for you! 💌
You have previously signed up for one of The Climate Propagandist’s online events, which makes you a cherished member of our community - thank you for your incredible support! The Climate Propagandist is now venturing outside Instagram to inform and equip storytellers to become spin doctors for climate action!
📨 About this newsletter
The Climate Propagandist is a bi-weekly newsletter for communication activists on a mission to drive climate action through persuasive design, language, and storytelling. This newsletter aims to serve as a playbook and essential guide for shifting mindsets and shaping perceptions around the climate crisis.
Let’s jump right in👇
🔦 INVESTIGATIVE PIECE: The deceptive campaign that got the Willow Project approved
A few months back, the Biden Administration approved the Willow Project - the largest extraction project ever proposed on federal lands. The global campaign #StopWillow was unable to withstand ConocoPhillips’ relentless efforts to push for its carbon bomb. The oil giant’s tactics involved a skillful dance between oil propaganda and greenwashing, as well as doubling down on federal lobbying.
In fact, ConocoPhillips spent $8.7 million on federal lobbying to secure final approval for Willow – almost double what it spent in 2021 and the most the multinational oil company has spent on lobbying in over a decade.
Despite the warnings of the damage it will inflict upon the climate and local indigenous communities, Alaska's elected officials have strongly championed the Willow Project.
Senator Lisa Murkowski has been one of Willow’s most vocal advocates in Washington D.C. In a video released just before the project’s approval, Murkowski was depicted as a revered local hero and a spokesperson for social justice. Take a look…
This promotional film, which looks more like a sensational movie trailer, is truly a masterclass in fossil fuel storytelling.
Right from the start, Murkowski describes Willow as “a project with a TINY footprint and safely operated with as little impact as humanly possible”. Of course, this couldn’t be further from the truth. ConocoPhillips projects to create pollution equivalent to 76 coal-fired power plants over the next three decades.
The video then features board members from the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, a petroleum refining and marketing business (surprise!) singing praises for Willow and its supposed benefits for local communities. And if that wasn't convincing enough, the spectacle continues with footage of Alaskans dancing, accompanied by a soul-stirring soundtrack. Do you feel it too?
ConocoPhillips has been selling the Willow Project as the miraculous solution for all the economic troubles afflicting the country. The film uses rhetorical codes of activism to frame the fossil fuel industry as an advocate for union jobs and, more broadly, for life itself: “Our country can’t live without oil” right?
In a statement following the project’s approval, Murkowski gushes about how Alaska is “now on the cusp of creating thousands of new jobs, generating billions of dollars in new revenues, improving quality of life on the North Slope.” But the quality of life she’s truly focused on improving is her own….
Just last year, Lisa Murkowski received $40,600 from ConocoPhillips.
Oil and gas companies will continue doing everything in their power to profit from the climate crisis. We need to do better at covering extractive projects like Willow and exposing the industry’s deceptive tactics.
💼 CLIMATE PROPAGANDA DIGEST:
Don’t miss out on these handpicked resources for climate propagandists. Here’s a curated list of what to read, watch, listen to, and engage with…
📑 Reading material
ARTICLE: “Inside climate activists’ uneasy relationship with ‘net-zero’”
This article published in Grist exposes how the logic of carbon neutrality has been distorted by big polluters to continue emitting greenhouse gases. The article emphasizes the importance of shifting the conversation towards holding these polluters accountable and eliminating fossil fuel production without relying on offsets. Shouldn’t we talk about “real zero” instead? A must-read!
REPORT: “Climate Journalism That Works”
This newly released guide will inspire you to tell stories that help audiences find the facts, understand the magnitude of the climate crisis, and discover opportunities to act. Drawing on climate communication research and interviews this report discusses “what makes climate coverage so difficult, which approaches work with audiences in practice, how can climate coverage best be managed in newsrooms, and what can other areas of journalism learn from great climate coverage”.
📻 Audio content
EPISODE: “Oil Propaganda Breakdown: Enough Is Enough”
In this episode, the team from the Alberta Advantage Podcast dissects an ad produced by Canadians for Canada’s Future - a film that takes the side of the fossil fuel industry (poor them) and says: “Enough is enough. No more apologies. We are proud of Alberta and Canada’s oil and gas.” A pretty entertaining look into this piece of pro-petroleum propaganda!
This episode of the Can Marketing Save the Planet podcast features Duncan Meisal, the Director of Clean Creatives - an organisation encouraging creatives to reject working with the fossil fuel industry. A thought-provoking conversation on the importance of calling out the agencies that support climate polluters by developing misleading and confusing ‘green campaigns’.
📹 Video resources
RECORDING: “Hollywood's Time to Take on Big Oil and Gas”
If you missed the Hollywood Climate Summit last week, don't worry, you can catch the replay on YouTube! I really enjoyed this panel, which brought together fence-line climate activists and climate reporter Emily Atkin (author of Heated), to discuss how the creative industry can take on the fossil fuel industry.
RECORDING: “TotalEnergies: from greenwashing to oil propaganda”
You may have registered for this online panel hosted by The Climate Propagandist and Stop EACOP - here’s the link to the recording! During this session, we exposed TotalEnergies' attempts at greenwashing and spreading pro-oil propaganda before delving into the #StopEacop campaign strategies. The event featured several guests including me, Juliette Renaud (senior campaigner at Friends of the Earth France), and Edina Ifticene (oil and gas campaigner at Greenpeace France). There is a link here to leave your feedback!
🎟 Special events and offerings
EVENT: “How to Raise Your Visibility for Change”, June 29th
Lucy von Sturmer, initiator of Creatives for Climate, has partnered with The School of Life to offer a free webinar and step-by-step guide for individuals, and organizations, on how to step up in this moment of time to amplify their role in climate. Looking forward to it!
COURSE: “The Stories We Live By”
The Stories We Live By is an online course in ecolinguistics taught by Professor Arran Stibbe. “Ecolinguistics provides tools for revealing the stories we live by, questioning them from an ecological perspective, and contributing to the search for new stories to live by.” The course examines whether today’s stories encourage us to care about people and the ecosystems that life depends on. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to learn more about ecological ideologies, framings, metaphors, and more - registration is free!
📦 What's coming up next?
Thank you for making it this far! If you enjoyed this first edition, please help us spread the word! Here’s what to expect from our bi-weekly playbook:
An in-depth investigation into a piece of climate communication or fossil fuel propaganda;
A digest for climate propagandists, brimming with suggestions on reading materials, audio content, video resources, and special events to learn from;
Privileged access to The Climate Propagandist’s seminars, workshops, and future offerings;
An exclusive glimpse into behind-the-scenes…and more!
While you eagerly await the next newsletter, why not hop over to our Instagram and LinkedIn pages for extra climate propaganda content? We've got a lot more in store for you there!
PS: I noticed I have been mixing up the “I” and “we”…but really it’s just me! 🙃
The Climate Propagandist is a self-funded, independent project that debunks oil propaganda and greenwashing and gives access to a mine of ideas to enhance the communications of earth advocates. Help us keep The Climate Propagandist Newsletter free by making a small (or big) donation 💌