Links for Friday, December 22
The tale of someone who rinsed off Kissinger's shoes. Almost. And other stories.
I’d like to think the week before Christmas would hold nothing but cheer. I’d like to think that, but I can’t, except for the first link below and also the last.
This post is free for all. Enjoy.
Links
Seven links: Two fun stories, plus more climate criminal tales. We should start taking names.
• The Night I Almost Peed on Kissinger (Skip Kaltenheuser)
It’s 1980. Here I am at F. Scott’s, a hip, upper-crust bar in Georgetown with an art deco motif. … I’m feeling no pain. Drinking rock ’em, sock ’em ice cream drinks, the sweet girlie kind that really sneak up on a man. Now I’m in the john, whistling a merry tune and thinking what a bright boy am I, ready to whiz in one of those marvelous marble stalls sticking out from the wall like angel wings, the urinal packed with ice like a weird snow cone.
As I unzip, a man slips into the stall to my right. Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry Kissinger. A spry 57. …
File under “Water the man.”
• Why UK Towns Are Being Erased from the Map (YouTube)
The whole video is worth watching, but I’ve cued this to start at the key data point:
Storms that used to come every 50-100 years now come two or three per year. For more on erosion due to climate change, see this:
File under “New York City’s future is approaching fast.”
• Big Media create ads helping greenwash the fossil fuel industry and hurting reporter credibility (Meteor Blades, aka Tim Lange)
From an article quoted in the piece linked above:
The enormous influence oil and gas executives are wielding at COP28 has thrown commercial partnerships between media outlets and the fossil fuel industry into sharper focus. Climate reporters at every outlet we analyzed have diligently covered the challenges that the industry’s so-called solutions face, but when that reporting is placed alongside corporate-sponsored content touting the technology’s benefits, it leaves readers confused. [...]
News outlets’ in-house ad agencies haven’t just helped greenwash the fossil fuel industry’s preferred climate solutions in the leadup to COP28. Over the past three years, the Financial Times’ FT Commercial team has created dedicated web pages for various fossil majors, including Equinor and Aramco, along with native content and videos, all focused on promoting oil and gas as a key component of the energy transition. FT’s recent Energy Transition Summit platformed talking points from executives at BP, Chevron, Eni, and Essar. At The Economist’s 2020 Sustainability Week event, BP featured as a platinum sponsor, while Petronas and Chevron sponsored the magazine’s Future of Energy Week in 2022.
Politico is one of the most consistent publishing partners for the fossil fuel industry. Over the past three years, it has run native ads more than 50 times for the American Petroleum Institute, the most powerful fossil fuel lobby in the U.S.; organized 37 email campaigns for ExxonMobil; and sent dozens of newsletters sponsored by BP and Chevron, the latter of which also sponsors Politico’s annual “Women Rule” summit. Since 2017, Shell has sponsored every one of Politico’s Energy Visions events (and companion web series), which examines “the politics and issues driving the energy transition conversation.”
According to data from Media Radar, The New York Times took in more than $20 million in revenue from fossil fuel advertisers from October 2020 to October 2023 — twice what any other outlet earned from the industry. That number is due largely to the paper’s relationship with Saudi Aramco, which brought in $13 million in ad revenue during that three-year period, via a combination of print, mobile, and video ads, as well as sponsored newsletters.
File under “Yes, even the Times prefers cash to your safety.”
• American PR Firm Edelman Enabled Oil Baron Al Jaber’s Ascension to Lead COP28 Climate Conference (Cartie Werthman, DeSmog Blog)
With three months to go until the COP28 United Nations climate talks begin in Dubai, critics have stepped up their condemnation of the decision to put Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, the head of Abu Dhabi’s state oil company ADNOC, in charge of the conference.
What few may realize, however, is that Al Jaber’s ascent to the highest levels of climate diplomacy began 16 years ago, and Edelman, the largest public relations firm in the world, played a crucial role.
Hundreds of pages of documents filed with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently reviewed by DeSmog show that from 2007 to 2009, Edelman carried out a $6.4 million campaign to boost the United Arab Emirates’ green reputation. Under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), any group working for a foreign country to conduct political activity or public relations in the U.S. must regularly file these forms with the DOJ.
File under “Add to the climate criminals list.”
• More on the Edelman PR firm (DeSmog Blog)
Edelman is the largest public relations and marketing company in the world by revenues. In 2021, the company had $1 billion in fee income and more than 6,000 employees.1 It was also the top firm in 2020, with around $800,000,000 in fee income and more than 5,000 full-time employees.2
The Climate Investigations Center has described Edelman as “the dominant PR firm for trade associations that promote an anti-environmental agenda,” with clients such as the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), National Mining Association (NMA), and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), the American Petroleum Institute (API), and the Edison Electric Institute (EEI).3
File under “If you think they’re all against you, you’re right.”
• How Hillary Clinton's State Department sold fracking to the world (Mariah Blake, Mother Jones, 2014)
One icy morning in February 2012, Hillary Clinton’s plane touched down in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia, which was just digging out from a fierce blizzard. Wrapped in a thick coat, the secretary of state descended the stairs to the snow-covered tarmac, where she and her aides piled into a motorcade bound for the presidential palace. That afternoon, they huddled with Bulgarian leaders, including Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, discussing everything from Syria’s bloody civil war to their joint search for loose nukes. But the focus of the talks was fracking. The previous year, Bulgaria had signed a five-year, $68 million deal, granting US oil giant Chevron millions of acres in shale gas concessions. Bulgarians were outraged. Shortly before Clinton arrived, tens of thousands of protesters poured into the streets carrying placards that read “Stop fracking with our water” and “Chevron go home.” Bulgaria’s parliament responded by voting overwhelmingly for a fracking moratorium.
Clinton urged Bulgarian officials to give fracking another chance. …
File under “Because this is what the State Department does.”
• San Francisco is starting to have issues with robotaxis (Instagram)
Because, guess why…
File under “Of course you’re alone, except for all those cameras.”
Music
Your musical treat. As promised, this is my favorite Paul Desmond solo, and possibly his best.
Builds to a beautiful climax at 1:30. This always gives me chills.
Happy Season, all.
The musical finale is, as usual, terrific!
As Roger Daltry sang, "We need water! Good! Clean! Water!"
It seems that every badly polluting resource extraction scheme requires wasting fresh water for its fulfillment. The dual whammy of potable water loss with salt water inundation above and below ground is the anvil teetering on a rickety drilling rig over our heads.
Thank's for another thought provoking start to the weekend.