A case argued at the Supreme Court this week—West Virginia v EPA—has potentially huge implications for regulating greenhouse gas emissions. NYU law professor Richard Revesz and Center for Biological Diversity attorney Jason Rylander join us to explain.

West Virginia v EPA and What It Means for Climate Policy

Rights of nature first started making its way into U.S. courtrooms via an unlikely source: Disney. Today it's a huge threat to the fossil fuel industry. So much so that the industry is pushing preemptive bans on rights of nature laws in states across the country.

A Brief History of Rights of Nature in the U.S.

Damages is following the hundreds of climate lawsuits currently happening all over the country. First up, in Season 1, a look at rights of nature cases all over the world. In this episode, we start with a case that's making its way through the courts right now, on behalf of wild rice, or manoomin in the Ojibwe language. The rights of manoomin case was originally filed in an effort to stop construction of the Line 3 pipeline. That pipeline has been built, but the case is still active, and it could have major implications for other pipeline fights.

Drilled Presents: Damages

Right-wing funders don't just work on climate change, or voter suppression, or attacks on public schools, they tackle all of it together. In this episode, expert Lisa Graves talks us through the tangled web of funding and ideology fighting against climate action.

The Right-Wing Web of Climate Delay, with Lisa Graves

Back in 2015, twenty-one young people sued the United States for its actions to drive and exacerbate climate change. The case, Juliana v. United States, looked like it was done for back in 2021 when the 9th Circuit declared the young people did not have standing to bring the case and declined to grant a rehearing, but it's been mandated back to district court where the Juliana 21 have amended their complaint and are gearing up for round 2.

An Update on the Big U.S. Youth Climate Lawsuit

Guardian journalist Chris McGreary joins to discuss ExxonMobil's attempts in Texas to cast litigation against it as a conspiracy to muzzle its free speech rights. Read Chris's story: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/exxon-texas-courts-critics-climate-crimes

Exxon Takes Its First Amendment Battle to Texas Supreme Court

For decades, the fossil fuel industry has successfully framed environmentalists as silly, elitist, radical, and out of touch. And for a long time the climate movement has gone along with it, self-flagellating for caring about nature, buying into the idea that humans and nature are separate. It's well past time to rethink what it means to be an environmentalist.

Redefining Environmentalists

A conversation with Max Berger, a longtime progressive organizer who helped incubate the Sunrise Movement and has also worked in the past for Cori Bush and Elizabeth Warren, about movement building, the climate crisis, and the current unraveling of American democracy. (Check out Scene on Radio's climate season here: http://www.sceneonradio.org/the-repair/)

Climate Crisis, Meet Democracy Crisis

In several countries around the world, including Ecuador, New Zealand, and the U.S., some people are trying to protect the planet using a legal concept called “rights of nature”—infusing the law with Indigenous understandings of Mother Earth.Listen to the complete Scene on Radio season: http://www.sceneonradio.org/the-repair/Check out Degrees podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/degrees/id1536627537

Drilled Presents | Scene on Radio, The Repair | Episode 9: Pachamama

Groundbreaking new research from Brown University's Dr. Robert Brulle shows just how much oil companies have spent on PR in recent decades, and tracks how PR firms helped to architect climate obstruction. PR whistleblower Christine Arena joins with Dr. Brulle to discuss his research and the many tentacles of the influence industry.

The Influence Industry and Climate Obstruction

In a new study, sociologist Robert Brulle examined which PR firms work for the various industries obstructing climate action. Only one firm was in the top 3 for every single segment. Listen to find out which one, and learn about some of their other contributions to the world of spin

One PR Firm Works on More Climate Obstruction Than Any Other

As the rest of the world is beginning to realize that fracking comes with more downsides than upsides, Australia is readying itself for a fracking boom, eyeing basins on Indigenous land.

Fracking the Outback: Australia's Plan to Go Big on Fracking & Plastic

Melissa Aronczyk, media studies scholar at Rutgers University, is one of my go-to sources on all things disinformation. In this episode, she walks us through the history of environmental PR and how it's shaped the broader disinformation system we're all grappling with today. This history is also the subject of Aronczyk's new book, with co-author Maria Espinoza, A Strategic Nature (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-strategic-nature-9780190055356?cc=us&lang=en&)

Melissa Aronczyk on the History of Greenwashing

Reporter Katie Worth has been researching climate education in the U.S. for years and that research forms the basis of her new book Miseducation. In this interview we delve into what she found.

The ABCs of Oil | Katie Worth on the State of Climate Education in the U.S.

Over the last five episodes we've tracked how long the fossil fuel industry has been investing in schools, why, and what impact it's had. In this episode, we look at what can be done, and who's trying to do it.

The ABCs of Big Oil | So... What Do We Do About This?

Bringing you our entire interview with Stanford researcher Ben Franta on fossil fuel influence at universities because it was just too good not to share.Check out Degrees pod: https://link.chtbl.com/degrees?sid=podcast.SHOWNAME

The ABCs of Big Oil | Ben Franta Talks to Us About Big Oil on Campus

We're wrapping up our series with Earther this week, with a look at how fossil fuel companies influence curricula and research at the university level. (Also working on a bonus episode on solutions to this problem, stay tuned for that!)

The ABCs of Big Oil | Ep 4: We're Going Streaking

In the third episode of our mini-series with Earther, we head to high school, where the fossil fuel industry's efforts to shape Americans' thinking on economics and policy really ramps up.

The ABCs of Big Oil | Ep 3: High School

Steven Donziger, the attorney who's been on house arrest for more than two years on a contempt charge that arose as a result of his work on the Chevron-Ecuador case, was sentenced Friday October 1st. Judge Loretta Preska handed down the maximum sentence, six months in jail. She also denied bail. Donziger's legal team is appealing both the conviction and the denial of bail, and he remains at home on house arrest pending those appeals.

S5 Update: Donziger Sentenced to Six Months in Jail

Since the 1920s, oil companies have been creating music, activities, coloring books, comic books, movies and more to shape how American kids think about society, the economy, and the environment. Today, we look at their efforts in elementary school. Read more: www.earther.com

Get Started

Download the App