Eco-nomics: A brief history of how the climate crisis unfolded

By Paul Roberts / For The Herald

Few subjects have been the target of disinformation more frequently than climate change and climate science. For more than half a century, the fossil fuel industry has conducted a multi-million dollar propaganda and disinformation campaign to undermine climate science, planting doubts in the minds of the public.

As early as 1968, the oil and gas industry knew of the damage their products would cause to the environment and chose to cover it up using the same tactics as the tobacco industry. (See “Eco-nomics: Climate change and that elephant in the room,” Oct. 7, 2023, The Herald.)

Today the campaign of disinformation continues. The blueprint is outlined in Project 2025, and includes “a pledge to end the war on fossil fuels, by nixing policies designed to limit climate change.” Advocates for these policies and the fossil fuel industry are about to take leadership positions in the Trump administration. (See “Eco-nomics: Looking back and forward on the climate crisis,” Jan. 4, The Herald.)

In his 2017 book “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century,” Yale history professor Timothy Snyder writes: “To abandon fact is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, than no one can criticize power, because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.”

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/eco-nomics-a-brief-history-of-how-the-climate-crisis-unfolded/