Denial & Misinformation - Inside Climate News

Alleging Decades of Lies, California Sues ExxonMobil Over Plastic Pollution Crisis

By James Bruggers — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 23:09:35 +0000

The Texas-based oil and gas giant says California is to blame for plastic recycling failures. Four environmental groups filed their own lawsuit against Exxon on the same day as the state’s action.

By James Bruggers

California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued ExxonMobil on Monday, accusing the oil and gas giant of knowingly contributing to “one of the most devastating global environmental crises of our time” while misleading the public about recycling as a solution.

10 Tough Climate Questions for the Presidential Debate

By Marianne Lavelle, Kiley Bense, Liza Gross — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Climate and energy get little acknowledgement in most political debates. But there are plenty of questions for both Trump and Harris on the urgent choices the next president faces.

By Marianne Lavelle, Kiley Bense, Liza Gross

As Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump prepare for their debate on Tuesday night, those who care about U.S. action on climate change are bracing themselves for disappointment.

Fossil Fuel Funding Is ‘Embedded’ Across Academia. What Does That Mean for Climate Research?

By Kiley Price — Fri, 06 Sep 2024 19:13:44 +0000

Oil and gas companies often help fund climate research on campuses. But these ties could pose major—and often underreported—conflicts of interest, new research finds.

By Kiley Price

In the most extensive analysis of its kind, new research suggests that fossil fuel influence is widespread across universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

EPA Thought Industry-Funded Scientists Could Support Its Conclusion That a Long-Regulated Pesticide Is Not a Cancer Risk

By Liza Gross — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 09:05:00 +0000

The consultants, who worked for Dow, the pesticide’s manufacturer, help corporate interests defend their products against environmental and health regulations.

By Liza Gross

On a Southern California spring morning in 1973, a tanker truck driver jackknifed his rig and dumped the agricultural fumigant he was transporting onto a city street. A Los Angeles Fire Department emergency response team spent four hours cleaning up the chemical, 1,3-dichloropropene, or 1,3-D, a fumigant sold as Telone that farmers use to kill nematodes and other soil-dwelling organisms before planting.

Houston’s Plastic Waste, Waiting More Than a Year for ‘Advanced’ Recycling, Piles up at a Business Failed Three Times by Fire Marshal

By James Bruggers — Sat, 24 Aug 2024 11:00:00 +0000

Houston seeks to be a national model for plastic recycling. But a program that started in 2022 hasn’t yet found its footing.

By James Bruggers

This story is a partnership between Inside Climate News and CBS News.

After Partnering With the State to Monitor Itself, a Pennsylvania Gas Company Declares Its Fracking Operations ‘Safe’

By Kiley Bense — Fri, 16 Aug 2024 17:38:18 +0000

Environmentalists say a new report from CNX Resources’ monitoring program, created as part of a collaboration led by Gov. Josh Shapiro, is full of misinformation.

By Kiley Bense

On Wednesday, the natural gas company CNX Resources released the initial results from its environmental monitoring collaboration with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, a partnership predicated on “radical transparency” around fracking operations that Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration announced in November.

Texas Likely Undercounting Heat-Related Deaths

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 10:00:00 +0000

Deaths from heat are notoriously difficult to quantify because of how complex and subjective the process is. It leaves officials with an incomplete picture of who heat kills.

By Yuriko Schumacher, Emily Foxhall, Alejandra Martinez, Martha Pskowski, Dylan Baddour

This story is a collaboration between The Texas Tribune and Inside Climate News. Schumacher, Foxhall and Martinez reported for the Tribune, and Pskowski and Baddour reported for ICN.

Almost 20 Years Ago, a Mid-Career Psychiatrist Started Thinking About Climate Anxiety and Mental Health

By Nina Dietz — Tue, 13 Aug 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Now, Lise van Susteren has helped organize two professional organizations, surveyed thousands of children and concluded that it’s perfectly normal to be freaked out.

By Nina Dietz

In the early years, Dr. Lise van Susteren, a psychiatrist, struggled to find anyone in the therapy community receptive to exploring the ways in which climate change was affecting mental health in America.

Donald Trump’s EPA Chief of Staff Says the Trump Administration Focused on Clean Air and Clean Water

Interview by Steve Curwood, Living on Earth — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 09:00:00 +0000

“That’s nonsense,” responded Tiernan Sittenfeld of the League of Conservation Voters. “The Trump administration was the most anti-environmental, anti-climate, anti-public health administration we’ve ever had, by far.”

Interview by Steve Curwood, Living on Earth

From our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Steve Curwood and managing producer Jenni Doering with Marianne Lavelle, a staff writer at Inside Climate News, based in Washington.

Low-Emission ‘Gas Certification’ Is Greenwashing, Climate Advocates Conclude in a Contested New Report

By Phil McKenna — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Gas utilities see certified gas as a way to sell low-carbon fuel at a premium. U.S. senators are calling on the FTC to investigate the industry’s claims.

By Phil McKenna

A growing effort by the fossil fuel industry to sell natural gas as a low-carbon fuel is little more than greenwashing, according to a new report by climate advocacy organizations.