Amy Westervelt

New Documents Reveal Japan LNG Industry’s Influence on Australian Politics A new report from Influence Map shows employees from Japanese companies involved in major Australian gas projects have been regularly meeting with Australian ministers, directly shaping policy.

Japan has quietly become a major source of climate obstruction over the past decade. Here @roycerk2.bsky.social looks at a new @influencemap.bsky.social report that shows how effective Japanese LNG execs lobbying of Australian politicians has been drilled.media/news/japan-a...

“only” 8%

This is sickening. For comparison, this is more than the Department of Energy spent for all solar power and wind power R&D for the whole country.

AOC on DHS Warehouses: I think every American should be alarmed. They are building—and have built—a black box system that disappears people, both immigrants and U.S. citizens alike.

Drilled by @amywestervelt.bsky.social introduced a wider audience to the RAGA (Republican Attorneys General Association) influence drilled.media/news/RAGA and deserves early credit. (Alas, advanced user interfaces leave podcast episodes without dates, perhaps finding timestamps aesthetically gauche)

Thank you! I actually pulled this primer together to have all in one place the various threads we'd been talking about in the podcast. Also, this is really some next-level RAGA b.s. that @doctorvive.bsky.social is pointing to, woah!

Disturbingly detailed analysis of my first rewatch incoming

Interfaith Leaders Back Safe, Legal Maternal Care In Oyo, Ogun - Platform Times Leaders of Islamic, Christian and traditional faith communities in Oyo and Ogun states have jointly declared unsafe abortion a “grave moral and public health crisis,” pledging to support access to law...

Nigeria shows it is possible for faith leaders across different religions to support safe and legal abortion. They just need to care about women and want to save their lives.
(well, and support decriminalization)

Shared with us from Sydney happening now. He had his hands up.

UN Expert Says Companies Dealing in Illegally Seized Venezuelan Oil Face Legal Risk Despite U.S. claims of legal impunity, companies engaging in the refining, shipping and sale of illegally seized oil—particularly those headquartered in the EU—might face judicial hurdles.

The Trump administration can claim Venezuelan oil is up for grabs all they want; companies that opt to trade in illegally seized or produced oil can still be held accountable in a court of law, a UN expert tells @ninalakhani.bsky.social drilled.media/news/hopenhaym #Venezuela #climate

Thank you!! I'm excited they used the old Standard Oil octopus 🤓

Maybe it’s just me, but I suspect lots of women are not as shocked by the Epstein story as men because we’ve been dealing with and living in rape culture since we were children. A thing to think about if you are a man policing women’s responses to this story for appropriate levels of outrage

Oh, I know!

US government to fund Maga-aligned think-tanks and charities in Europe State department grants to spread ‘American values’ are part of Washington’s 250th anniversary celebrations

So that people can easily read the source, here's a gift link to the article about MAGA think tanks in Europe being funded out of US taxpayer dollars.

www.ft.com/content/f869...

thank you!

I had this exact thought! Bizarro USAID, cool cool cool

This is very concerning and is almost certainly being championed in the US by Trump's tech and oil backers, both of which see the UK as a battleground at the moment.

The US state department is set to fund Maga-aligned think-tanks and charities across Europe to disseminate Washington's policy positions and challenge perceived threats to free speech. Senior state department official Sarah Rogers travelled to Europe in December to meet influential rightwing think-tanks and has spoken to key figures in Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK party about deploying a pot of money to spread American values, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The funding was linked to the 250th anniversary celebrations of US independence later this year, the people said. It is likely to cause consternation among Washington's allies, particularly centre-left governments such as Labour in the UK, which will be concerned that US government funds are being deployed to undermine their policies.

Remember the controversy when Obama was accused of intervening in UK politics? This is the current US government openly seeking to undermine liberal democracy in Europe.

I don’t think it is. I’ve only scratched the surface and already the volume of connections is pretty horrifying

Certainties, Uncertainties and Choices with Global Warming We can be certain about climate change uncertainty but still address the risk.

A small thing, was that Koonin’s op-ed was not “a good summary”. It was such a bad summary that a group of us wrote a response and @revkin.bsky.social published it on his NYT blog dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/26/c...

Indeed!

Slowly making my way through the various climate mentions in the #epsteinfiles. It's a pretty interesting/disturbing window into the tech-finance-power broker universe of climate skepticism. Exhibit A:
www.instagram.com/p/DUZq04EEQG...

Thank you, we have made that correction. As to your question, I think a typo on the year and describing Lomborg as an economist instead of a political scientist are not hugely germane to the overall thrust of this article. Particularly as we have responded publicly & quickly corrected those errors.

Of course Jeffrey Epstein was a climate denier and an ecofascist.

the "good billionaire" trope is akin to the "good guy with a gun." I think history has shown us pretty clearly that billionaires are not in fact going to save journalism

Early on I did a thread looking at how social cohesion has been used in Australia over 100 years. It's probably worth noting the idea was recently adopted by police as a Countering Violent Extremism framework and promoted by the foundation of a billionaire who was worried about migrants fitting in.

And yes, yes I know the U.S. does stuff like this all the time, but this is so clownishly obvious it's hard to believe, even from these doofuses

Marco Rubio tweeting #Guyana and sharing a statement from the Guyana government about "grave concerns" over organized crime in the region, specifically naming Cartel de los Soles.

I can't get over the U.S. making up a whole-ass fake cartel to pin on Maduro. Cartel de los Soles sprung forth fully formed when the US gov started talking about it as a "terrorist organization" in 2020. Then Rubio *clearly* got Guyana to talk about it too. I mean this is just silly:

Breaking: Washington Post gutting its climate team Clean energy dies in darkness. Courtesy of Jeff Bezos.

I don't say this often but: I'm so proud to be a climate and environment reporter. We cover an issue that is vitally important to humanity and the natural world. 14 of my climate colleagues at the Post were laid off today and I'm devastated.

www.climatecoloredgoggles.com/p/washington...

Man, people asking for free labor and not even saying thank you. In this economy??!!!