Drilled

In 2017, El Salvador became the first country in the world to pass an outright ban on mining to protect the country's water and people. Now, self-proclaimed "coolest dictator in the world" Nayib Bukele seeks to lift the ban in an effort to boost the economy, which took a major hit thanks to his embrace of Bitcoin as the national currency in 2021. The activists who helped pass the ban are standing...

With the Supreme Court reshaping the legal landscape, we've been getting a ton of emails about what legal strategies might be available for climate accountability. In this episode of Damages, our climate litigation podcast, we share how Public Citizen has been working to explore the idea of using criminal law to hold oil companies accountable for climate change. Aaron Regunburg , Public Citizen's...

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is increasingly marketed as a “green” or “clean” energy solution, but the reality tells a different story. As part of our ongoing series looking into new climate problems the fossil fuel industry is peddling as solutions, we uncover the role of a particularly active lobbying group pushing LNG as a climate solution.   See omnystudio.com/liste...

Fossil fuel companies can't push ideas like "low carbon gas" or oversell technologies like carbon capture alone. Management consultations play a critical, and often overlooked, role in shaping climate narratives. Reporter Maddie Stone investigates multinational consultancy ICF, which is well known for its government climate work, and also produces reports the fossil fuel industry uses to promote o...

The backlash against ESG continues, with a string of lawsuits aimed at shutting down shareholder activism. Andrew Behar, CEO of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow , joins us to explain what's going on, and why anyone who cares about basic rights needs to be tuning into the ESG fight.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The landmark Carbon Majors report has been updated with some surprising new data and the European Court of Human Rights has sent down an historic ruling that will shape how EU legislators look at energy and climate.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In France, the working-class Yellow Vest movement, racial equality groups, and progressive climate activists have joined forces in a multi-racial, cross-class coalition called Earth Uprisings. The response has been shockingly violent and extreme. Reporter Anna Pujol-Mazzini takes us there. Check out Fatima Ouassak's new book Pour Une Écologie Pirate.   See omnystudio.com/listener for p...

Isaac Slevin, lead author of Brown University's Against the Wind report on opposition to wind energy on the east coast of the United States, walks us through the opposition and how these anti-renewable tactics are now influencing movements in Australia.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Decades after the Ogini 9 were executed for opposing Shell's operations, Nigeria continues to grapple with the environmental and political fall out of oil extraction. With Shell shutting down onshore activities in 2023, they leave behind poisoned water, various political and economic crises, and a country that is measurably worse off than when its oil industry began. Meanwhile, the government cont...

Last year, headlines all over the world proclaimed victory for the environment: finally, after more than a decade of promises, there would be no more drilling in Yasuní National Park, a large swath of the Ecuadorian Amazon. But as Macy Lipkin reports, all wasn't what it seemed.     See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Check out the limited-run series Hazard NYC from The City, all about how climate change intersects with Superfund sites in New York City. Start with episode one here .     See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sociologist Dana R. Fisher draws on years of research in her new book, Saving Ourselves , to explore what makes climate protests effective, what a protest "working" even means, where the climate movement is likely to go next, and where it needs to go to achieve real climate action.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The United States' governments definition of "ecoterrorism" has long fueled backlash against environmental activists. Investigative reporter and Drilled senior editor  Alleen Brown uncovers how the Department of Homeland Security warned Atlanta officials about the threat posed by "Defend the Atlanta Forest" for months before police raided the forest, ultimately killing one protestor, and char...

Michel Forst became the United Nations' first Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders in 2022, monitoring the increasingly onerous laws and aggressive tactics being used against climate protestors. France reporter Anna Pujol-Massini talks to Forst about his position, his urgent warnings about climate activism in the United Kingdom, and what power he has to do something about the crackdown on...

A decade after United Kingdom courts made history with the first "climate necessity" ruling in history, the UK government has passed new laws that not only restrict what protesters can do, but also how protesters are allowed to defend themselves in court. In some courtrooms, the climate necessity defense has been effectively outlawed. How did that happen, how did it happen so quickly, and what doe...

While protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation drew international attention, the southern end of the pipeline saw a quieter, but no less intense crackdown. Cops moonlighted as pipeline security while suppressing free speech and the right to protest. Reporter Karen Savage shares what happened at Bayou Bridge, and what lessons we can take away from th...

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closes the comment period on its draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile pipeline that’s been pumping 500,000 barrels of oil per day since May 2017. The pipeline runs from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to southern Illinois, crossing the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Over the past six years, every court in t...

Reporter Martha Troian brings us to Canada, where the Wet'suwet'en people have been fighting for years against a gas pipeline they never authorized on their territory and examines how fossil fuel companies employ "redwashing" to manipulate public perception.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Abeer Butmeh , coordinator of the Palestinian NGOs Network, one of the most important Palestinian environmental organizations, spoke to senior editor Alleen Brown about battling for short-term and long-term survival when your identity itself is criminalized.   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Magatte Wade of the Atlas Network’s Center for African Prosperity joins us to discuss the intersection of poverty, climate, and property rights. We also dive into the nuances that too often get left out of climate conversation. Additional resources: Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) DeSmog profile of ARC DeSmog coverage of ARC 2023 forum Narasimha Rao's Decent Living Energy Project...

Climate activism has shifted over the past few years—it's more constant now and includes more direct action than ever before. Some of that action has sparked backlash from critics, including climate scientists and advocates, worried that protest will turn the public away from the urgent need to act on the climate crisis. Social science researchers who study structural change and protest say...

From Ecuador to North Dakota, British Columbia to New Zealand, the backlash against Indigenous-led environmental protest is always particularly harsh, infused with colonialist entitlement to land, water, and other resources. Historian Nick Estes walks us through what that looks like in the United States, and the great team behind the documentary The Territory brings us a recent example from Brazil...

A new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) looks at the details of Guyana's planned "Gas to Energy" project and finds mostly benefits for ExxonMobil and more debt for Guyana. Read the full report here .   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In April 2023, Joanna Oltman Smith walked into the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. with fellow activist Tim Martin, and smeared water-soluble kids' finger paint on the glass display case containing a Degas statue called "Little Dancer." The two read off a statement about the importance of protecting actual, living children as well as we do sculptures of them. Smith and Martin figured they wou...

Climate activists warn about the future—but for many communities, climate loss is already routine. Mo Isu from Inherited looks at the cycle of loss and rebuilding in the rural Niger Delta region of Nigeria as the country weathers extreme seasonal flooding. After meeting a flood survivor in his hometown of Lagos, Mo travels twelve hours to Lokoja—the town where Nigeria’s largest r...