Stephanie Cookson’s Post

At a time when all education is being threatened........ in the US and globally..... now this. How Oil And Gas Companies Infiltrate Higher Education to Maintain Influence It’s a global climate obstruction strategy that dates back decades, researchers from six universities argue in a new study. A former Exxon executive sits on a university’s board of trustees. Fossil fuel representatives develop undergraduate courses. Schools lease out their land for fracking. Industry-funded studies end up influencing federal energy policy. These aren’t just isolated examples of oil and gas companies partnering with academic institutions, according to a new study published in the journal WIREs Climate Change by researchers with six universities, but an international effort by the industry spanning decades with the goal of obstructing and slowing down climate action.  The authors came to that conclusion by conducting a first-ever review of dozens of existing academic and civil society investigations into fossil fuel infiltration of higher education, looking primarily at institutions in the U.S., UK, Canada, and Australia... https://lnkd.in/g_P4zVM8

"Academic capture" by fossil fuel and emissions industries is slowing down climate action. What this academic research, from Jennie Stephens at Maynooth University, points to is not just how the industry is strategically investing in climate research but also incentivising executives to serve on university boards and promote an industry-positive relationships. (While this research is about the oil and gas industries - plastics is a petrochemical industry and increasingly adopting a similar approach while cement corporations, like CRH the brand sponsor of TCD's climate chair, are significant sources for greenhouse gas emissions). Essential reading for universities and their governance boards. #climate #fossilFuels #academia #research #greenwashing #universities

Learn about the range of tactics fossil fuel companies use to influence higher education institutions. Our research shows the industry has been strategically investing in climate research that promotes #fossilfuels, and also incentivizing company executives to serve on university boards and promoting industry-friendly curriculum. "Academic capture" is slowing down effective climate policy, strengthening corporate profits, and distracting higher education from its public good mission. Maynooth University Northeastern University School of Public Policy and Urban Affairs #climatejustice Climate Social Science Network https://lnkd.in/gYriaxp4

Universities should stop accepting funds from the fossil fuel industry. To do so creates a conflict of interest that risks tainting research, its scope and conclusions. This article outlines this long-standing pattern of behaviour, that is part of the fossil fuel playbook to create misinformation and delay, to enhance their credibility, and to influence research in ways that favour the industry. This self-serving, disingenuous behaviour must stop, and university bodies and students must take a tougher stance. All universities should be taking steps to recognise the issue and to strengthen their conflicts of interest policies. #netzero #netzeroemissions #climatechange #sustainability #leadership #oilandgas #universities https://lnkd.in/gFCim4Qb

Insightful💡 "According to a new study* published on Thursday in the peer-reviewed journal WIREs Climate Change, these activists have good reason to suspect that oil money might influence academic research. It’s the first comprehensive look at the extensive ties between Big Oil and universities, uncovering hundreds of instances in which fossil fuel funding may have led to conflict of interests for researchers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The scale of influence is huge, involving thousands of partnerships at hundreds of universities, according to Jennie Stephens, a co-author of the paper and a professor of climate justice at Maynooth University in Ireland. “We think of universities as for the public good, advancing knowledge for better futures for all of us,” Stephens said. “Whereas I think the scale and scope of influence of the fossil fuel industry on higher education shows that some of that is being distorted toward private sector interests, and away from the public interest.” The problem goes beyond funding university research centers and academic posts. Fossil fuel industry executives sit on schools’ governing boards, sponsor scholarships and conferences, and seek to influence courses and curricula. By forging partnerships with universities, oil companies gain credibility, chances to recruit future employees, and a way to subtly guide the conversation about how to address climate change toward their preferred solutions, the study shows." * https://lnkd.in/exCeSDGQ Learn more https://lnkd.in/e7_SWqTj #energy #bigoil #research #education #universities #climatechange #sustainability

The bottom line is that the integrity of our universities is at stake, according to this https://lnkd.in/epGZs3gW highly timely, larger than life research project by Jennie C. Stephens and Emily Eaton of University of Regina. Hard to disagree with their conclusion that "With worsening climate instability and deepening climate injustices, humanity is in need of independent higher education institutions that are publicly funded to advance knowledge that contributes to a more healthy, stable and equitable future." 😰 "Some of this research demonstrates how providing funding for research on fossil fuels and fossil fuel technologies orients university research toward fossil fuel friendly approaches to addressing the climate crisis — and detracts attention away from more transformative approaches. 😱 In Canada, for example, one researcher found that 238 large fossil fuel companies and 21 industry associations were deeply embedded in 34 university and government institutes researching technologies intended to “green” fossil fuel production." 👉 "When academics and their institutions become “captured,” or strategically used by fossil fuel industries, academics’ professional interests become entangled with those of the industry. Our research shows universities are lending academic credibility to fossil fuel futures and guiding public discourse toward the industry’s preferred climate change “solutions.” The fossil fuel industry’s capture of academia compromises the public trust and integrity of universities. When higher education institutions accept fossil fuel funding, they are also inadvertently supporting and endorsing ecological destruction and human suffering."

Hear hear. Our greatest asset is our ability to critically assess, ask questions, and conduct research freely, built on deep knowledge and creative thought, for the common good and not for profit. Safeguarding that ability requires public funds, not money from private industries that have vested interest in either "greenwashing" their own negative impacts or promoting their brand. We need a rebalancing of the power distribution towards high quality, free thinking, truly imaginative research for the public good by appropriately taxing those who have so much more wealth than is justifiable and investing instead in universities.

We urgently need to stop the expansion of fossil fuels and push back against the growing wave of greenwashing & disinformation created by embedding themselves in universities. It's unacceptable that the fossil fuel industry continues to hide behind a façade of sustainability while worsening the climate crisis.

Insightful 💡 "With international colleagues we undertook the first comprehensive review of academic and civil society investigations into fossil fuel industries’ ties to higher education in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. In all four countries, the research shows multiple ways oil and gas companies have been investing in universities. With international colleagues we undertook the first comprehensive review of academic and civil society investigations into fossil fuel industries’ ties to higher education in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. In all four countries, the research shows multiple ways oil and gas companies have been investing in universities." Read more https://lnkd.in/eaJQfWZS #education #research #science #universities #energy #climatechange