Planet: Critical Folgen

What Big Oil knew — from climate to Iraq.John Browne, Chairman of BeyondNetZero, was CEO of BP from 1995 – 2007. In 1997, he broke ranks with the industry and delivered a landmark speech on the impact of burning fossil fuels on the climate. But this was two decades after Exxon had hired their own climate scientists and buried the results.John explains what he and his executive team knew in the mid-nineties, insisting they began working solutions as soon as they understood the planet was heating up. However, as I point out, there are clues on BP’s website which suggest the company knew beforehand. We also discuss the impact of resources and particularly fossil fuels on conflict with John revealing he was invited to the Pentagon around the time of the Iraq war to estimate how much oil was in the Middle East nation. Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it. Support the project by becoming a free or paid subscriber.© Rachel Donald Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe

Genocides are a Weapon of WarIdeologies are weaponised by the morally bankrupt to control those who are oriented towards values. Despite what the long arc of narrativised history would have us believe, even as it is being rewritten in realtime, the minority want more than their share—and they’ll do anything to take it. Wars are fought over resources; only the soldiers pray as dawn breaks.Hamza Yusuf is a British-Palestinian writer and journalist. He joins me to discuss the establishment’s lack of moral clarity concerning the genocide taking place in Gaza. We discuss the colonial roots of Israel’s ethnic cleansing and the long history of Western forces’ desire to appropriate the immense fossil fuel resources of the Middle East. We also explore the failures of Arab state leaders to protect the Palestinian people, the weaponisation of ideology, and the deliberate obfuscation of linguistic tricks that see Israel acting with impunity on the international stage.Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it. Support the project by becoming a free or paid subscriber.© Rachel Donald Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe

Welcome to the sophisticated world of greenwashing.From outright climate denial to tactics of delay, the status quo is rapidly responding to the eco-crisis—just not in the way we need it to. Rather than throw money at an energy transition, tackle runaway capitalism and tax polluters, Big Oil and governments alike are muddying the waters of discourse to eke out every last drop of fossil fuel.Ketan Joshi joins me to explain how this happened. A climate researcher and communications consultant, Ketan is one of the most astute guardians of our future, prolifically revealing greenwashing tactics used to dupe the public by private and state institutions. In this episode, he reveals these and the actions that the fossil fuel industry took to delay national energy transitions, the link between wealth, power and influence, and the root of the inequitable distribution of resources.Planet: Critical investigates why the world is in crisis—and what to do about it. Support the project by becoming a free or paid subscriber.© Rachel Donald Get full access to Planet: Critical at www.planetcritical.com/subscribe