Request for Proposals - Brown Climate Social Science Network

ACCEPTING PROPOSALS📣

Excited to announce that we have seed grant funding available for this coming year.

We will be prioritizing proposals on climate obstruction in the agricultural sector, and will award a limited amount for other topics of climate obstruction research.

cssn.org/grants/reque...

🧵 New report just dropped 🚨 "Fractured Reality: How Democracy Can Win the Global Struggle Over the Information Space" — from the EU Joint Research Centre, led by Mario Scharfbillig and I. A landmark read for anyone working on disinformation, platforms & democracy. 👇

1/10

After a review of coverage by nine legacy UK newspapers, J. Painter, S. Cocks, and S. Hayes find that media framing is playing a significant role in shaping political debate around Net Zero, often without balanced evidence. See their new paper below. www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Oil and gas companies seize the chance to lobby for Arctic drilling Energy security arguments being pushed in response to review of EU policy

"Oil and gas companies including Norway’s Equinor and a lobby group backed by Shell, TotalEnergies and ConocoPhillips have called for the EU to drop an effective ban on future drilling in the Arctic."

www.ft.com/content/1bb7...

Big Oil’s get-out-of-court-free card

If they want to blow up permitting reform, making this nonsense national would be the way to do it.

Rule of Law must fall before Fossil Fuel?

What has fossil fuel pollution done to Great Salt Lake, “Greatest Snow On Earth”?

This Australian Senate inquiry is important not just for that country--it's really about the problem we face of information pollution and paid influence around the world.

Our @cssn.org research, assessment volumes, and testimony featured prominently

Major kudos to @senatorsurfer.bsky.social et al

Big Oil knew it was wrecking Louisiana’s coast, records show Now parish lawsuits, including one in front of the Supreme Court, could make oil giants pay to restore the state’s vanishing marshes.

New from me and @desmog.com

Documents show oil giants knew their practices were wrecking Louisiana's coast nearly a century ago, but continued them and fought regulation and accountability.

Now a case in front of the Supreme Court could determine whether they'll have to help repair the damage.

Renewable energy discourses of fossil fuel companies: obstruction and delay of climate action - Energy, Sustainability and Society Background For decades, multinational fossil fuel companies have strategically promoted discourses to obstruct climate action. Initially, the fossil fuel industry publicized communications that denied...

See also a newly published #openaccess article by D. Desai, Y. Si, D. Bozhilova, S. M. Puffer and @jenniecstephens.bsky.social on how fossil fuel companies are positioning themselves in conversations on renewable energy: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Big Oil has moved on from 'greenwashing.' Here's the new playbook. Over a few years, oil giants went from trumpeting their climate pledges to saying fossil fuels are here to stay.

With global political shifts and attentions drifting away from climate change, we are seeing a change in the messaging of Big Oil. See @grist.org's piece below for a look into those new PR moves.

grist.org/language/oil...

screenshot of paper titled "Contesting fossil extractivism: Practices of deactivation in Milan and Civitavecchia, Italy", highlighted quote: "The study highlights three critical conditions for successful counter-obstruction: internal realignment of obstructive networks, multi-level strategic practices (discursive, procedural, infrastructural), and temporal alignment with key decision-making moments."

Successful counter-obstruction efforts are few and far between. Recipients of CSSN grant, Daniel Delatin Rodrigues and Marco Grasso, have explored what dismantling deeply embedded fossil-fuel systems can look like - through the lens of two Italian case studies. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Climate change obstruction in Africa: the case of African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO) Legacy emissions, climate colonialism, and climate apartheid are central themes in contemporary discussions surrounding climate action in Africa. Nevertheless, there exists a scarcity of research f...

"African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO) illustrates how climate delayism in Africa arises less from denial than from efforts to reconcile climate responsibility with developmental urgency." See CSSN member Dr. Oguntuase's research below.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Boulder and Exxon’s coming Supreme Court clash, explained. | Center for Climate Integrity As Big Oil tries to escape accountability, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in one of dozens of climate deception lawsuits. Here’s what you need to know.

See this piece from the @climateintegrity.org on climate deception litigation in Colorado. climateintegrity.org/news/view/bo...

Large language model reveals an increase in climate contrarian speech in the United States Congress - Communications Sustainability Congressional opposition to climate policies has grown in the United States, and Republicans are approximately twelve times more likely than Democrats to make contrarian claims, according to an analys...

What's going on with claims about #climate science and solutions in the #USCongress?

Here's our analysis of trends over three decades using the most sophisticated framework yet. An exciting collaboration of three research teams on three continents.

www.nature.com/articles/s44...

Environmental Sociology Now by Jordan Fox, Ian Carrillo, J. P. Sapinski, Diana Stuart - Paper Scholarship is a powerful tool for changing how people think, plan, and govern. By giving voice to bright minds and bold ideas, we seek to foster understanding and drive progressive change.

Thrilled to share a new publication from CSSN scholars @iansociologo.bsky.social, J.P. Sapinski, D. Stuart, and colleague Jordan Fox.

www.ucpress.edu/books/enviro...

Fear of farmland loss slows solar and wind development Renewable energy projects can help small-scale farmers make ends meet, but some rural residents don’t like changes to the agricultural landscape.

www.canarymedia.com/articles/foo...

This article discusses fear of farmland loss (which I suspect is often just an aesthetic objection) blocking wind+solar.

Slides 29-34 of my presentation discuss why I don't worry about farmland loss to electrification.

docs.google.com/presentation...

This is a blatant and dangerous attack on the foundational basis of climate science.

If journalists or litigators need any climate scholars to speak on the topic, reach out to us and we will connect you.

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.

By me: UN human rights and business expert Fernanda Hopenhaym says companies dealing in illegally seized Venezuelan oil face legal exposure
Despite US claims of legal impunity
drilled.media/news/hopenhaym

1-2 Doctoral studentships in human geography Job assignments: The doctoral candidate program amounts to 240 credits (equivalent to four years of full-time study). It formally ends with the doctoral candidate publicly defending his/her printed do

Open (fully funded) PhD position in Human Geography.

Please share!

@cssn.org #envpol #politicalecology

lu.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

Shaming climate wrongdoers Shaming climate wrongdoers, Yadin, Sharon, Maibach, Edward

SHAME! 📣📣

Highlighting an article published earlier this month from CSSN scholar @sharonyadin.bsky.social and @maibached.bsky.social on broadening the use and avenues of climate shaming. How can we successfully condemn bad actors and encourage climate-responsible behavior? doi.org/10.1088/1748...

Which groups mobilise on #climate policy in Australia?

📣 Darren Halpin and I have a new paper out in @environmentalpol.bsky.social that systematically maps who mobilises on climate policy in Australia, what side of the issue they fall on, and in which arenas they mobilise.

Key finding include 🧵

A poster for The Disinformation Summer Institute, June 15-18, 2026, Bainbridge Island, WA. The application deadline is Feb. 15 and available at disinfoinstitute.org

🧵Applications are now open for the second-ever Disinformation Summer Institute, taking place June 15-18, 2026 on Bainbridge Island, Washington. The deadline to apply is February 15.

Learn more: disinfoinstitute.org

The Usual Suspects When It Comes Climate Action Obstruction in Rhode Island - ecoRI News The first sentence of the report grabbed my attention. “After stunning successes in 2021 and 2022, climate action has slowed in Rhode Island.”

See what the @climatedevlab.bsky.social is up to, as reported on by @frankcarini.bsky.social from @ecorinews.bsky.social: ecori.org/the-usual-su...

Rhode Island Environmentalists' Biggest Opponents at the State House Revealed in Brown University Report - The Providence Eye This year’s legislative session was a morbid failure for local environmental activists: only one out of the 20 bills endorsed by Climate Action Rhode Island became law. A mock funeral was held at the ...

New article from Eric Halvarson at the @thepvdeye.bsky.social, featuring the report released from the Climate and Development Lab.

Some key findings:
- Rhode Island Energy, business coalitions, and RI Public Utilities Commission (PUC) showed the most opposition, outpacing environmental lobbyists by over 12x.
- Labor-environmental coalitions have high impact.
- Rhode Island has unique political dynamics and hurdles.

Who’s Obstructing Climate Action in the Rhode Island Legislature? Prompted by the lack of climate action in the Rhode Island legislature since the Act on Climate passed in 2021, student and staff researchers in the Climate and Development Lab looked into some key qu...

The Climate and Development Lab (CDL), hosted at Brown University, just released an initial report on the obstructors to climate and energy bills in the Rhode Island legislature.

www.climatedevlab.brown.edu/post/who-s-o...

In his most recent piece, CSSN scholar @bforchtner.bsky.social gives us an in-depth look at the formation of climate obstructive narratives through the late 1980s-2018, classifies the trends, and offers insights into the Austrian and German Far Right tactics. www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Complaint – #1 in REVOLUTION WIND, LLC v. BURGUM (D.D.C., 1:25-cv-02999) – CourtListener.com COMPLAINT against BUREAU OF OCEAN ENERGY MANAGEMENT, BUREAU OF SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENFORCEMENT, DOUGLAS J. BURGUM, Matthew Giacona, Kenneth Stevens, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR ( Filing fee $...

"following BOEM’s proposal to issue leases in the entire Wind Energy Area, “the DOD concluded that site-specific stipulations, designed in consultation with the DOD, could
mitigate the impact”

[and].."impacts would be negligible and avoidable.”

#Wind

storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

The past week has been devastating for the Brown University community. Our hearts are with the students, faculty, staff, and greater Providence community as we move into the academic break.

We hope for healing. We hope for rest. We hope for change.