Youth Climate Strike

Top PR firms have played a significant and overlooked role in denying and obfuscating the science of climate change while bolstering the reputations of major polluters, a peer-reviewed study in Climatic Change reveals.

Researchers analyzed more than 2,800 “unique engagements” between PR firms and entities within five groups: the coal, steel and rail sector; the oil and gas industry; the electric utility sector; the renewable energy industry; and the environmental movement. Utilities and the oil and gas sector hired PR firms the most, and the environmental movement hired PR firms the least.

While the fossil fuel industry’s denial of climate science, efforts to shift responsibility for climate change to consumers, and obstruction of action to address climate change are well documented, “PR people become these kinds of glue or network builders among all of these different industries, and so their power is outsize[d] in that way,” Melissa Aronczyk, a media studies professor at Rutgers University, told E&E. “How else would these different industries kind of speak to each other?”

Republished from Nexus Media News, an editorially independent, nonprofit news service covering stories about climate change. It exists to improve public understanding of the climate crisis, shed light on the steps humans can take in response, and highlight the potential opportunities created by a just energy transition.