How Early Oil PR Shaped Today’s Climate Misinformation Crisis
Amy Westervelt’s new book traces Big Oil’s early public-relations tactics and argues they created the misinformation ecosystem that now blocks strong climate action.
In "Brought To You By," journalist Amy Westervelt maps the origins of Big Oil’s deceptive communications, starting with Ivy Lee’s wartime push to unite oil firms and his post-war effort to keep prices high through the American Petroleum Institute. Working with Edward Bernays, Lee introduced offensive PR tactics that fed favorable stories to newspapers for oil, coal, auto and other sectors, spawning a worldwide network of “information pollution.”
Westervelt argues that today’s media landscape—reinforced by think-tanks like the Heritage Foundation, right-wing several outlets. She notes that 80-89 % of people worldwide want stronger climate policies, yet climate denial and “hushing” obscure that demand. The book urges a revival of rigorous, independent journalism to counter the distortion and protect democratic decision-making on climate issues.
