Rosie interviews Dr Jeremy Walker of the University of Technology Sydney on his research, on the history of petroleum industry and fossil fuel investors early knowledge of global heating, systematic efforts to influence public opinion and government policy to defeat effective climate policy: that is, to reduce fossil fuel industry, extraction and combustion to zero, and replace all energy use with zero-combustion, zero emissions sources.  Key to this is an international network of ‘free market thinktanks’ assembled by neoliberal economists, activists, politicians, media organisations and big business funders. Since its 1981 registration, the Atlas Economic Research Foundation (Arlington VA) has fulfilled its mission to ‘litter the world with free market thinktanks’, expanding the global Atlas Network of neoliberal thinktanks to some 550 ‘partner organisations’ in 100 nations eight of which are in Australian and New Zealand (see Pic).

In this episode Dr Jeremy Walker discusses new research finding regarding  the history, definitions and methods of the Atlas Network of ostensibly ‘independent, non-profit’ public policy research institutes, which whilst generating vast quantities of legacy media outputs policy papers and social media content to influence public opinion, frame public debate (moving the ‘Overton window’) to defeat or advance government policies and constitutional reforms, has only recently been brought to light and named as a coherent global infrastructure- the Atlas Network.

Dr Walker then discusses Liberal opposition leader Peter Dutton’s flagship election campaign promises: to use public finances to build ‘clean and cheap’ nuclear power stations across the nation, and to scrap offshore windfarm projects in Port Stephens, Illawarra (NSW), the Southern Ocean (Vic) and Geographe Bay (WA), In each case these announcements were preceded by highly sophisticated, disinformation campaigns involving individuals and organisations long associated with Australian and US  Atlas thinktanks, and accompanied by a swarm of ostensibly ‘community based’ campaign websites, often with anonymous membership and always without declaring funding.