Robert Brulle

Last updated
Robert Joseph Brulle
Alma mater United States Coast Guard Academy, New School for Social Research, University of Michigan, George Washington University
Scientific career
Fields Environmental sociology
Institutions Drexel University
Thesis Agency, democracy, and the environment : an examination of U.S. environmental movement organizations from the perspective of critical theory  (1995)

Robert J. Brulle is an American environmental sociologist and professor of sociology and environmental science at Drexel University. He is also an associate professor of public health at the Drexel University School of Public Health. He advocates aggressive political action to address global warming. [1]

Contents

Education and academic career

Brulle received his B.S. from United States Coast Guard Academy in 1974, his M.A. in sociology from the New School for Social Research in 1981, his M.S. from the University of Michigan in natural resources in 1982, and his PhD from George Washington University in sociology in 1995. [2] [3] Brulle joined the faculty of Drexel University as an assistant professor in 1997. He became an associate professor there in 2003 and a full professor in 2008. [3] Brulle is a faculty member of the Department of Culture and Communication of the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel. [4]

Research

Brulle's research includes the strategy and funding patterns of what he calls “the climate change countermovement,” the movement critical of action to address global warming. [5] Brulle was interviewed by Frontline , a public television program that produces and broadcasts in-depth documentaries, for their 2012 documentary on climate change denial titled Climate of Doubt . [6] He described the climate change countermovement as "comprehensive" and as "an add-on to the already-existing conservative movement in the United States." [5] Brulle estimated the total annual income of the nonprofit environmental movement as $2.7 billion, and noted that progress toward a cleaner US environment often comes at the expense of other nations, in a 2009 interview by the Imaginova Corporation published by Fox News. [7]

Brulle analysed the funding of organizations associated with the climate change denial movement during a year-long fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University. [8] [9] Brulle published results in December 2013 in Climatic Change , [10] a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal. According to Brulle, it was "the first peer-reviewed, comprehensive analysis ever conducted of the funding behind climate change denial." [9] Brulle's study estimated that the 91 organizations he examined had a total annual income of just above $900 million, and that the vast majority of funds donated to such organizations came from conservative foundations. [10] Over the eight years covered by the study (2003-2010), the American Enterprise Institute received the most funding—16% of the total funds, and the donor-advised funds Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund were the largest funders. [11] The study also found that the amount of money donated to these organizations by means of Donors Trust and other foundations whose funding sources cannot be traced has risen dramatically over the previous five years. [12]

The report was covered by the Washington Post , Forbes , Scientific American , The Guardian , Science Daily , and the International Science Times. [8] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] The research was featured in the public information website on climate change from the Governor of California's Office of Planning and Research. [16] A senior fellow from the Heartland Institute, one of the organizations included in the study, writing in an opinion piece in Forbes, criticized Brulle's work and its media coverage on a number of points, including that the organizations included in the study had diverse agendas, and not all of their revenue was devoted to climate change education. [13] Bruelle acknowledged in the PBS interview, “You can’t say how many dollars went from this foundation to this organization specifically for climate change. . . .” [5]

Brulle collaborated on research into factors affecting US public opinion on climate change, and found that politicians are more influential than scientists. The research was featured by National Geographic and USA Today . [17] [18] [19]

Political activity

Brulle endorsed Bernie Sanders in the 2016 US presidential election. [20]

Books

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">League of Conservation Voters</span> Environmental advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., United States

The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) is an American environmental advocacy group. LCV says that it "advocates for sound environmental laws and policies, holds elected officials accountable for their votes and actions, and elects pro-environment candidates." The organization pursues its goals through voter education, voter mobilization, and direct contributions to political candidates. LCV includes 29 state affiliates. LCV was founded in 1970 by environmentalist Marion Edey, with support from David Brower. The group's current president is Gene Karpinski. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., and has over two million members.

Willie Wei-Hock Soon is a Malaysian astrophysicist and aerospace engineer who was long employed as a part-time externally funded researcher at the Solar and Stellar Physics (SSP) Division of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George C. Marshall Institute</span> Former American nonprofit conservative think tank

The George C. Marshall Institute (GMI) was a nonprofit conservative think tank in the United States. It was established in 1984 with a focus on science and public policy issues and had an initial focus in defense policy. Starting in the late 1980s, the institute advocated for views in line with environmental skepticism, most notably climate change denial. The think tank received extensive financial support from the fossil fuel industry.

Myron Ebell is an American climate change denier who serves as the Director of Global Warming and International Environmental Policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), an American libertarian advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. He is also chairman of the Cooler Heads Coalition, a politically conservative group formed in 1997 focused on "dispelling the myths of global warming by exposing flawed economic, scientific, and risk analysis". In September 2016, Ebell was appointed by then Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to lead his transition team for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow</span> U.S. non-profit organization

The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) is a US-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 1985 that advocates for free-market solutions to environmental issues. According to its mission statement, CFACT also seeks to protect private property rights, promote economic policies that reduce pollution and protect wildlife, and provide an "alternative voice on issues of environment and development".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heartland Institute</span> Conservative and libertarian American think tank

The Heartland Institute is an American conservative and libertarian public policy think tank known for its rejection of both the scientific consensus on climate change and the negative health impacts of smoking.

In the United States, a donor-advised fund is a charitable giving vehicle administered by a public charity created to manage charitable donations on behalf of organizations, families, or individuals. To participate in a donor-advised fund, a donating individual or organization opens an account in the fund and deposits cash, securities, or other financial instruments. They surrender ownership of anything they put in the fund, but retain advisory privileges over how their account is invested, and how it distributes money to charities.

Michael Oppenheimer is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs, the Department of Geosciences, and the High Meadows Environmental Institute at Princeton University. He is the director of the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment (C-PREE) at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and Faculty Associate of the Atmospheric and Ocean Sciences Program and the Princeton Institute for International and Regional Studies.

Energy & Environment is an academic journal "covering the direct and indirect environmental impacts of energy acquisition, transport, production and use". Under its editor-in-chief from 1998 to 2017, Sonja Boehmer-Christiansen, it was known for easygoing peer-review and publishing climate change denial papers. Yiu Fai Tsang became its editor-in-chief in May 2017.

Friends of Science(FoS) is a non-profit advocacy organization based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The organization rejects the established scientific consensus that humans are largely responsible for the currently observed global warming. Rather, they propose that "the Sun is the main direct and indirect driver of climate change," not human activity. They argued against the Kyoto Protocol. The society was founded in 2002 and launched its website in October of that year. They are largely funded by the fossil fuel industry.

Climate change conspiracy theories assert that the scientific consensus on global warming is based on conspiracies to produce manipulated data or suppress dissent. It is one of a number of tactics used in climate change denial to attempt to manufacture political and public controversy disputing this consensus. Conspiracy theorists typically allege that, through worldwide acts of professional and criminal misconduct, the science behind global warming and climate change has been invented or distorted for ideological or financial reasons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate change denial</span> Denial of the scientific consensus on climate change

Climate change denial or global warming denial is dismissal or unwarranted doubt that contradicts the scientific consensus on climate change. Those promoting denial commonly use rhetorical tactics to give the appearance of a scientific controversy where there is none.

The Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation is a conservative Christian public policy group that claims that a free-market approach to care for the environment is sufficient, and is critical of much of the current environmental movement. The Alliance is "engaged in a wide range of antienvironmental activities" and denies man-made global warming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Global Warming Policy Foundation</span> Climate change denial lobby group in the United Kingdom

The Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) is a charitable organisation in the United Kingdom whose aims are to challenge what it calls "extremely damaging and harmful policies" envisaged by governments to mitigate anthropogenic global warming. The GWPF, and some of its prominent members individually, have been characterized as practising and promoting climate change denial.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Media coverage of climate change</span>

Media coverage of climate change has had effects on public opinion on climate change, as it conveys the scientific consensus on climate change that the global temperature has increased in recent decades and that the trend is caused by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases.

Charles G. and David H. Koch (1940–2019), sometimes referred to as the Koch brothers, have become famous for their financial and political influence in United States politics with a libertarian, more so, right-libertarian or American-style libertarian political stance. From around 2004 to 2019, with "foresight and perseverance", the brothers organized like-minded wealthy libertarian-oriented conservatives, spent hundreds of millions of dollars of their own money to build an "integrated" and "stealth" network of think tanks, foundations, "grassroots" movements, academic programs, advocacy and legal groups to "destroy the prevalent statist paradigm" and reshape public opinion to favor minimal government. As of mid 2018, the media has been encouraged to refer to the "Koch network" rather than the "Koch brothers".

Donors Trust is an American nonprofit donor-advised fund. It was founded in 1999 with the goal of "safeguarding the intent of libertarian and conservative donors". As a donor advised fund, Donors Trust is not legally required to disclose the identity of its donors, and most of its donors remain anonymous. It distributes funds to various conservative and libertarian organizations, and has been characterized as the "dark money ATM" of the political right.

Donors Capital Fund is a nonprofit United States donor-advised charity that distributes grants to conservative and libertarian organizations. Donors Capital Fund is associated with Donors Trust, another donor-advised fund.

Kari Marie Norgaard is a Professor of sociology at the University of Oregon, a post she has held since 2017. She is known for her research into Indigenous environmental justice, climate change denial and the politics of global warming.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ExxonMobil climate change denial</span> Overview of climate-related ExxonMobil controversies

Since the 1970s, American fossil fuel and energy corporation ExxonMobil has engaged in climate research focussing on global warming. It later began lobbying, advertising, and grant making, some of which were conducted with the purpose of delaying widespread acceptance and action on global warming.

References

  1. ↑ Brulle, Robert (January 6, 2016). "America has been duped on climate change". Washington Post. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  2. ↑ "Robert J. Brulle". Archived from the original on 2022-04-05. Retrieved 2015-01-30.
  3. 1 2 "Curriculum Vitae". Archived from the original on 2019-03-15. Retrieved 2015-01-30.
  4. ↑ "Robert Brulle, PhD". Drexel University. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  5. 1 2 3 "Robert Brulle: Inside the Climate Change "Countermovement"". PBS. 23 October 2012. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  6. ↑ Upin, Catherine; Hockenberry, John (October 23, 2012). "Climate of Doubt". Frontline . PBS . Retrieved March 4, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Success Stories: Cleaning Up Planet Earth". Fox News. 22 April 2009. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  8. 1 2 Miller, Rhonda J. (December 25, 2013). "Climate Change Denial Groups Get Nearly $1 Billion A Year With Untraceable 'Dark Money' Used to Distort Public View Of Global Warming". International Science Times. IBT Media. Archived from the original on January 7, 2018. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  9. 1 2 "Robert Brulle: climate change denial? Follow the money – the dark money, that is". Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. January 9, 2014. Archived from the original on April 2, 2015. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  10. 1 2 Brulle, Robert J. (December 21, 2013). "Institutionalizing delay: foundation funding and the creation of U.S. climate change counter-movement organizations". Climatic Change . 122 (4): 681–694. doi:10.1007/s10584-013-1018-7. S2CID   27538787.
  11. 1 2 Goldenberg, Suzanne (December 20, 2013). "Conservative groups spend up to $1bn a year to fight action on climate change". The Guardian . Retrieved January 29, 2015.
  12. 1 2 Fischer, Douglas (December 23, 2013). ""Dark Money" Funds Climate Change Denial Effort". Scientific American . Retrieved 29 January 2015.
  13. 1 2 Taylor, James (January 2, 2015). "'Dark Money' Funds To Promote Global Warming Alarmism Dwarf Warming 'Denier' Research". Forbes . Retrieved March 16, 2015.
  14. ↑ Zornick, George (December 27, 2013). "The dark money in climate change". Washington Post . Retrieved March 15, 2015.
  15. ↑ "Not just Koch brothers: New study reveals funders behind climate change denial effort". Science Daily . December 20, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2015.
  16. ↑ "Climate Change: Just the Facts". The Deniers. Governor of California Office of Planning and Research.
  17. ↑ Brulle, Robert J.; Carmichael, Jason; Jenkins, J. Craig (February 3, 2012). "Shifting public opinion on climate change: an empirical assessment of factors influencing concern over climate change in the US, 2002–2010". Climatic Change . 114 (2): 169–188. Bibcode:2012ClCh..114..169B. doi:10.1007/s10584-012-0403-y. hdl: 10.1007/s10584-012-0403-y . S2CID   8220644.
  18. ↑ Vergano, Dan (29 January 2015). "Poll Reveals Rift Between Scientists, Regular Folks". National Geographic . Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  19. ↑ Vergano, Dan (17 February 2012). "Gingrich's Limbaugh troubles spell out climate divide". USA Today . Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  20. ↑ "Endorsements". Environmentalists for Bernie. Archived from the original on 6 July 2017. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.