Twitter thread from Dr. Pielke,
There is an interesting investigative journalism project to be carried out on the revolving door between climate science and policy and private sector climate services
Just one example: John Kerry’s predecessor as “Climate Envoy” was a co-founder of a consulting firm that feeds on RCP8.5
It is absolutely fascinating how climate scenarios (RCPs, SSPs and their derivatives) enable completely new advisory markets based on financial risk assessments of fictitious futures
It’s also amazing how much money is being paid to explore these outdated, fictional futures
In observing the monetization of climate scenarios, I remember this passage from Rayner and Sarewitz 2021 @TheBTI Journal about how the Chesapeake Bay program confused models and reality
https://thebreakthrough.org/journal/no-13-winter-2021/policy-making-in-the-post-truth-world
The main investor in Jupiter Intelligence (climate services based on RCP8.5) is Energize Ventures, a venture capital company that wants to benefit from the ongoing energy transition
Good for you
But you can certainly see how advice on promoting RCP8.5 complements
Energize Ventures’ “anchor partner” is Invenergy, a private energy company that operates wind, solar and natural gas systems with more than 25 GW
Of course there is a cozy ecosystem:
former government official
Scientists with expertise
Venture capital
Energy company
current federal policy making
Always has been
But it’s interesting how these dynamics encourage implausible scenarios and keep bad science going
Much attention has been paid to the pathological dynamics of the energy economy ecosystem related to fossil fuel interests. I have never seen a similar criticism of the role of non-fossil fuel interests
Low hanging fruit for those who want to look
/END
Originally tweeted by Roger Pielke Jr. (@RogerPielkeJr) on April 28, 2021.
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