Message From the Editor

At the end of last year, environmental crimes investigators in the western Argentine province of Neuquén carried out a raid against a company that handles fracking waste in the heart of the Vaca Muerta shale basin, a booming oil and gas field in northern Patagonia. They seized a cache of documents, and opened an investigation into the potential illegal handling of massive volumes of fracking waste. The illegal fracking waste sites are the “dark side” of Vaca Muerta, said the lawyer who filed the criminal complaint. Nick Cunningham has the full story.

Meanwhile, a whistleblower has alleged that the Falcon pipeline — a 98-mile-long fossil fuel pipeline that will soon feed Shell’s massive plastics manufacturing site under construction in western Pennsylvania — was built with defective protection against corrosion. That's according to public records obtained by the nonprofit FracTracker Alliance and which reveal that state regulators complained last year that federal authorities had failed to adequately investigate the reports of defects. Sharon Kelly reports.

And a new study this week found that many people who share fake news online do so because they aren’t paying close attention to what they’re sharing. Simply prompting people to think about the accuracy of their news content, the researchers found, helps curtail the spread of falsehoods. The findings undercut the notion that there is a widespread desire among the public to actively spread disinformation. Rather, it adds further evidence showing how social media allows for fake news to spread rapidly — and how to slow it down. Read more here.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: editor@desmogblog.com.

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Readers like you make it possible for DeSmog to hold accountable powerful people in industry and government. Even a $10 or $20 donation helps support DeSmog’s investigative journalism.

Argentina’s Illegal Oil and Gas Waste Dumps Show ‘Dark Side’ of Vaca Muerta Drilling, Says Criminal Complaint

— By Nick Cunningham (17 min. read) —

On December 21, 2020, environmental crimes investigators in the western Argentine province of Neuquén carried out a raid against a company that handles fracking waste in the heart of the Vaca Muerta shale basin, a booming oil and gas field in northern Patagonia. They seized a cache of documents, and opened an investigation into the potential illegal handling of massive volumes of fracking waste.

The raid on the Argentine waste company Comarsa by the office of Environmental Crimes and Special Laws, a unit under Neuquén’s chief prosecutor, was prompted by a lengthy criminal complaint filed to the office just a few days earlier by a group of environmental lawyers. Within the complaint, the lawyers document what they describe as a decade-long illegal accumulation of toxic fracking waste at multiple sites in the city of Neuquén, the largest city in Patagonia with a population over 300,000. The sites are located within the city and also on the outskirts of Añelo, a small desert town of 8,000 about an hour and a half drive northwest of Neuquén and the unofficial drilling capital of the Vaca Muerta.

Whistleblower Claims Dangerous Defects in Pipeline for Shell’s Pennsylvania Plastics Plant

— By Sharon Kelly (7 min. read) —

A whistleblower has alleged that the Falcon pipeline — a 98-mile-long fossil fuel pipeline that will soon feed Shell’s massive plastics manufacturing site under construction in western Pennsylvania — was built with defective protection against corrosion. That's according to public records obtained by the nonprofit FracTracker Alliance and which reveal that state regulators complained last year that federal authorities had failed to adequately investigate the reports of defects.

In that letter, dated February 26, 2020, obtained by FracTracker via a right-to-know request, Patrick McDonnell, secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, wrote to the nation’s top pipeline safety regulator describing “a very serious public safety matter for Pennsylvania.”

Nudging Social Media Users to Think Critically Helps Slow the Spread of Fake News, Study Finds

— By Nick Cunningham (7 min. read) —

Many people who share fake news online do so because they aren’t paying close attention to what they’re sharing, according to a new study. The research found that simply prompting people to think about the accuracy of their news content helps curtail the spread of falsehoods.

“When deciding what to share on social media, people are often distracted from considering the accuracy of the content,” the authors, from the Hill/Levene Schools of Business at the University of Regina and the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), wrote in the new paper published in Nature.

Green Groups File 'First-of-Its-Kind' FTC Complaint Against Chevron for Climate Lies

— By Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams (5 min. read) —

Three environmental justice and corporate accountability groups filed a “first-of-its-kind” complaint with the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday accusing oil giant Chevron of deceiving the public by overstating its investment in renewable energy sources and commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions while continuing to extract fossil fuels that put vulnerable communities in harm's way.

“Chevron is trying to appeal to consumers that care about the climate, the planet, and racial justice—while doubling down on climate-wrecking fossil fuels that pollute our communities and destabilize the global climate, as our complaint shows,” Julieta Biegner, U.S. communications and campaign officer at Global Witness, said in a statement.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: Principia Scientific International

Principia Scientific International is an organisation based in the United Kingdom which promotes fringe views and material to claim that carbon dioxide is not a greenhouse gas. PSI was formed in 2010. The group claims it provides its members with a “reliable port of call to ascertain the facts behind the news stories to better judge whether information being presented by third parties is accurate information and reflects a balanced view of all facets of the subject.” The PSI website says the organisation is “for everyone who supports the traditions [sic] scientific method against the rise of sinister and secretive government funded 'post normal science'.”

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.