Drilled Critical Frequency

There's a lot of discourse happening about free speech in the context of "cancel culture" these days, but precious little coverage of the push all over the world to criminalize protest...particularly environmental and climate protest. We'll be digging into this trend in detail over the next several months, but first a look at what prompted extractive industries to start agitating for governments to crack down on protest, what tactics they use, and why they've been so effective.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When she was just 22, Disha Ravi, co-founder of Fridays for Future in India, had police show up at her home, borrow a pen and paper to write an arrest warrant on the spot, and bundle her onto a plane to fly across the country to a city she'd never been to. Here she explains what happened, how it's still impacting her two years later, and why she'll never let it stop her activism or force her out of India.
An extended version of this interview will run in partnership with the Heated newsletter next week, as the G20 Summit gets underway in Delhi.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since the 2019 passage of the "Dangerous Attachment Devices" bill in response to anti-coal protests in Queensland, Australia's states have moved quickly to follow suit.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Biden made his first trip to Vietnam as President this week, with the intention of "upgrading" diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Vietnam. Not on the agenda? The country's move to use trumped-up tax evasion charges to suppress civil society groups, including five climate activists that have been imprisoned using this tactic since 2021.
Read The 88 Project's report on this practice: https://the88project.org/weaponizing-the-law-to-prosecute-the-vietnam-four/
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s no coincidence that the backlash against climate protest looks the same from country to country. Not only is industry sharing tactics across borders, but also the Atlas Network—a global network of nearly 600 libertarian think tanks—has been swapping strategies and rhetoric for decades. This episode features reporting from Amy Westervelt, Lyndal Rowlands, and Julianna Merullo from Drilled, and Geoff Dembicki from DeSmog. You can see a print version of the story at The New Republic or an even longer print version on our site here.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From our pals over at Inherited, in today’s episode, Mo Isu looks at one of the reasons climate activists all over the world are protesting: they're already facing the impacts of climate change. Here, Isu traces the cycle of loss and rebuilding in the rural Niger Delta region of Nigeria as the country weathers extreme seasonal flooding. After meeting a flood survivor in his hometown of Lagos, Mo travels twelve hours to Lokoja – the town where Nigeria’s largest rivers converge – to explore how directly impacted flood survivors endure the region’s relentless cycle of damage and repair.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices