Damages Podcast Debuts February 17:Get Ready For Courtroom Drama

 The first two episodes of Damages, a new podcast from Critical Frequency, reported and hosted by investigative climate journalist Amy Westervelt is now available. 

 Damages is a courtroom drama that follows the hundreds of climate lawsuits currently active all over the world. It's a show about the quest for justice and a crime against humanity: the climate crisis. The first season, which launches February 17, explores "rights-of-nature" laws, which bring Indigenous approaches to nature into Western judicial systems by giving ecosystems the same rights that individuals have.

Westervelt also hosts Drilled, the most-downloaded climate podcast, and Rigged, exposing the history of disinformation. Hot Take, another Critical Frequency original, which she co-hosts with Mary Annaïse Heglar, was one of Crooked Media's first-ever acquisitions last month: https://variety.com/2022/digital/news/crooked-media-acquisitions-strict-scrutiny-hot-take-1235165127/

 Consider a report just released that revealed that four major oil companies aren't taking concrete steps to live up to their pledges to transition to clean energy, new research has found.

The study, published in the journal PLOS One, found that Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell used terms like "climate," "low-carbon" and "transition" more frequently in recent annual reports and devised strategies around decarbonization. But their actions on clean energy were mostly pledges and the companies remain financially reliant on fossil fuels.

 The first season of Damages, which began February 17, explores "rights-of-nature" laws, which bring Indigenous approaches to nature into Western judicial systems by giving ecosystems the same rights that individuals have. 

If a corporation can be treated as a person, why can't a lake? Westervelt uses original reporting and interviews to unpack a series of fascinating climate cases that could have major legal implications in the fight to save life on Earth, from wild rice suing the state of Minnesota over a pipeline permit to a cloud forest suing the government of Ecuador over mining.