for Dutch-reading skeeps: I'm interviewed in today's De Limburger ab/ conspiracy theories, climate denialism, Open Science, scientific fraud/error, etc. headline in the paper version better than the on-line edition, but complaints ab/ headlines are cliché, no?…www.limburger.nl/cnt/dmf20240…
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-06-20T07:06:14.312Z
ICYMI yesterday, my thread summarizing a chapter that Tom Turnbull & I wrote on various "turns" in 1970s US federal S&T: toward societal relevance, toward energy, & toward the market. Available Open Access (i.e., for free!) here:iopscience.iop.org/book/edit/97…
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-06-14T14:06:00.915Z
ah yes, mining uranium in the way that Mother Nature intended – by pumping vast quantities of acid into the ground!three guesses which industry came up with this beauty. h/t @michielbron.bsky.social
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-06-11T09:26:01.644Z
is there a history of "alternate-engine syndrome" referred to in this 1974 speech by a Mobil VP? maybe you know, @leev.bsky.social ? and what's a "chicken-manure car" – does he really mean chickens or biomass conversion more generally (e.g., from cattle feedlots)?
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-06-06T07:21:12.912Z
hilarious anecdote from climate scientist Walter Orr Roberts to Joe Slater, president of Aspen Institute, ab/ Margaret Mead's conspiratorial suspicion of the Institute's environmental activities in the early '70s. "S/T/H Program" = Science, Technology & Humanism, Roberts' proto-STS effort at Aspen.
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-06-04T09:42:09.453Z
do we need to try and interview Amory Lovins @odinnmelsted.bsky.social @moneschleper.bsky.social ? in the mid-'70s he was working for UNEP, IFIAS, WAES, and Strong personally in his capacity as chair of Petro-Canada!
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-06-03T14:19:51.055Z
there are no bad questions but, uh, there are questions that could be phrased better?in this case, the answer could also use some polishing…from Cities Service Today, 1979
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-05-27T10:45:45.132Z
"the" energy crisis was when, now?
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-05-24T16:21:19.734Z
kudos, I guess, to Esso Resources for taking the route of mere climate whataboutism in 1989 when so many similar companies were opting for outright denialism:
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-05-24T12:29:50.453Z
[Casey Casem voice] This issue of Imperial Oil Perspective goes out to Darryl Cressman and @masssimons.bsky.social
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-05-24T14:07:02.762Z
pleased to highlight this blog post @nichecanada.bsky.social I wrote (improved thx to Andrew Watson's skilful editing) related to the recent Everything Everywhere All at Once workshop.1/x
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-05-22T16:42:04.659Z
in case you missed my Mean Girls-themed threads exploring the papers of neoliberal economist Julian Simon, here are the links. let's start with the final thread, which shows how Simon is relevant to the managingscarcity.com project.
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-05-16T11:34:01.011Z
groan – this headline 🤢.but behind the headline, an intriguing oil spillover from a critical period for both the oil and farmed-fish industries. maybe of interest to @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social @thomabr.bsky.social @palpollo.bsky.social @finnarne.me ?
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-05-13T16:15:56.871Z
the road not (yet) traveled – before conscious uncoupling was for celebrities, it was for oil companies seeking to get out of oil. from Platt's Oilgram, August 7, 1975.
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-05-13T11:24:02.688Z
going thru materials I collected in N. America for the next … while. will post ab/ some & tag a few of you when relevant. e.g., this article on "The All Plastic House" from Imperial Oil Review 1969 is for @jessvarner.bsky.social – have you seen this, Jess? if not I'll thread in others like it.
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-05-09T10:50:48.264Z
New review of Elizabeth Roehrlich's excellent "Inspectors for Peace: a History of the International Atomic Energy Agency" for H-Net
— Michiel Bron (@michielbron.bsky.social) 2024-04-19T19:49:45.544Z
Had the honor of speaking about #Iceland at the University of Alaska/Fairbanks today, organized by the one and only @PhilWight pic.twitter.com/H0AFDPRisb
— Óðinn Melsted (@odinnmelsted) April 17, 2024
US: yeah, we tried it but ultimately decided not to do nuclear fracking.USSR: sure, we do nuclear fracking. we even do nuclear well-capping! nothing puts out a natural gas fire like a fission explosive.
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-03-29T15:25:46.131Z
Coming up in a couple weeks – panel featuring me @moneschleper.bsky.social @odinnmelsted.bsky.social @thatminesgirl.bsky.social Maggie McNulty & chaired by Leisl Carr Childers
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-03-19T11:56:37.481Z
thx Robert Lifset for one of the best compliments I've ever received: "the first section of your paper made me feel like I was watching a Wes Anderson movie." 😂anyway, off to Banff to discuss that & a slew of other papers for this:niche-canada.org/oil-crisis/
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-03-15T12:13:46.083Z
not all heroes wear capes
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-02-09T08:52:48.535Z
one for All Our Yesterdays @marchudson.bsky.social – greenhouse effect labeled "common knowledge" in a 1979 speech *in Houston*!
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-01-30T12:31:40.979Z
inspiring special issue in HSR, with a contribution by @michielbron.bsky.social that will be of interest to energy historians (both those working on nuclear and oil), mining and commodity historians, and business historians (esp. those working on cartels, e.g., @pablo1981.bsky.social)
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-02-27T12:39:43.166Z
pleased to see this chapter in Erik Conway & Bernie Carlson's edited volume on "new approaches to the history of electrification" out. in it, I argue that the Multi-Level Perspective is a decent-enough heuristic for understanding the 1970s energy crises… 1/3link.springer.com/chapter/10.1…
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2024-01-13T08:12:44.608Z
Fellow UMers: How can/should the UM help the transition to a #fossilfree society? How can/should the UM itself become fossil free? Sign up and join this important discussion at Maastricht University.
— Simone Schleper (@moneschleper.bsky.social) 2023-12-06T09:44:37.930Z
Not exactly the first thing you expect to find when going through sources on the production of Boron-10 during the Manhattan Project, but I guess everyone needs an "oil-fired" meat patty sometimes(Photo courtesy of Odinn Melsted)
— Michiel Bron (@michielbron.bsky.social) 2023-11-20T09:04:39.158Z
Out now: energyhistory.eu/en/special-i…
— Robert Groß (@robertgro5.bsky.social) 2023-11-08T19:57:59.389Z
is anyone writing about this guy? what a life! and so many oil spillovers!www.nytimes.com/2019/11/01/s…
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2023-10-23T16:55:19.301Z
including the early years of Cornell STS (where I got my PhD) & its (in Sheila Jasanoff's words) "chief architect," the chemist and peace studies scholar Franklin Long. What I hadn't realized until today was that Long was actually an Exxon board member while running the Cornell STS program!…
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2023-10-20T12:38:19.622Z
It's already history by now, but here's the group pic from our session "Industrially Manufactured Facts? Questions of Knowledge and Evidence in Energy and Environmental Debates of the 70s-80s" at the 54th (!) German #Historikertag in Leipzig: https://t.co/oKdzKx0501
— Óðinn Melsted (@odinnmelsted) October 6, 2023
recently visited the Hagen Open-air Museum (LWL-Freilichtmuseum Hagen) & there was a nice section on '70s scarcity and environmental issues related to managingscarcity.com. great to see!
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody.bsky.social) 2023-09-26T10:03:11.755Z
visited the House of European History recently and found a small section that's all about https://t.co/omalTn60UH pic.twitter.com/liYKjDkQKO
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) August 2, 2023
a potential transition pathway for O&G, but one with a very long history – @odinnmelsted https://t.co/xMYxPefhAo
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) July 18, 2023
Great talk, @GaraviniG – really happy that @ChristofMauch invited you and that we could combine the "Black and Green?" workshop with the @CarsonCenter colloquium series. https://t.co/taSLmyWjle
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) June 27, 2023
The "family picture" from our workshop "Black and Green? Towards an Environmental History of the Oil Industry" @CarsonCenter/ LMU Munich @ccmmody @moneschleper @DollyJorgensen @fignatov @Bron_Michiel @charlotte_leib @renaudbecot @rdlosreyes @KuijtMarin pic.twitter.com/D63XfjIYve
— Óðinn Melsted (@odinnmelsted) June 16, 2023
Thanks, Dolly (also on behalf of @moneschleper & @odinnmelsted) https://t.co/sZNEC4sxAH
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) June 15, 2023
oilman & diplomat George McGhee alluding to climate change ("environmental factors such as the composition of the atmosphere, which would threaten man's ability to survive") in his 1970 letter to Aurelio Peccei accepting an invitation to join the Club of Rome – @marcsrhudson pic.twitter.com/PSfdwkVZqv
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) June 9, 2023
with @odinnmelsted 's help, I've updated the matrix of oil industry takeover bids from the late 1960s to the early 1990s in the Harvard B-School "Records of hostile tender offers collection." outsize role of Mesa Petroleum (T Boone Pickens) even more evident. https://t.co/gTezJ7WWHo pic.twitter.com/cNmrmMDgP3
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) May 26, 2023
1969 article in The Lamp (Exxon shareholder magazine) on the Business History & Economic Life program (sponsored by Exxon's philanthropic arm) to get more business history into K-12 education – perhaps of interest to @historiandan @andrewpopp6 @RrjohnR pic.twitter.com/bZJnzCmMJ7
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) May 24, 2023
hey, i know that guy! maybe of interest to @Bron_Michiel @Siegfriedevens @HBrookhuis https://t.co/PqK1pSH3X0
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) April 20, 2023
congratulations @moneschleper – as we discussed yesterday, I'm really curious to learn more about Hanne Strong. maybe there will be a little room in the project for John and Magda McHale and/or Russell and Aileen Train as well? https://t.co/3FbkUtDOXQ
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) April 20, 2023
hmm – Drew Faust & Rob Kohler teaching an early '80s course on War & the American Experience sponsored by the Exxon Education Foundation. early harbinger of Faust's disappointing position on fossil fuels & climate activism while president of Harvard? … pic.twitter.com/lEahm1GLsU
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) April 19, 2023
on March 16, I MCed a public conversation @SciHistoryOrg b/t @neelaeast & @paulesabin ab/ the overlapping work of journalists & academic historians in presenting the history of energy, environment & climate to various publics. it's now viewable at:https://t.co/AkBL3dORi0
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) April 11, 2023
If you're at #ASEH2023 tomorrow, come see my talk (10:30 session) based on work coauthored with @moneschleper in a great panel on the 1972 Stockholm conference. Simone & I look at network- and institution-building by a circle of oilmen & their allies before & after Stockholm… pic.twitter.com/dxggszCbnu
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) March 24, 2023
last week Maarten van Gistel of @trouw interviewed me about the @NWO_SSH Managing Scarcity project. his article based on that interview is out today – I'm really happy with the result. wonderful summary of the project:https://t.co/50IXYDlB5y
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) January 23, 2023
Hear, hear! Opinion piece by Melle v Maanen in Volkskrant calling for Shell to grant access to its archives. Focuses on Shell's participation in colonial regime in Caribbean and Indonesia, but also notes climate change as a reason to demand transparency.https://t.co/ux6nx93imD
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) January 6, 2023
fantastically clear public talk (and published booklet) on climate change by Walter Orr Roberts from *1978* – sponsored (mainly) by Atlantic Richfield, one of the larger US oil firms of its day, now part of BP. pic.twitter.com/ktxhHhYhVV
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) January 4, 2023
look at that gorgeous poster! https://t.co/uWEHPtPx3l
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) December 15, 2022
we're throwing a conference! with the @CarsonCenter in June in Munich! aim is to historicize oil industry "greenwashing" and put past oil industry dabbling in green technologies/environmentalism into context. send us your abstracts by February 20. https://t.co/FdakjNDEZA
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) December 14, 2022
in-depth profile of the Managing Scarcity project by Edo Beerda on the website of our funder, @NWO_SSH https://t.co/VngBsVKs2r
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) December 14, 2022
wonderful summary of the recent joint NanoBubbles-Managing Scarcity workshop by @FedericoBoem – really conveys the open-ended, exploratory nature of the event. thx, Federico! https://t.co/Q69qcAVz2t
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) November 30, 2022
new data relevant to the 🧵👇lately been looking through Boston-area finding aids & turns out Marshall Goldman was a consultant for ARCO, one of the oil company's we focus on in https://t.co/omalTn60UH from late '70s to late '90s. what did they want from a star kremlinologist? https://t.co/0hf3UVa2Ip
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) November 18, 2022
thx to @odinnmelsted vy much enjoying pics of Henry Kissinger at the Aspen Institute in 1977. here w/ Bob Anderson (pres of Aspen and Atlantic Richfield Oil), Ardeshir Zahedi (Iranian ambassador to US) & unidentified hippiehttps://t.co/BwnZG5kyOc
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) November 17, 2022
In Rome for this fantastic conference on the occasion of 50 years since the Club of Rome's #limitstogrowth report 1972, exploring its origins, meanings and legacy, organized by @GaraviniG @FasanaroLaura pic.twitter.com/dpTgUK8Kgj
— Óðinn Melsted (@odinnmelsted) November 12, 2022
good grief – The Guardian pushing Solar Power Satellites as the answer to our energy needs. we've been here before, $/kg-to-orbit surely isn't the biggest problem with this boondoggle:https://t.co/ysmuvT12yv pic.twitter.com/orKKVPjQNl
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) October 10, 2022
will be rejoining the History of NASA and the Environment symposium (thx @brianodom018; watch at https://t.co/yn8X7PFBBv) in an hour and wanted to share this document, which reminds us that lots of space history isn't (or shouldn't be) about space in any narrow sense pic.twitter.com/ZrTnhJEF8S
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) September 30, 2022
will be nice to point to this paper to compare to the range of views present in O&G discourse from the '70s@odinnmelsted @Bron_Michiel https://t.co/kPXs5TAkPO
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) September 10, 2022
for all attending @ESHSBrussels22 #ESHS2022 come see session 47 "Geoscience Spillover" organized by @odinnmelsted featuring Odinn, @Bron_Michiel Candida Sanchez Burmester commentary by @thomabr on *Friday* 16:30-18:30 (*not* Thursday 16:30-18:00 as in some versions of program)…
— Cyrus Mody (@ccmmody) September 6, 2022
Had a phenomenal time at #petrocultures22 in Stavanger, with conference venues at the petroleum museum and aboard the MS Sandnes, a coast liner from 1950. Really excellent places to discuss past and present petroleum cultures. pic.twitter.com/fBtKZ1DFpn
— Óðinn Melsted (@odinnmelsted) August 27, 2022
Spent the week at the World Economic History Congress #wehc2022 at the new humanities campus in Aubervilliers/Paris. Learned a lot and had great discussions about my paper "The oil in the renewable: how incumbent oil constellations have shaped renewable energy systems" pic.twitter.com/gldH7M3BMy
— Óðinn Melsted (@odinnmelsted) July 29, 2022
Managing Scarcity 