Thread by @GeoffreySupran

When we learned in 2019 that @MIT might rename its climate science lecture hall the *Shell* Auditorium in exchange for $3m, we raised the alarm. It made the front page of the @BostonGlobe. Today, in a win of sorts, MIT announced a "course-correct". 1/n

https://twitter.com/GeoffreySupran/status/1199026635904675841?s=20

2/n: The auditorium will instead be named the "Dixie Lee Bryant(1891) Lecture Hall", after the first woman to receive a BSc in Geology at MIT. This, as MIT rightly acknowledges, is a wonderful & "overdue recognition of women in science at MIT". eapsweb.mit.edu/sites/default/…

3/n: I am sad to say, however that this remains a greenwashing win for Shell, & yet another case of what @BenFranta & I term Big Oil's "colonization of academia".
theguardian.com/environment/cl…

4/n: Today's auditorium announcement even comes from the "Schlumberger Professor, Department Head".

You can't make this sh!t up.

eapsweb.mit.edu/sites/default/…

5/n: The end result - the "Dixie Lee Bryant(1891) Lecture Hall" - is unreservedly terrific. But look how much protest it took by MIT's community just to avoid hanging Shell's name over the door.

6/n: Ultimately, MIT still took Shell's money. So Shell can - as oil companies consistently do - still tout its relationship with this citadel of science as evidence of its climate legitimacy.

7/n: Shell can still point to the breathless excitement of MIT scholars about "the promises that major energy companies are making to advance green energy and a carbon neutral future, Shell chief among them with its recently announced goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050."

8/n: Shell can still cite MIT scholars' recognition that this is an "enormous task" requiring "realistic" solutions and the "capital, know-how, infrastructure, and global reach of forward-looking energy companies".

9/n: Shell can still quote MIT's climate faculty as writing off Big Oil's history of climate denial & delay in 1 sentence as nothing more than:

"On the one hand, we recognize that past actions of many fossil fuel companies have had negative ramifications...On the other hand..."

10/n: Shell has clearly been in the driver's seat on this:

When "Shell reps agreed that including the company name [on the auditorium] would not achieve its intended goal", MIT "began working w/ the Shell US External Relations team...to find a solution for a naming..."

11/n: "... that recognizes the company’s generous support."

"In Feb 2020, it was jointly decided that Shell would retain the right to name the lecture hall", and "Shell suggested a public “contest” to solicit names."

12/n: MIT's persistent legitimization of Big Oil is summed up by its decision - or perhaps Shell's? - to heap praise on a company that, just days ago, was found in court to have a climate policy inadequate under Dutch law & an endangering to human rights.

https://twitter.com/GeoffreySupran/status/1397590867146330113

13/n: For more on MIT's history of being a climate laggard, see for example: huffpost.com/entry/scientif…