Baseload Children's Book Casts Fossil Fuels as Hero
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- Kristina Hagström Ilievska, CMO of Swedish geothermal firm Baseload Capital, published the children's picture book "Our Hidden Powers: The Big Switch," featuring "Fossi" — a fossil fuel character depicted as a shunned but sympathetic hero who ultimately helps classmates plan a transition to clean energy.
- Baseload Capital, which manages geothermal projects in the US, Taiwan, Japan, and Iceland, is partly owned by Chevron and Baker Hughes, a connection Ilievska did not mention in interviews about the book.
- Lindsey Gulden, a former ExxonMobil climate scientist fired in 2020 after internally reporting alleged asset overvaluation fraud in Texas and New Mexico, called the sympathetic framing "almost laughable," saying the industry is "working hard to keep their seat at the table and delay a robust energy transition."
- Gustav Martner, creative director at Greenpeace Nordics with 17 years in corporate advertising, said the book mirrors fossil fuel industry talking points by minimizing the sector's history of lobbying against climate policy and recasting it as an enthusiastic energy transition partner.
- Equinor was revealed in April 2025 to have sponsored pop-up science classrooms on Scottish islands while simultaneously seeking approval for the nearby Rosebank oilfield, and to have created the "Energy Town" video game aimed at UK schoolchildren.
- Shell's Australian gas and coal subsidiary paid US$7 million to fund children's educational programs at the Queensland Museum that, per a DeSmog investigation published in December, fail to clearly identify fossil fuels as the primary cause of climate change.
Why it matters: The book's author did not disclose Baseload Capital's Chevron and Baker Hughes ownership in interviews, and the release lands alongside a documented pattern of fossil fuel companies — including Equinor's Scottish classroom sponsorships and Shell's US$7 million Queensland Museum programs — targeting the same youth demographic that will both shape future climate policy and bear the sharpest impacts of warming.
