David Koch, the marginally less-vile of the vile duo known as the Koch Brothers, is dead. Setting aside the fact that Charles was always the more powerful and, as a result, the more interesting of the two, the death of his brother allows for a moment to consider a world without either of them. It would be nice to believe that once both have passed, American politicians on the right will suddenly snap to the realization that the planet is rapidly becoming less livable and begin combatting the climate crisis with unprecedented gusto. It would be nice, but also reductive … and ridiculous.

The Koch Brothers established a slick machine built on drilling oil and dumping chemicals; for decades, they have been perched atop it, pointing it in whichever direction they wanted. In hopes of enriching themselves, of wielding enough capital to rise above the petty politics that binds the less wealthy to trivial matters like democratic elections and “the news cycle,” they plunged their hands deep into the earth and pulled out whatever they could sell. And with the money they accrued, they chose to play the role of kingmakers in conservative politics.

As Brian Kahn wrote for Earther, the majority of these efforts have been focused on muddying the climate change debate, or at least paying off politicians to muddy the debate for them. The messier the debate, the more leniency they were granted to enrich themselves even more—and the cycle played on and on.

The Koch-topus (as it is sometimes called) they vivified was not a single entity, but a series of organizations, super PACS, lobbying firms, think tanks, legislation factories, and legal institutes. Although the sprawl of that conglomerated power is likely something the American public won’t be able to comprehend for years to come—entire books have been written just trying to grasp at the enormity—the brothers’ tentacles all slithered out in the same direction.

One specific aspect of their work that helped secure our avoidable demise: The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. Funded in large part by the Koch Brothers, ALEC is a conservative bill-printing factory. And while a great deal of its work concerns strong-arming the Kochs’ puppets on Capitol Hill, it’s in state houses where the most despicable examples of ALEC’s craft live and thrive.