Greenwashing 2.0: A Whole New Generation Of Gooey Soft-Focus Energy Marketing

[hatrack]

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Amid the investigations into their communications on climate change, many fossil fuel companies have been slowly re-tooling their messaging. Some have acknowledged a need to transition away from fossil fuels — but at what critics respond would be a very slow pace.

Others have continued to push natural gas as a climate-friendly fossil fuel, despite the industry’s severe climate-changing methane problems. API, for example, has placed ads claiming natural gas can “help meet the growing global demand for sustainable energy” under the Washington Post’s “branded content platform,” as The Intercept’s Sharon Lerner reported in April. Other campaigns ditch mention of climate change and pollution all together, instead focusing on the benefits of products made from fossil fuels.

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Ed. - But of course, it's the same old shit behind the scenes:

“Oil majors are projecting themselves as key players in the energy transition while lobbying to delay, weaken, or oppose meaningful climate policy,” Edward Collins of the UK-based think tank InfluenceMap said in a March statement accompanying a report he authored on public relations campaigns by oil and gas giants. “They advocate gradual implementation of market-based and technological climate solutions, but the latest [United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] report makes clear that urgent policy action and limitations on fossil fuel use are needed to avoid dangerous climate change.”

The shift doesn’t spell the end of climate science denial — DeSmog’s database of individuals and organizations that seek to cast doubt on climate science or oppose action to prevent some of the worst effects of warming the world includes roughly 225 organizations — and that list continues to grow. Climate sciences deniers, many with ties to the oil, gas, and coal industries, have also climbed to dizzying heights within the Trump administration, placing them in positions where they can wield power directly and also communicate doubt to the public. Vice President Mike Pence is closely tied to the Koch network and in 2016 said, regarding climate change, “I don't know that that is a resolved issue in science today.”

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https://www.desmogblog.com/2019/09/16/fossil-fuel-ad-campaigns-climate-science-denial-pr-exxon-lawsuits

[Newest Reality]

1. You could say...

The sacred profits and increasing power of the oligarchy trumps any and every issue that we are compelled to put more emphasis on and disagree on. Pun intended there.

However, it is upside down and backwards because that fact is not even secondary to the wedges tossed in our path, it is almost transparent even though it is ubiquitous.

We are being moved by our own biases, which can be like sticky filters. The process is reinforced and the divisions are maintained by the appeal to what will evoke reactions, (in contrast to careful and appropriate response) and divert attention.

This obviously works well and waking up to that starts with knowing what lurks behind the screens. Stop. Consider the source. Get a sense of the big picture. Understand the manufacture of consent. Commit to discovering what needs the utmost emphasis and know that the stakes are much, much higher than you are lead to believe.

Proceed from there.

[The_jackalope]

2. I'd put it this way...

The sacred and increasing income of the proletariat trumps any and every issue.

This part I agree with:

We are being moved by our own biases, which can be like sticky filters. The process is reinforced and the divisions are maintained by the appeal to what will evoke reactions, (in contrast to careful and appropriate response) and divert attention.

No matter how woke we are, it's pretty hard to convince people to take a cut in pay to reduce our impact on the planet. It's much easier to believe that it's the oligarchy's fault. But they are, IMO, simply the enablers of our innate and culturally-programmed desires for comfort and status.

[Newest Reality]

3. Good point.

I agree with that in whole.

My idea of wokeness is for the sake of coping, more than anything else. Since we are now seeing what is called climate grief emerging, being able to put things into some sort of perspective might be useful. I am not an optimist at this point and am in acceptance mode about the degree of the impact and the futility of believing we can now avoid it. Some people will cope by way of denial, others will find knowing the facts more practical and useful.

I don't see any kind of change coming that will have that much impact now on the momentum of climate change for the foreseeable future. It is not just about pay and economics; it signals dramatic changes in lifestyle for large numbers of people in a short period of time. Who's going to go first? So, it ain't gonna' happen, except as a result of catastrophes to come. There are many feedback loops in effect for the climate changes and the possibility of exponential acceleration is a remote possibility now.

The best we can do is to try to not make it any worse and put effort and energy into surviving the impact and mitigating the cascading results. Perhaps in hundreds or thousands of years, there will be a new period of climate equilibrium for what survives?

A large part of that methodical, cultural-programming you mention is the manufacture of consent, which requires a certain amount of repetitive diversion, methodical media manipulation and ignorance, (willful and otherwise). Although there are many books on the subject, an excellent primer, (for any who might curious) is an older BBC documentary, The Century of the Self. It is easy to understand the mechanics and progression from there to this point from that. So, yes, we are enabled, but in a somewhat Pavlovian sense. Much is based on basic, innate drives and unconscious associations that are evoked and massaged.

I don't know, maybe knowing how the media is the message helps and breaking the spell has some personal value? Just thought I would tangentially go off the rails with copious verbiage. Thanks for your comment.