National Geographic: Changing The Climate One Advert At A Time
This month at your local news stand, and in supermarkets up and down the Western world, you will find National Geographic Magazine devoting an entire issue to the realities of climate change. It’s their “Changing Climate” edition. It’s not the first time National Geographic has featured on The Unsuitablog: last time they were filling their regular editions with car adverts, showing that their primary motivation is to make money.
But, a whole edition on climate change, surely they wouldn’t stoop so low as to place unsuitable adverts, would they? I didn’t need to read the text to know that it would contain the usual superficial sycophantic articles about issues that need to be given the acid rather than the warm flannel treatment — we are talking about global catastrophe here, guys! I also didn’t need to read the Solutions section to know that the only solutions presented would be straight out of Ikea and Walmart, and nothing to do with actually changing the way humans live.
I didn’t have to read the text, but I did — and I was right on both counts. But one thing that struck me was the apparent absence of adverts throughout the magazine; a pleasant surprise, I may add, considering the normal consumer rush that readers are subjected to each month.
And then I looked inside the front cover…
[Read the rest at The Unsuitablog]
The Tools Of Greenwashing: 1. Adverts
Not everything on The Unsuitablog is greenwashing, sometimes it is about organisations that are just being foolish or aren’t informed enough to realise they are being hypocritical; sometimes it is about stuff that is just plain bad, and is featured because it is bad enough that everyone should know about. But the vast majority of stuff here is Greenwash. If you are a regular reader (for which I am very grateful) then you will already know how to spot greenwash. But just spotting it won’t stop it happening; we need to know more about the various tools companies, authorities, NGOs and other areas of life use to pull the leaves over our eyes.
The first one in this small series is Advertising.
The first time most people, including me, come across greenwashing is in the form of an advertisement. Adverts are, by their nature, commercial tools: they exist to encourage people to spend money. Straight away we can see a problem here, because the act of spending money — in the vast majority of cases — is unsustainable, regardless of the product being purchased. If you buy something new (when was the last time you saw an advert for something pre-owned?) then you are almost certain to be using non-renewable materials; and also non-renewable energy that was used to produce, transport, market and retail the item.
There are many different types of advertisement, ranging from press adverts in your local, small-circulation freesheet, national newspaper and magazine adverts, radio and television adverts (again these could be local or national), cinema adverts, billboards and the various forms of moving and placed adverts in a huge number of different items — bus tickets, schoolbooks, taxicabs etc.
In general, the glossier, bigger and larger circulation the advertisement, the more money that has been spent on it — and, therefore, the more money the advertiser is hoping to recoup from the sale of the item. For instance, a full-page adverts in National Geographic, Time or the Washington Post will cost tens of thousands of Dollars / Euros / Pounds etc. A 30 second spot in the middle of a major sporting event can cost millions.
If you see “green” claims in these, high-cost adverts, then you can be sure that you are looking at a piece of clever, slick greenwash.
[Read the rest at The Unsuitablog…]
Chevy Tahoe Hybrid: Read The Figures And Weep
It’s 2008. Chevy have broken the mould and built a big SUV that is also a hybrid! Aren’t they fantastic?
The Hybrid Taken To Its Logical Extreme
The 2008 Chevy Tahoe already has best-in-class fuel economy. So why mess with a good thing? To make it better, of course. Seems the Green Car Journal agrees — they’ve named the 2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid the Green Car of the Year.
This is from the Chevy web site. There are a few notes attached to the statement, which you might find interesting. Shall we read it again?
The Hybrid Taken To Its Logical Extreme
The 2008 Chevy Tahoe already has best-in-class fuel economy. (1) So why mess with a good thing? To make it better, of course. Seems the Green Car Journal agrees — they’ve named the 2008 Chevy Tahoe Hybrid (2) the Green Car of the Year.(3)
(1) Based on 2007 GM Large Utility segment and 2008 EPA estimates. Tahoe 2WD with available 5.3L V8 has EPA est. MPG 14 city/20 hwy.
(2) Limited availability starting January 2008.
(3) For more information, visit GreenCar.com.
So, let’s get this right: (1) It is Best In Class compared to GM’s other f*** off SUV monsters — not other manfacturers’ SUVs, just those made by GM. (2) There will be hardly any of them (actually, that’s got to be a good thing). (3) Green Car magazine is run by a guy who loves cars — the “environment” (as they define it) is a selling point.
[Read the rest at The Unsuitablog…]
Solar Power Surges: Up 51% in 2007
Global production of solar photovoltaic (PV) cells increased 51 percent in 2007, to 3,733 megawatts, according to the latest Vital Signs Update from the Worldwatch Institute, produced in collaboration with the Prometheus Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
More than 2,935 megawatts (MW) of solar modules were installed in 2007, according to early estimates, bringing cumulative global installations of PVs since 1996 to more than 9,740 MW—enough to meet the annual electricity demand of more than 3 million homes in Europe.
“Thanks to strong, smart policies in countries like Germany and Spain, the PV industry is making great strides in efficiency and cost, bringing solar power closer to price parity with fossil fuels,” says Janet Sawin, Worldwatch Senior Researcher and author of the update.
Over the past year, Europe—led by Germany—surpassed Japan to lead the world in solar cell manufacturing, producing an estimated 1,063 MW in 2007. Thanks to government policies that guarantee high payments for solar power fed into the electric grid, Germany remains the world leader in solar PV installations, accounting for almost half the world total in 2007. About 40,000 people are now employed in the PV industry in Germany.
Spain ranked second after Germany for total installations in 2007, but accounts for only an estimated 3 percent of global production. As in Germany, the Spanish market is being driven by a strong guaranteed price for PV electricity.
Despite a dramatic increase in solar cell production in the United States, up 48 percent to 266 MW, the nation’s share of global production and installations continued to fall in 2007.
In contrast, China raced past the United States for PV cell manufacturing in 2006 to place third globally, and it now ranks second only to Japan for national production. Over the past two years, China’s PV production has increased more than sixfold, to 820 MW in 2007. Despite these impressive numbers, the domestic market remains small and most PV cells made in China are exported to Europe.
“With billions of dollars invested in the solar energy technologies in the last 12 months, the PV sector is primed for accelerating its impact in both centralized and distributed generation at increasingly competitive costs,” says Travis Bradford, President of the Prometheus Institute. “As it reaches widespread cost parity in the next few years, demand will flourish in many places around the world simultaneously.”
Solar PV prices declined slightly in 2007, with even greater reductions held back by the hot pace of demand and a continued shortage of polysilicon, an essential ingredient for conventional solar cells. Analysts expect much more dramatic price drops—perhaps as much as 50 percent in the next two years—as more polysilicon becomes available, production and installation are further scaled up, manufacturing efficiencies increase, and more advanced technologies are introduced. As a result, solar electricity could soon be a competitive alternative to conventional retail power in many regions, including California and southern Europe.
According to Sawin, “PV and other renewables offer significant potential to meet global energy needs while addressing climate change, enhancing energy security, and creating jobs. Scaling up renewables is primarily a matter of political will and enacting strong, consistent policies that create demand.”
AT&T: Greening Government And Military Oppression
How green is your telecommunications company? Can it match us? AT&T lead the world in compassion and environmental nurturing through four main areas of its business.
1. Supplying military equipment:
AT&T is an official provider of personal telecommunications services for all five branches of U. S. military at 529 military bases worldwide and on 200 U. S. Navy ships afloat through contracts with AAFES, NEXCOM, MCCS and the Coast Guard Exchange. (from here)
2. Spying on the public:
Mark Klein, a former technician who worked for AT&T for 22 years, provided three technical documents, totaling 140 pages, to the EFF and to The New York Times, which first reported last December that the Bush administration was eavesdropping on citizens’ phone calls without obtaining warrants.
AT&T built a secret room in its San Francisco switching station that funnels internet traffic data from AT&T Worldnet dialup customers and traffic from AT&T’s massive internet backbone to the NSA, according to a statement from Klein.
3. Polluting waterways:
AT&T Corp. agreed to a $25 million settlement of a lawsuitalleging that the company risked polluting ground water with toxicchemicals by failing to properly test and repair hundreds of underground storage tanks for gasoline and diesel fuel, California officials said Tuesday. (from here)
4. Recycling cellphones:
When you donate your used cell phones to Cell Phones for Soldiers, your phones are either reconditioned and reused — or they’re disposed of in an environmentally friendly way. Best of all, the proceeds provide free phone cards for U.S. military families.
You can celebrate Earth Day every day. Run a cell phone donation drive in your community — at your office, school, apartment building or place of worship.
Well, that does it for me! Recycling cellphones is such a great thing that I’m just going to forgive AT&T for being a key part of the military-industrial complex…
[Read the rest at The Unsuitablog]
Racing Industry And Air Industry Fight It Out: Hilarity Ensues
There are few things more entertaining than when two different businesses, both loaded with money, battle it out for supremacy , with the only losers being one or other industry. This particular battle is taking place between the multi-millionaire (billionaire) stable owners of Newmarket, in the English Midlands, and the air industry, led by National Air Traffic Services, a recently privatised air infrastructure business. It has become a turf war…literally.
From the point of view of the avid greenwash spotter, anything that promises to dent the imperialism of the air industry has got to be good news; yet the racing industry is run by people who spend their lives dashing from one international stable to another — by plane, of course — only interspersed by journeys in their leather and burnished walnut lined Range Rovers to and from large lunches where they discuss how much more money they can make.
Surprisingly, I don’t have any sympathy for either side.
[Read the rest at The Unsuitablog]
Surprise! Big Corporations Care More About Money Than The Future
I just posted some videos of how Unilever and other large companies are destroying the future so they can make money today. Unilever, the company behind some of the world’s biggest brands, including Dove, is contributing to the destruction of the last remaining habitats of the orang-utan and other wildlife, and massively speeding up climate change.
At Unilever’s Port Sunlight factory in the northern UK, 60 volunteers dressed as orang-utans are disrupting and occupying production lines, while employees at the company’s London HQ are greeted by screeching mating calls and orang-utans clambering the building.
At Unilever’s Rotterdam HQ, 6 activists have scaled the exterior of the waterfront building to hang a banner in Dutch reading “Unilever don’t destroy the forests”.
Finally, at Unilever’s Rome HQ, 10 orang-utangs stopped employees from entering the building this morning when they dropped off an enormous box reading “stop Dove from destroying rain forests” in front of the main entrance. While loud orang-utan songs emanate from the box, the orang-utans are handing out informative flyers outlining the palm oil situation and their moratorium demands.
The actions coincide with a new report containing fresh evidence showing where Unilever’s suppliers are destroying peatland forests and orang-utan habitats to grow palm oil.
The report, entitled Burning up Borneo, accuses Unilever of contributing to this destruction by buying palm oil from these suppliers and doing nothing to prevent the massive expansion of the industry further into Indonesia’s rainforests.
Unilever is one of the biggest users of palm oil, and the expansion of the industry threatens to derail international efforts to tackle climate change. Already Indonesia is now the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet, largely due to deforestation (1).
The preparation of land for new palm oil plantations releases huge amounts of carbon dioxide as the deep peatland soils of the region are drained and then burnt. These peatland areas alone are responsible for 4% of the world’s entire greenhouse gas emissions (2).
The report also explains how the growth of the palm oil sector is having a devastating effect on biodiversity. Orang-utan numbers have fallen so drastically that they are now under serious threat of extinction (3). By mapping out areas controlled by key Unilever suppliers, the report explains how companies with direct links to Unilever are now clearing the last remaining orang-utan habitats. The report also contains field research carried out by Greenpeace in the first few months of 2008.
Reacting to the news, Greenpeace International forests campaigner, Tim Birch said: “Unilever, the company behind big brands like Dove, is contributing to one of the greatest environmental crimes ever committed”
“By doing nothing to stop its suppliers destroying rainforests and peatlands to grow palm oil, it is not only killing off the last remaining orang-utans on the planet but also speeding up climate change. Unless Unilever cleans up its act then the orang-utan could be extinct within a few years, and our chances of avoiding climate disaster could disappear with it. “
Unilever chairs the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an industry body charged with ensuring the sustainability of palm oil. Despite the fact that the RSPO was established in 2002 there is still no certified palm oil on the market and forest destruction continues apace. Even when certified palm oil is finally made available it will still be mixed with non-certified palm oil, making it impossible for Unilever to guarantee that any oil is not based on rainforest destruction.
Greenpeace is demanding Unilever publicly calls for an end to the expansion of palm oil into forest and peatland areas and stops trading with suppliers that continue to destroy rainforests.
Birch continued: “Unilever pretends to be a responsible company, but what it’s really responsible for is profiting from rainforest destruction. If they invested as much in sorting out their suppliers as they do on greenwashing their brand, they could fix this problem for good.”
The interesting thing about all this is that these big corporations are screwing us in a couple different ways. They are destroying our environment, literally stealing the future from our children, all while charging us for products that are full of chemicals that are bad for us. We are paying them a whole bunch of money, and all we get in return is destruction and the specter of global warming. Sounds like maybe we should stop giving them our money.
(1)Wetlands International, Peatland degradation fuels climate change, November 2006
(2)Cooking the Climate, Greenpeace Report, November 2007
(3)The Last Stand of the Orangutan; State of Emergency: Illegal Logging, Fire and Palm Oil in Indonesia’s National Parks, UNEP, Feb 2007
(4)According to the Centre for Orang-Utan protection, at least 1,500 orang-utans died in 2006 as a result of deliberate attacks by plantation workers. (AFP (2007) ‘Activists: Palm oil workers killing endangered Orang-Utans’). Since 1900, the number of Sumatran orang-utans is thought to have fallen by about 91%, with a rapidly accelerating loss towards the end of the 20th century. Since 1990, 28 million hectares of Indonesian rainforest – an area the size of Ecuador – have been destroyed, mostly to clear the way for palm oil plantations. Demand for palm oil is expected to double by 2030 and triple by 2050, when compared to 2000.
What’s In Your Soap? Rain Forest Being Destroyed For Beauty Products
Do you know where the palm oil in your food, beauty products, and most importantly Biodiesel comes form? It’s a good chance that it was grown on land that used to be rain forest. Before you fill up on biodiesel or buy that new Dove beauty product be sure you figure out where the ingredients came from. Not much point in tearing down rain forest to grow a replacement to oil. If your goal is to stop global warming you are going to need all the rain forest you can get.
The Nature Conservancy: Partnering With Poisoners
I sometimes get the feeling I’m shooting fish in a barrel, writing this blog — not that I would ever shoot a fish — with the targets getting easier and easier to pick off. This is never so true as with the “environmental” charities that huddle up, all cosily, with business in the vain attempt to get them to play nicely.
They really don’t get it — business doesn’t want to “play nicely”, business wants to do business, and will not do business if it doesn’t make a profit. In order to make a profit the business must get more more out of a process than it puts in; and if you are a manufacturer or a producer of raw materials then that extra either comes from cheap labour or the extraction of something you didn’t have before — like oil or timber. If you are a retailer or an investment bank, the profit you gain is dependent on selling something for a greater value than you bought it — you are dependent on the manufacturer or producer of raw materials having something you can resell at a profit, so they must reduce their costs as much as possible. In order for these costs to be reduced they must cut corners, so they treat workers badly; pollute the land, water and atmosphere; use their commercial muscle to ensure they don’t have legislation to comply with…and so on. If you are an advertiser or PR company, your job is to make all these companies look good.
In short, business is unsustainable, at all levels.
If you are the Nature Conservancy, one of the largest and most respected environmental charities in the world, then it would make sense not to work with profit making businesses, especially not the most damaging of them…you know, companies like Alcoa, BP and Cargill — really, really bad companies…
[Read the rest at The Unsuitablog]
How To Spot Greenwash
I have a pretty good radar for greenwash, which is how it’s so easy to find subjects for The Unsuitablog; but the adverts, the policies, the promotions and the speeches full of bright green spit keep on coming. Someone is lapping this all up and it’s the consuming public: if not then why would companies and organisations keep on doing it?
My aim with The Unsuitablog is twofold, and you can all help me with it:
1) To make everyone adept at spotting greenwash as and when it is trotted out.
2) To make greenwashing as socially unacceptable as consuming hard drugs in front of your grandmother.
Without the first aim, the second aim cannot come true, which means that greenwashing will thrive, and those responsible will carry on doing their Earth killing behind closed doors.
If you are a regular reader of The Unsuitablog then you will already be quite adept as seeing how it is done, but here are some tips for everyone who wants a little help:
- Be suspicious of all environmental claims. Don’t trust anything unless you have verified them yourself.
- If a company, in particular, takes out a large advertisement in a newspaper, or runs a TV advertisement saying how great their green credentials are — then they are hiding something, guaranteed. If someone is trying sell their “green” credentials then ask yourself, “why?”
[Read the rest at The Unsuitablog]
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