Blogposts tagged 'Greenwash'

Our colleagues in the US have been blogging regularly about the ongoing disaster in the gulf and Greenpeace's involvement in the response to the oil spill. Here, Mike Gaworecki sheds some light on the clean-up operation BP has been carrying out on its image.

There's no way to clean up an oil spill. We've seen this time and again - in Alaska's Prince William Sound, for instance, where oil from the Exxon Valdez spill is still having an impact on local ecosystems. Corporations like Exxon or BP that find themselves responsible for an oil spill - or, as was the case for Exxon and now is the case for BP, an oil disaster - are really left with only one option to handle the problem: public relations, damage control and fierce lobbying.

Not green, and not strictly regulated

Last Thursday, while approving the construction of a third runway at Heathrow, Geoff Hoon claimed he was accompanying it with what he called "the toughest climate change regime for aviation of any country in the world." Cleaner planes, tougher regulation, green slots for takeoff and landing - the secretary of state was keen to broadcast the runway's green credentials.

You can understand why it's important for Geoff to make a lot of noise about green planes and strict regulation while cheerleading for a third runway. Pursuing a policy of aviation expansion while committing to an 80 per cent cut in UK emissions by 2050 might seem like a strange thing to be doing, particularly as Lord Turner of the Committee on Climate Change ruled that there must be "clear strategies" in place to cut emissions from aviation, otherwise any cuts made in other sectors will be wiped out.

The tension built as the judges deliberated. Then at last the results were were all in and - ta-da! It was time to announce the winner of the first annual Greenpeace 'Emerald Paintbrush' award for greenwashing above and beyond the call of duty. Cue a quick roll on the drums, and step forward into the spotlight - BP!

The energy corporation with an income larger than most of the world's nation states has spent a lot of time and money restyling itself as being 'Beyond Petroleum' in recent years, but a trawl through their accounts quickly reveals just how empty that assertion really is - 'Back to Petroleum', more like it.

Gordon Brown has revealed his latest wheeze to try and convince us that underneath that gruff capitalist exterior there beats a heart of purest green. Together with the Met Office, the government has released a Google Earth layer showing the effects of climate change (download Google Earth, then get the layer).