Global Warming

That Fixes Everything

by Sheldon Rampton — September 11, 2008 - 10:26am

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) has issued a news release calling on the presidential campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama to "uphold the highest standards of ethical practice in every facet of their campaign communications." PRSA CEO Jeffre

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PRSA news release, September 10, 2008

A Climate Change Skeptic and His Supporters

by Bob Burton — September 11, 2008 - 1:51am

Sammy Wilson, the Northern Ireland Minister for Environment, is an avowed climate change skeptic who claims that "there is no conclusive evidence that greenhouse gases are a major cause of

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The News Letter (Belfast, Northern Ireland), September 10, 2008

Rebuff for Coal Power Giant

by Bob Burton — September 10, 2008 - 11:17pm

The German power corporation E.ON has suffered a humiliating defeat in its attempt to have six Greenpeace protesters convicted of criminal damage for painting a slogan on the coal-fired Kingsnorth Power Station in the United Kingdom. The six argued that they had a "lawful excuse" for their action in trying to prevent further damage to the global climate.

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Reuters, September 11, 2008

Auto Association "Empowers" Consumers

by Judith Siers-Poisson — September 9, 2008 - 3:04pm

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, a trade association of car and light truck manufacturers, has launched "EcoDriving," "a national campaign intended to empower consumers on an individual basis to reduce fuel use and CO2 emissions." The campaign will utilize social networking, events, and media outreach to "offers manufacturers an opportunity to show consumers they are part of the solution." Colorado Gov.

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PR Week (US), September 2, 2008

Canadian Lobbyists Apply Elbow Grease to U.S. Democrats

by Diane Farsetta — September 8, 2008 - 10:55am

"If you don't like the oil sands oil, what companies will do [in Canada] is build a bigger pipeline to the west coast and export it to China and India," warned a lobbyist for Nexen Energy, which has "major investments" in the oil sands region of Alberta, Canada. He was attending the U.S.

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Inter Press Service News, September 2, 2008

Mixed Signals at the World Bank

by Judith Siers-Poisson — August 28, 2008 - 5:19pm

A year ago, World Bank President Robert Zoellick committed the lending institution to "significantly step up our assistance" to fight climate change through its loans. Instead, the World Bank is increasing its financing of fossil-fuel projects worldwide.

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Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, August 24, 2008

Canada's Oilsands Tarred with the "Greenwash" Brush

by Diane Farsetta — August 18, 2008 - 11:08am

The UK Advertising Standards Authority ruled that a Shell ad that repeatedly referred to extraction from Canada's oilsands as "sustainable" was "misleading." The advertising regulator noted the "considerable social and environmental impacts" of oilsands development, adding that Shell has not explained how it will manage "carbon emissions from its oilsands projects in order to limit

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Calgary Herald (Canada), August 14, 2008

Climate Change Skeptics Found Wrong but not Harmful

by Diane Farsetta — August 7, 2008 - 10:09am

The British government's media regulator, Ofcom, issued a split ruling on "The Great Global Warming Swindle," a film commissioned and broadcast by Channel 4.

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The Guardian (UK), July 22, 2008

Global Warming's Deadly Denial

by Bob Burton — August 4, 2008 - 6:24am

Reviewing the continued campaign by climate change skeptics, David McKnight, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales (Australia), notes that there several reasons why companies such as Exxon have had some success playing the global warming denial card. "First, the implications of the science are frightening.

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Sydney Morning Herald (Australia), August 2, 2008

Return of the "American Energy Alliance"

by Sheldon Rampton — August 1, 2008 - 10:22am

An industry front group best known for opposing the BTU tax (an energy tax based on consumption) in the 1990s has resurfaced in New Mexico, where it's running radio ads attacking congressman Tom Udall for his opposition to oil drilling. According to Time magazine, the American Energy Alliance was created in 1993 when the National Manufacturers Association "got together with the American Petroleum Institute, 1,600 large companies, small businesses and farmers to form ... a group designed solely to defeat the BTU tax. The coalition paid more than $1 million to Burson-Marsteller, a public relations firm, to deploy nearly 45 staff members in 23 states during the past two months. Burson's goal was to drum up as much grass-roots outrage about the BTU tax as possible and direct it at the swing Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee." Matthew Reichbach, who reported on the group's current attacks on Udall, noted that "Information on the group is hard to come by. There are no online Federal Energy Regulatory Commission filings, no Internal Revenue Service filings and no way to contact the group."

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New Mexico Independent, July 23, 2008