Environment

Special Offer: Free Grass to Subject Your Children to Sludge

by Judith Siers-Poisson — April 23, 2008 - 8:13pm

Sludge keeps rearing its ugly head. Scientists used federal grant money to "spread fertilizer made from human and industrial wastes on yards in poor, black neighborhoods to test whether it might protect children from lead poisoning in the soil." The residents were not alerted to any harmful ingredients in the sludge, and were assured that it posed no health risks for their families.

Main Source: 
Baltimore Examiner, April 13, 2008

This Earth Day, Let's Scrape off the Greenwash

by Sheldon Rampton — April 22, 2008 - 2:18am
  • Topics: Activism, Front Groups, Global Warming, Corporations, Environment, Health, Public Relations, Science

    • The Rainforest Action Network takes on greenwashing by BP

    Today marks the 38th annual celebration of Earth Day, and once again the event comes with its fair share of PR hype and misleading marketing campaigns. In the spirit of dedicating ourselves to genuine concern for the planet, today is therefore a good time to look carefully at corporate environmental claims, some of which consist more of empty rhetoric than real substance.

    Companies like Wal-Mart are announcing environmental initiatives. General Electric has its "Ecomagnation" advertising campaign. In Singapore, a shopping center is advertising that customers can "shop to save planet earth" -- and if they buy enough, they might win a new car!

    The ritual of green hypocrisy frequently requires that companies and politicians redefine environmental progress in increasingly creative ways. Last week, for example, George W. Bush announced a plan to address the problem of global warming by "halting the growth" of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2025. Beyond the fact that this target date is 17 years in the future, what really means is that during those 17 years not only will greenhouse gas emissions continue, the amount of those emissions will continue to grow. As columnist Gail Collins observed in the New York Times, this would be akin to having an overweight person announce a plan to achieve "an 18 percent reduction in the rate at which he was gaining weight, to be reached within the next decade."

    Obama and Clinton Get Down & Dirty with "Clean" Coal

    by John Stauber — April 19, 2008 - 9:24am

    The Associated Press reports, "Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are walking a delicate line as they promise to aggressively tackle global warming while trying to assure voters that they continue to believe in the future of coal," the energy source responsible for "nearly 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide, the leading greenhouse gas, each year.

    Main Source: 
    Associated Press, April 19, 2008

    King Coal Gets Green Help Down Under

    by Diane Farsetta — April 16, 2008 - 1:51pm

    "In a public relations coup for the coal industry," the Australian Coal Association is working with "two prominent environment groups, WWF and the Climate Institute, and the miners' union, to call on the

    Main Source: 
    The Sydney Morning Herald, April 15, 2008

    Is Earth Day the New Christmas?

    by Anne Landman — April 15, 2008 - 1:59pm

    GreenwashBack in 1970, Earth Day started out as a "green" event that encouraged people to decrease their consumption, but as more companies jump on the greenwashing bandwagon, Earth Day h

    Main Source: 
    Advertising Age, April 15, 2008

    A Bad Week for Corporate Spies

    by Diane Farsetta — April 14, 2008 - 4:46pm
  • Topics: Corporate Campaigns, Corporations, Democracy, Environment, Ethics, Labor, Public Relations

    • If Cara Schaffer contacts you, be wary. Take emails and online comments from "activist2008" and "stopcorporategreed" with a grain of salt. Londoners, be on the lookout for Toby Kendall, a.k.a. "Ken Tobias." And activists everywhere should think twice before putting documents in the recycling or trash bins.

    Over the past week, reporters and activists outed three different corporate spying operations. As John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton wrote in their 1995 book "Toxic Sludge Is Good for You!": "Movements for social and political reform have often become targets of surveillance. ... The public relations industry has developed a lucrative side business scrutinizing the thoughts and actions of citizen activists, using paid spies who are often recruited from government, military or private security backgrounds."

    Last week's revelations show that these underhanded tactics are very much in use today. And they don't just impact the groups being infiltrated. By privileging corporate interests, effectively giving them the first and last word on an issue, they distort vital public debates.

    The Pro-Junk Mail Lobby: Fighting to Sustain the Unsustainable?

    by Anne Landman — April 9, 2008 - 5:31pm
  • Topics: Advertising, Corporate Campaigns, Front Groups, Third Party Technique, Corporations, Environment, Ethics, Marketing

    • Junk mail kills trees, clogs mailboxes, packs landfills, wastes natural resources, and everyone would be glad to be rid of it. Right?

    Well, maybe not.

    Whether out of environmental concern or sheer annoyance, legislated efforts to reduce junk mail are on the rise, but companies that have vested interests in its continuance have started organizing to save it--in a big way. Of course, they don't call it junk mail. Their preferred euphemisms are "advertising mail," "direct mail" or even "standard mail."

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