Toban Black

(By “Mr. Lunch Breath“)

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Similar greenwash techniques also are used in other marketing and PR spin.

Here’s one example -

[Read more →]

(That image was cropped out of a photo taken by Jody B.)

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The COP15 talks in Copenhagen have been called “Brokenhagen” and “Failenhagen.” One write-up in The Guardian is titled “Low targets, goals dropped: Copenhagen ends in failure.”

Here is some selected material about the betrayals and the sell-outs in Copenhagen -

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Around the end of the talks

Civil society organization statements -
“US undermines climate talks with bullying tactics and backroom deals”
“Civil Society Denounces U.S. Plan for Fast-Tracking Warming, Worsening Humanitarian Crisis, and Fueling Ecological Collapse”

A statement from La Via Campesina -
“Traders failed in Copenhagen. The future lies in people’s hands”
(Although I support some of the groups and organizations who protested out there, I wouldn’t call the street demonstrations “power in Copenhagen.”)

A video -
“Bill McKibben reacts to climate deal announcement at flash rally”
“350.org founder and author, Bill McKibben offers his perspective of the end of the Copenhagen climate talks amidst a rousing rally to shame world leaders for not stepping up to the plate with a real deal.”

[Read more →]

A car advertisement on the back of a local bus

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Andy Rowell on the Oil Change blog -
“Electric Vehicles May Increase CO2”
(I think it’s too much of a stretch to say that electric vehicles are “all the rage”; but some people definitely are looking toward them as ’solutions.’)

Brad Aaron on the Streetsblog New York City site -
“Do Your Part: Buy an Audi, Drive Fast” (in October)
(Evidently the author is using the word “transit” to refer to mass transit — such as buses.)

Fred Pearce in The Guardian -
“BMW’s ActiveHybrid X6 Accelerates Nonsense About High-performance, Low-emission Cars” (in September)

Brad Aaron on the Streetsblog New York City site -
“Ad Nauseam: Toyota’s (Passive-Aggressive) Ransom Note to America” (in October)

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Here are some related posts on this blog -
http://tobanblack.net/blog/?tag=automobiles

[In this post I basically am following up another one titled "Waves of greenwash"]

Body Shop marketing in a mall

Shop for The Earth!
Buy from the Planetary Guardians!

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Exerpts from an article by Stan Cox in CounterPunch -
“The Political Economics of Greenwashing: Green as a Blackjack Table” (in 2008)

“In their desperation to keep the American economy afloat, government and business will be tossing overboard any proposals for real environmental protection. No time for such romantic foolishness when there are investments to be protected.”

“Not that we won’t be hearing about the environment; indeed, the next [commercial expansion] spurt, if it comes, is likely to be clothed in a green as green as the felt on a blackjack table.”

“For more than 30 years, The Body Shop and its CEO, self-styled anti-capitalist capitalist Anita Roddick, avidly cultivated a corporate image as pioneers of high business ethics. But The Body Shop has been dismissed by critics as no more than a world leader in pale-green consumerism.”

[Read more →]

Overviews

A Camp for Climate Action press release -
“Climate Activists Hit Big Business and Banks”

A BBC article -
“Climate activists stage protests”

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Bike swoop photos
- Set one
- Set two

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Day 2: The European Climate Exchange

A Camp for Climate Action video and press release -
“Everyone’s a loser at the Climate Casino!”

[Read more →]

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On cars as we know them -

Asher Miller (in this blog post) -
“Only about 15% of the energy that goes into your gas tank is used to move your car. And, because of the weight of an average car, only about 1% is actually used to move you.”

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Alec Dubro (in this article) -

“The average car or light truck is two tons or so: 4000-plus pounds to move 200 pounds of people. OK, everybody out of the SUVs and F-150s and into a nice, green Prius. However, the curb weight of an unladen Prius is 2765 pounds, which means a ton and a half around to get you and a bag of groceries home. Not good.”

“Even if we were able to produce a … zero pollution vehicle, we’d still need to maintain the infrastructure of roads, bridges, and energy distribution. That means steel, concrete, asphalt and plastics. Just concrete production alone generates as much as 10 percent of all greenhouse gas. In 2007, the U.S. produced 95 million tons of cement by burning fossil fuels and, according to the EPA, is the third largest source of greenhouse gas pollution in the U.S. (Scientific America, August 7, 2008) The production of asphalt – a petroleum product – also creates carbon. As does the production of motor oil, tires, and on and on.”

And there’s another intractable problem: the very thing that makes tires so useful – comfort, stability, adhesion – also produces immense rolling friction. In order for us to makes cars that are maneuverable and relatively safe, they have to grip the road, which takes buckets of energy to overcome. One reason trains are able to transport people using far less energy per passenger mile is that there are fewer wheels per person and steel wheels have much less rolling friction.”

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(Photo by Berd)

[Read more →]

Deception and global warming

(Photo by Ben Beaumont)

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This article is an overview of various forms of greenwashing -

Mitchell Anderson -
“Eco-bunk Exposed”

(”Why bother doing something when you can just say you did it? That seems to be the cynical sentiment driving a lucrative growth industry: corporate green washing.” …)

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Greenwash basically consists of claims about how products (e.g. food in grocery stores) and operations (e.g. airports) either are ecologically benign, or ecologically beneficial. Either way, greenwash is one way of encouraging us to accept or actively support ecological degradation (which has included various forms of pollution).

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Here are some blog posts about carbon & energy greenwash -

Fred Pearce for The Guardian -
“Ikea [greenwash]” (in April)

[Read more →]

Marjorie Kelly and Paul Raskin -

“What is unfolding today is a systemic crisis, heralding the beginning of a large-scale shift at the deepest levels of [societal] organization.”

“We need a new map of the world.”

“Transitions announce themselves in the language of crisis. We are in a time of turbulence as old patterns give way and new ones form. The multiple crises today signal a system transformation operating at the scale of the planet.”

[Read more →]

An open pit coal mine
(Photo by Christopher Herwig)

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Coal is Dirty
“Debunking the myth of ‘clean coal.’”

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Other writing -

Patrick Barry in Science News -
“Carbon Capture and Storage Will Increase Pollution”

Stacy Feldman at SolveClimate.com -
“How Coal Is Not Cheap and Why It Never Will Be Again” (July 30th)
… “It’s hard to know where to start” …

Kevin Grandia at The Huffington Post -
“Bees, Trees, Wind and Dynamite” (September 10th)
“There’s a showdown in West Virginia … pitting old dirty energy against [alternatives] — and one side is armed with explosives.” …

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(Photo by Stephen Strathdee)

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Recent analysis from Richard Heinberg:
- New Coal Technologies (September 2nd)
- Coal and Climate (August 4th)
- Coal in China (June 27th)
- Coal in the United States (May 28th)

That also applies to electric cars and air cars.

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By Andy Singer