By Jill Richardson | AlterNet.
With the world’s leading scientists in agreement on the science behind global warming, how are multinational corporations preparing for climate change? Some, like Exxon Mobile, continue to squeeze the last drops of profit out of any oil field they get their hands on while paying scientists to deny climate change. Some see profitability in adapting to a more energy-efficient world. And then there’s the third group: the greenwashers — those hoping to come off as enviro-friendly while they make a buck (or a few million) off our global crisis.
Greenwashing is nothing new, but there’s a huge difference between covering up environmentally damaging activities with an eco-friendly gesture or two and touting your pollution-based business as the solution to the climate crisis.
An example of the former would be Wal-Mart patting itself on the back for selling millions of energy-efficient lightbulbs while simultaneously selling cheap junk from China by the truckload. Nobody will be fooled by a few compact fluorescents into believing that Wal-Mart is up there with the Sierra Club in defending our planet.
But how about companies like Bayer, which is currently working to produce drought-resistant plants to help farmers face a post-global warming reality? And then there’s corn ethanol, a fuel that requires so much oil to produce that it hardly represents a move away from petroleum products at all, and yet it is the darling of politicians on both sides of the aisle. To many, these products are undetectable as greenwashing. And that’s not by accident.
During a conversation on climate change at this month’s Slow Food Nation festival, author and activist Anna Lappé said, “What scares me about this historic moment is that as we collectively raise the consciousness about the connection between the food system and climate change — that there is one, that we need to do something about it — at the very same time what we’re seeing is some of the biggest agribusiness companies and also the biggest biotech companies taking advantage of that consciousness-raising to present themselves as the solution, and that I think is very dangerous.”
Read on here.
