Environment

Beyond Posturing

Four years ago BP - the company formerly known as British Petroleum - launched a $200 million ad campaign to rebrand itself as "Beyond Petroleum" and to strut the company's avowed commitment to corporate social responsibility. At its April 16 annual general meeting in London, however, its real face was more visible.

No

It's Not Easy, Being Green(washers)

The Forest Service's controversial "Forests With a Future" campaign, handled by PR firm OneWorld Communications, includes a brochure explaining why increased logging will benefit Sierra Nevada forests. "The pamphlet... explains that fire risks have risen as the Sierra's forests have grown more dense in the past century.

No

Seeing Green Through Rose-Colored Glasses

"From the heated debate on global warming to the hot air on forests; from the muddled talk on our nation's waters to the convolution on air pollution, we are fighting a battle of fact against fiction on the environment -- Republicans can't stress enough that extremists are screaming 'Doomsday!' when the environment is actually seeing a new and better day," proclaimed an email memo sent to the press secretaries of all Republican congressmen.

No

Don't Be Fooled

The Green Life, a Boston-based environmental organization, chose April 1 to release its "Don't Be Fooled" report on the "10 worst greenwashers of 2003." Winners included: Project Learning Tree, a front group for the American Forest Foundation; Royal Caribbean International, for giving itself an environmental award and shielding customers from information about raw sewage dumping and other forms of cruise ship pollution; the Environmental Protection Agency, for calling its plan to weaken the Clean Air Act the "C

No

'Anti-Chemical' = Pro-Public Health

"Industry officials are expressing grave concern that a growing alliance between environmentalists and patient advocacy groups to link exposure to harmful pollution with chronic diseases and life-long disabilities could add credibility to activists' calls for stricter environmental requirements," Inside EPA reports.

No

Dirty Is Clean, Gray Is Green - Vote for Me!

"Republicans can't stress enough that extremists are screaming 'Doomsday!'" reads a leaked memo from the U.S. House of Representatives' Republican Conference communications office to GOP members. The memo isn't referring to the Middle East -- it's offering advice on how to dismiss environmental issues raised by Democratic challengers.

No

Can't See the Forest for the Forest Fuels

In an "unusual, if not unprecedented" move, the U.S. Forest Service paid the San Francisco-based PR firm OneWorld Communications $90,000 to promote its controversial Sierra Nevada forest management plan. In a leaked memo, OneWorld suggested the slogan "Forests With A Future" to promote the plan, which will triple commercial logging and allow larger trees to be cut.

No

It's Greener on the Swing Side

GOP pollster Frank Luntz warned in a memo to party leaders: "The environment is probably the single issue on which Republicans in general - and President Bush in particular - are most vulnerable." The administration's recent funding boosts for its Healthy Forests Restoration Act, Pacific salmon recovery programs, the Klamath River Basin (previously targeted by the anti-environmental

No

Bush Administration Protects Chemical Industy

"Last year the Bush Administration encouraged American chemical companies to lobby against European efforts to strengthen the regulation of thousands of chemicals contained in household, industrial and personal products," BushGreenWash.org writes. "When the chemical industry was slow to respond, Administration officials took it upon themselves to launch 'an unusually aggressive campaign' to pressure the European Union into watering down its comprehensive reform efforts. Documents uncovered by the Environmental Health Fund, using the Freedom of Information Act, showed the U.S.

No

Chemical Industry Wages War on Environment & Health

A news release from the Environmental Working Group reveals that "the chemical industry plans to conduct a covert campaign attacking the growing movement in California for more chemical safety testing, with tactics including the creation of phony front groups and spying on activists, according to an internal American Chemistry Council (ACC) memo. ...

No

Pages

Subscribe to Environment