Environment

Special Offer: Free Grass to Subject Your Children to Sludge

Submitted by Judith Siers-Poisson on

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.

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Main Source: 
Baltimore Examiner, April 13, 2008
Topics: 
Sludge
Children
Environment
Health
Politics
Propaganda
Race / Ethnic Issues
Science
Social Justice
U.S. Government

Businesses Lobby During "Earth Month" to Protect Plastic Bags

Submitted by Anne Landman on

Plastic bag wasteThe Progressive Bag Alliance, the American Chemistry Council and Wal-Mart Stores were among the parties who successfully lobbied Democratic Pennsylvan

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Main Source: 
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 22, 2008
Topics: 
Advertising
Corporate Campaigns
Corporate Social Responsibility
Front Groups
Corporations
Environment
Ethics
Lobbying
Propaganda
Public Relations
Rhetoric

Auto Racing for Clean Air?

Submitted by Diane Farsetta on

Nuclear Energy Institute coasterSwiss auto racer Simona De Silvestro isn't only "the second woman in the 34-year history of the Cooper Tires Presents The Atlantic Championship Powered by Mazda to win a race with her victory in the Imperial Capital Bank Atlantic Challenge of Long Beach." Believe it or not, there's another sponsor involved -- the U.S.

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Main Source: 
Champ Car Atlantic News, April 20, 2008
Topics: 
Nuclear Power
Lobbying
Marketing
Public Relations
Women

This Earth Day, Let's Scrape off the Greenwash

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."

Audit Reveals the PR Machine Behind Canadian Global Warming Skeptics

Submitted by Bob Burton on

An audit review (pdf) of over $507,000 (Canadian) contributed to two University of Calgary "research accounts" has revealed that C$123,427 was routed to Friends of Science (FoS) -- a group lobbying the Canadian government against taking action on global warming.

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Main Source: 
University of Calgary, April 14, 2008
Topics: 
Advertising
Front Groups
Climate Change
Issue Management
Democracy
International
Media
Politics
Public Relations
Science

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

Submitted by John Stauber on

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

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Main Source: 
Associated Press, April 19, 2008
Topics: 
Front Groups
Election 2008
Climate Change
Corporations
Environment
Science

A Bad Week for Corporate Spies

From MAD magazineIf 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.

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