We cannot live sustainably within today’s economic system. Yet that is what we are constantly being told we can do.
We can buy sustainable cars, travel on sustainable motorways powered by sustainable petroleum. We can eat sustainable meat, and drink sustainable soft drinks out of sustainable plastic bottles. We can buy sustainable fast fashion and fly on sustainable airplanes using sustainable fuels. And, of course, we are going to meet our short- and long-term sustainable climate targets, too, without making the slightest effort.
“How?” you might ask. How can that be possible when we don’t yet have any technical solutions that can fix this crisis alone, and the option of stopping doing things is unacceptable from our current economic standpoint? What are we going to do?
Well, the answer is the same as always: we will cheat. We will use all the loopholes and all the creative accounting that we have conjured up in our climate frameworks since the very first conference of the parties, the 1995 COP1 in Berlin.
We will outsource our emissions along with our factories, we will use baseline manipulation and start counting our emissions reductions when it suits us best. We will burn trees, forests, and biomass, as those have been excluded from the official statistics. We will lock decades of emissions into fossil gas infrastructure and call it 'green' natural gas. And then we will offset the rest with vague afforestation projects – trees that might be lost to disease or fire – while we simultaneously cut down the last of our old-growth forests at a much higher speed.
The term "natural gas" is pure #greenwashing. Let's start calling it what it is: #methane gas. Or, use it's full name:
"the powerful greenhouse gas methane"
Guess what? Any plastic marked with this symbol (for "recyclable") is not, in fact, recyclable. & stands for "OTHER" aka "everything else", and despite having a "recyclable" symbol in it, is not actually recyclable. #recycling#greenwashing
You may want to take a seat on the fainting couch before reading this, because I regret to inform you that . . . oil companies are LYING to us!!
A new analysis of the activities of twelve major fossil fuel giants shows that the companies are misleading the public about their emission-reduction commitments while raking in record profits from fossil fuels, which are driving catastrophic extreme weather events across the globe.
In a report published Wednesday, Greenpeace examines the decarbonization pledges, investments, and profits of six global fossil fuel giants — including Shell, BP, and TotalEnergies — and six European oil companies.
The results indicate that in 2022 close to 93% of the oil giants' investments on average went to keeping the companies on the "fossil oil and gas path" while just 7.3% were aimed at promoting "low-carbon solutions" and sustainable production.
Kuba Gogolewski, a finance campaigner at Greenpeace, said that "as the world endures unprecedented heat waves, deadly floods, and escalating storms, Big Oil clings to its destructive business model and continues to fuel the climate crisis."
"Instead of providing desperately needed clean energy, they feed us greenwashing garbage," Gogolewski added. "Big Oil's unwillingness to implement real change is a crime against the climate and future generations. Governments need to stop enabling fossil fuel companies, heavily regulate them, and plan our fossil fuel phase-out now. They will never change on their own."
Yes, that is the point. They will never change on their own.
Anyone else feels like we need to delete the label 'carbon-neutral' from any sustainability vocabulary because, well, it's an enormous, gigantic lie whose only purpose is to shield business-as-usual and to make individuals feel good without them having to engage in any meaningful substancial change?
As we look forward to #COP28 later on this year in the UAE, anticipating another joyous fossil fuel bacchanalia, I'm sure we'll be hearing plenty from our masters about "Net Zero 2050." They'll remind us once again about all those delicious carbon offsets that are going to save the world for capitalism and consumerism, allowing endless growth forever and ever. No need to worry, they'll say, we've got everything under control! 😃
Petit rappel -> BNP Paribas est le 4e financeur mondial du développement des énergies fossiles. Ils ont même augmenté leur financement dans ce secteur en 2022. C'est aussi notamment le 1er financeur de Total en 2022.
Faire de la récup sur nos envies d'avenir tout en détruisant notre futur. C'est insupportable ! 😡
I missed this earlier. Social media influencers were paid to boost the UAE’s climate credentials in and around COP28 in what appears to be a coordinated PR effort by the host nation. Two of the contracted influencers confirmed to DeSmog they were paid by an external PR company hired by the COP28 official team. #Greenwashing#COP28#DeSmog#Oil#Gas
Pour vous illustrer à quel point on est pas juste dans la merde mais en fait on s'y embourbe volontairement : on continue de construire des GOLFS en France 🙃
Avec un argument de greenwashing imparable : la piste de golf permettra d'éviter de bétonner toute la zone. Littéralement le même argument que les chasseurs qui avancent qu'ils ont besoin qu'il y ait toujours des animaux sauvages à buter pour perpétuer leur activité. Genre si on ne construit pas de golf ça sera forcément autre chose qui y sera construit.
Here's part of the introduction to an article describing "Climate 'solutions' that don’t help"...
Many shiny new 'green' ideas do more to preserve fossil fuels than to replace them.
The world continues to face a major obstacle to addressing the climate crisis: deliberate distraction with a proliferation of new whiz-bang technologies and ideas.
Some are well-intentioned, some are strategic, some delusional, but most are outright greenwashing to justify the continued use of fossil fuels and to distract from the inevitable move to less expensive renewable energy.
All the items on their list --
🔴 The mother of all distractions: Carbon Capture and Storage
🔴 Deceptively distracting: Dirty hydrogen branded as “clean” by its proponents
🔴 Net nothing: 2050 Net Zero targets
🔴 BS: Chevron’s “renewable” cow dung
🔴 Silly: Renewable race fuel
🔴 Embarrassing: Exxon’s Ill-fated green algae gas
🔴 Most intense distraction: “Least carbon intensive” oil and gas from Saudi Arabia and the UAE
🔴 Most annoying: A 50 billion tree planting project
🔴 Endlessly distracting: Traditional fission nuclear power
The US government is pouring billions into this concept, not because they think it will ever work — they know it won't — but because it allows them to pretend they're doing something positive about the climate crisis, while in reality they're telling their fossil fuel buddies that Business As Usual is here to stay.
And it's working. Corporate news outlets are on board promoting the plan, and everyone is happy. 😃
Especially the oil industry!
Here's a quote from Vicki Hollub, CEO of Occidental Petroleum:
“We believe that our direct capture technology is going to be the technology that helps to preserve our industry over time. This gives our industry a license to continue to operate for the 60, 70, 80 years that I think it’s going to be very much needed.”
For once, an oil executive is NOT lying. She's telling the truth, and that truth is going to kill us all.
Habt ihr euch auch gewundert, wie viele Produkte auf einmal klimaneutral und umweltneutral sind? Und habt ihr euch auch gefragt, wie Unternehmen zu dieser Behauptung kommen?
Dass das alles nicht ganz sauber ist, zeigt nun das Urteil des LG Karlsruhe zur Werbung der vergleichsweise noch vorbildlich arbeitenden Drogeriemarktkette #dm.
An excellent video about the problems with many Kurzgesagt videos and the economy-first approach to #ClimateChange that states we solve it with even more consumption and relying exclusively on the development of new technology. It points out how Their videos insidiously belittle and undermine the #Degrowth movement. It also pulls in #Modernism, #Neoliberalism, and #GreenWashing.
I won't spoil the big reveal at the end, but it really shows where Kurzgesagt's values lie.
A good example of biomass use which isn’t as sustainable as the wood pellet industry wants you to believe. Forests are more than simple wood storehouses. They’re ecosystems and they can’t be replaced that easy.
Japan's thirst for biomass is having a harmful impact on Canada's forests
Dang. I’ve fallen for this. I love soft “bamboo” clothes, but it turns out, it’s just rayon, which is not at all eco-friendly. Dang, and dang again. #greenwashing
OH SNAPS! The #EU just passed its Green Claims Directive banning #greenwashing - including carbon off-setting "carbon neutral" claims COUGH APPLE WATCH COUGH
For my industry, this will force more traceability to substantiate green claims. AKA a GOOD thing!