Greenwashing

Pakistan floods, 2022

It's perfectly obvious to everybody except a few nutters and half-wits that we are facing a climate emergency right now. We don't have to wait until 2030 or 2040; we are already seeing record droughts, record bushfires, record heatwaves, and record floods. The extraordinary floods in Pakistan, after an equally extraordinary heatwave, are just the latest manifestation of a climate spiralling out of control. It is abundantly obvious that the climate emergency isn't in 2030 or 2040. It's now: record heatwaves and droughts in Europe, China, the USA, record floods in Pakistan. After similar records last year ... and the year before ....

But despite claims about how 'concerned' and 'committed' everybody all is, emissions keep on rising.  And rising.  And rising. 

For example, the ALP (Australian Labor Party) says it wants to cut emissions by 43% from 2005 (which is a measly 23% from now). It won an election on this policy.  But it will continue to allow expansions in oil and gas exploration, the emissions of which will vastly exceed the planned 23% cut.

Westpac (an Ozzie bank) has touchy-feely ads on its home page about buying an EV. But has still lent ±$2 billion to fossil fuel projects recently. Macquarie Bank, another Ozzie bank, has been running ads for EVs  (how good are we?) while still lending to fossil fuel companies.  Ampol (one of Oz's largest petrol retailers) has introduced a 'carbon-neutral' fuel. But it's going to 'achieve' that by using dodgy offsets, not by actually producing carbon-neutral petrol. Powershop (a major Ozzie electricity utility, owned by Shell), is allegedly 100% carbon-neutral, but achieves this by using offsets.  

And these are just a few examples.  Companies and governments know we are frightened and respond by pretending to care, and pretending to cut emissions.  But actually nothing effective is being done.

But it's not just companies, alas.  When I suggest to someone that they can cut their personal emissions by 25% by becoming vegetarian, because they’ve just told me how concerned they are about climate change, they say 'I'm not interested in that vegetarian rubbish'.  We all pretend we care, but we're not actually prepared to take the steps need to slash emissions.  (For the record, I'm vegetarian, I have solar panels on my roof, and I buy my electricity from a genuine green utility which does not use offsets to 'reduce' its carbon footprint.  My next car will be a hybrid or an EV)

Meanwhile, emissions keep on rising. And temperatures keep in rising. And the climate emergency keeps on getting worse. Nothing *effective* has been done. But ppl in power pretend they care, and proudly point to their 'plans'. Greenwashing. Lies. Hypocrisy. As we race towards catastrophe.