Greenscamming

Greenscamming or Greenscam refers to a PR technique that selects environmentally friendly sounding names and designations for organizations or products that are not environmentally friendly. It is related to Greenwashing and Greenspeak.[1] For example, a commonly used greenscamming method is for anti-environmental organizations to give themselves environmentally friendly or "green" sounding names that suggest an interest in environmental protection to deceive the public about their true intentions and motives. This procedure corresponds to the aggressive mimicry in biology.[2][3]

Greenscamming is used in particular by industrial companies and associations that use astroturfing organisations to try to dispute scientific findings that they consider threatening to their business model. One example is the denial of man-made global warming by companies in the fossil energy sector, also driven by specially founded greenscamming organizations.

Background

One reason for setting up greenscamming organizations is that it is very difficult to communicate open anti-environmental movements or initiatives to the public as positive. Sociologist Charles Harper stresses that it would be very difficult for marketing departments to market a group with the hypothetical name "Coalition to Trash the Environment for Profit". Anti-environment initiatives are therefore often forced to give their front organizations deliberately deceptive names if they want to be successful in public. This is all the more important in view of the fact that surveys indicate that environmental protection is a social consensus. At the same time, however, there is a danger of being exposed as an anti-environmental initiative, which entails a considerable risk that the greenscamming activities backfire and are counterproductive for the initiators.[4]

Organization and activities

Greenscamming organizations are very active in the organized climate denial scene, among others.[2] An important financier of greenscamming organizations was the oil company ExxonMobil, which over the years financially supported more than 100 climate denial organizations and spent about 20 million US dollars on greenscamming groups.[5] In many of these organizations, James Lawrence Powell identified their "admirable" designations as the most striking common feature, which for the most part sounded very rationalistic. In this context, he refers to a list of climate denial organizations drawn up by the Union of Concerned Scientists, which includes 43 organizations funded by the Exxon oil company. None of these organizations had a name from which to derive their opposition to climate change. The list is headed by the organization Africa Fighting Malaria, whose website features articles and commentaries opposing ambitious climate mitigation concepts, even though the dangers of malaria could be exacerbated by global warming.[6]

Examples

Examples of greenscamming organizations include the National Wetland Coalition, Friends of Eagle Mountain, The Sahara Club, The Alliance for Environment and Resources, The Abundant Wildlife Society of North America, the Global Climate Coalition, the National Wilderness Institute, the Environmental Policy Alliance of the Center for Organizational Research and Education, and the American Council on Science and Health.[3][7] Behind these alleged environmental protection organizations lie the interests of business sectors. For example, the National Wetland Coalition is backed by oil drilling companies and real estate developers, while the Friends of Eagle Mountain are backed by a mining company that wants to convert open-cast mines into landfills. The Global Climate Coalition was again backed by commercial enterprises that fought against government-imposed climate protection measures. Other Greenscam organizations include the US Council for Energy Awareness, backed by the nuclear industry; the Wilderness Impact Research Foundation, representing the interests of lumberjacks and ranchers; and the American Environmental Foundation, representing the interests of landowners.[8]

Another Greenscam organization is the Northwesterners for More Fish, which had a budget of 2.6 million dollars in 1998. This group opposed conservation measures for endangered fish that restricted the interests of energy companies, aluminium companies and the timber industry in the region, and tried to discredit environmentalists who promoted fish habitats.[3] The Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, the National Environmental Policy Institute and the Information Council on the Environment funded by the coal industry are also greenscamming organizations.[5]

In Germany, for example, this form of mimicry or deception is used by the so-called "European Institute for Climate and Energy" (EIKE), which mistakenly suggests by its name that it is an important scientific research institution.[9] In fact, EIKE is not a scientific institution at all, but a lobby organization that neither has an office nor employs climate scientists, but instead disseminates fake news on climate issues on its website.[10]

Further reading

References
  1. Sharon Beder: Greenwashing. In: John Barry, E. Gene Frankland (Eds.): International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics. London 2002, p. 253-54
  2. See Haydn Washington, John Cook: Climate Change Denial: Heads in the Sand. Earthscan, 2011, pp. 72–75.
  3. Paul R. Ehrlich, Anne H. Ehrlich: Betrayal of Science and Reason: How Anti-Environmental Rhetoric Threatens our Future. Washington D.C., 1998, p. 16.
  4. See Charles Harper: Environment and Society. Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues. 5th edition. New York 2016, p. 244–246.
  5. See Haydn Washington, John Cook: Climate Change Denial. Heads in the Sand. Earthscan, 2011, p. 75.
  6. James Lawrence Powell: The Inquisition of Climate Science. New York 2012, p. 93-94
  7. See also: Jen Schneider, Steve Schwarze, Peter K. Bsumek, Jennifer Peeples: The Hypocite's Trap. In: Under Pressure (= Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication). Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2016, doi:10.1057/978-1-137-53315-9_5
  8. Charles Harper: Environment and Society. Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues. 5th edition. New York 2016, p. 245.
  9. Michael Brüggemann: Die Medien und die Klimalüge. Falsche Skepsis und echte Leugnung. In: Volker Lilienthal, Irene Neverla (Eds.): „Lügenpresse“: Anatomie eines politischen Kampfbegriffs. Cologne 2017, p. 137–157, p. 143/44 and 150.
  10. See Stefan Rahmstorf, Hans Joachim Schellnhuber: Der Klimawandel: Diagnose, Prognose, Therapie. C. H. Beck, 7th. Edition 2012, ISBN 978-3406633850, p. 85.
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