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Diversity-Lather, Greenwash, Nature-Rinse, Repeat: EU Companies Dodging Climate Culpability Online [1]

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Date: 2022-09-22

In the summer of 2022, a heat wave broke records across Europe, bringing unprecedented temperatures and drought worse than any in at least 500 years. Thousands died, wildfires burned out of control, and the companies complicit or causing the climate crisis were busy posting through it.

Unsurprisingly, they weren't owning up to the impacts of their profits. Instead, as a new report from Geoffrey Supran and the Algorithmic Transparency Institute documents , they were distracting the public with posts about sports, using images of nature and diverse communities to improve their public image.

The analysts looked at the social media output of 22 European companies across three sectors: fossil fuel companies like Shell and Total, airline industry players like Air France and Lufthansa, and car companies like BMW and Mercedes-Benz. The research examined 2,416 posts from 375 social media accounts run by these companies across five platforms- Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok.

They found that during the climate-driven extreme weather of the summer, "the 22 companies remained silent about climate change in the examined posts, with only a negligible handful (0.3%) making explicit reference to 'climate change' or 'global warming'."

But they weren't being quiet. Instead, they found "that two-thirds (67%) of the 22 companies’ posts communicate a narrative of ‘Green Innovation’" which "avoids directly addressing climate change while nonetheless presenting companies as environmentally-conscious, engaged in or committed to low- carbon technologies and/or technological innovation."

Another one in five of the posts "offer a narrative of ‘Misdirection’" which "uses messaging about sports, fashion, and social causes to direct attention away from firms’ core business roles and responsibilities."

Additionally, they "also show that a number of companies variously leverage imagery of nature, female- presenting people, non-binary-presenting people, non-Caucasian-presenting people, young people, experts, sportspeople, and celebrities to strengthen their messages of greenwashing and misdirection."

The consequences of climate change, which Europeans were experiencing over the summer, "were never communicated (0%) by any industry." That said, they also avoided the explicit denial of claiming climate change isn't real or human-caused, and didn't attack the science, scientists or activists calling for climate action, but that's not surprising given that such toxic denial is why they covertly fund front groups to spread it, instead of tainting their brand with it.

What they DID post, though, was content that the report describes as its titular "Three shades of greenwashing": the idea that "green innovation" will save us, that other problems are more important, and that business-as-usual with its "visuals and language fetishizing luxury and performance, with no consideration of sustainability."

And as much as the text, the imagery plays an important role, something these companies know and exploit by something known as "nature-rinsing", or more formally as "executional greenwashing." The report explains that "these findings demonstrate a systematic use of Nature/Environment visuals in fossil fuel interests’ social media posts to strengthen their ‘green’ messaging."

Similarly,"fossil fuel interests variously leverage visuals of select demographics - sportspeople, celebrities, young people, and racial minorities - to misdirect audience’s attention with discourses about sports, social causes, and fashion and design."

For example "car manufacturers and airlines additionally show more racially diverse casts to misdirect with posts about social goods such as LGBTQIA+ issues and Women’s rights" but "when car companies post about sports, particularly motor racing, the trend is reversed, with more people - including sportspeople - being all- Caucasian."

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/22/2124528/-Diversity-Lather-Greenwash-Nature-Rinse-Repeat-EU-Companies-Dodging-Climate-Culpability-Online

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