Climate Crimes - Fossil Giants Change Course, Sort Of. The Advent of Wokewashing.

 

I spent some time reading about the candidates in my riding. Two of them, the Green and the Liberal, seemed impressive.  Sadly, my riding is a shoot out between the incumbent New Democrat and his Conservative rival.

Reading their profiles, they mostly seemed almost identical. Housing has become a flavour du jour. And climate change, they're all very worried and concerned. If elected they'll get right on to that climate change eventually, maybe. 

The woman running for the Tories, a retired Canadian Forces major, was a little different. Her party, she claims, will fight climate change but not "on the backs" of working men and women.  Apparently the Conservatives have some magic formula that will change everything yet keep everything unchanged. Wowser!

As I read her spiel I was reminded of an article on how the fossil fuel industry has switched from outright denialism to something even more insidious - "wokewashing".

In a paper published in the journal Global Sustainability last July, economist William Lamb and nearly a dozen co-authors catalogued the most common messaging from those who would prefer to see inaction on climate for as long as possible. According to Lamb’s team, the industry’s “discourses of delay” fall into four buckets: redirect responsibility (consumers are also to blame for fossil fuel emissions), push non-transformative solutions (disruptive change is not necessary), emphasize the downside of action (change will be disruptive), and surrender (it’s not possible to mitigate climate change).

...Of all the messaging geared toward delaying action on climate, or assurances that the fossil fuel industry has a grip on possible solutions, Lamb and other authors agreed that one theme was far more prevalent than the rest: “the social justice argument.”

This strategy generally takes one of two forms: either warnings that a transition away from fossil fuels will adversely impact poor and marginalized communities, or claims that oil and gas companies are aligned with those communities. Researchers call this practice “wokewashing”.

...While the social justice argument stands out as a favorite at the moment, Lamb says the others are in regular rotation too, from focusing on what individual consumers should be doing to reduce their own carbon footprints to promoting the ideas that technology will save us and that fossil fuels are a necessary part of the solution.

“These things are effective, they work,” Roberts says. “So what we need is inoculation – people need a sort of field guide to these arguments so they’re not just duped.”

Sort of like saying we can't close the collieries because those miners won't be able to get Black Lung anywhere else.

Comments

  1. TrailblazerSeptember 10, 2021 at 5:14 PM

    I drove the Fraser Canyon a few weeks ago and witnessed the destruction of Lytton fire and the landslide of mud that had covered the highway due to a fast snow melt.
    Fire and flood! he two instances did not seem to make sense.

    That global warming is second place to all candidates , in this election, is most disturbing.
    Preservation of the status quo is the voice of the day for our politicians even as the electorate are finally catching on to the seriousness of the situation.
    I can only conclude that corporate interests are trumping, pardon the pun, the realities of life.

    TB

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Disaffected LibSeptember 10, 2021 at 5:29 PM

      What is beyond argument now, TB, is that the fossil energy giants would and, if our political stooges allow them, will inflict untold death and suffering on mankind. We're already at the edge of the abyss and these monstrous mega-corporations are employing ever more creative tactics to give us that extra push.

      Put bluntly, the fossil energy industry is the mortal enemy of mankind. What does that make their political handmaidens, the people we elect to high office? Quislings, no less.

      Delete

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