Monday, August 13, 2007

Greenwash: The editorials urge us to cut our emissions. The ads urge us to raise them

Guardian - George Monbiot Tuesday 14 August 2007:

The editorials urge us to cut emissions, but the ads tell a very different story
I am sorry to be crude, but however else I try to say it, the phrase "lying bastards" comes to mind. In March, I claimed that the [UK] government was fudging its figures on cutting carbon emissions and that it was due to miss its targets for renewable energy. It denied the charges, claimed its cuts were " correctly quantified" and suggested I had got my facts wrong. Yesterday, the Guardian published a secret briefing by civil servants admitting that the government's programmes are way off track and urging ministers to try to amend them not with new investments but through "statistical interpretations of the target".

While no expense is spared in expanding motorways, airports and thermal power stations, every possible tactic is used to frustrate the programme for installing renewable power. The reason is not hard to fathom: big business has invested massively in constructing old technologies and wants to maximise its returns before switching to the new ones. It also demands the hyper-mobility which enables its executives and its goods and services to go anywhere at any time.

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