Greenscamming

Greenscamming or Greenscam (of English. Green "green", "environmentally oriented" and scam "fraud", "mesh") refers to a PR technique that selects the most environmentally friendly sounding names, designations for organizations or products that do not are environmentally friendly. It is related to greenwashing and greenspeak . A frequently used green scamming method is z. B. in the fact that anti-environmental organizations give themselves environmentally friendly or “green” sounding names that suggest an interest in environmental protection in order to deceive the public about their real intentions and motives. This procedure corresponds to the aggressive mimicry in biology .

Greenscamming is used in particular by industrial companies and associations who try to work with Astroturfing organizations to dispute scientific findings that they see as threatening their business model. One example is the denial of man-made global warming by companies in the fossil energy sector , which was also promoted by specially founded greenscamming organizations .

background

One reason for setting up greenscamming organizations is that it is very difficult to convey openly anti-environmental movements or initiatives to the public as positive. The sociologist Charles Harper emphasizes that marketing departments would find it very difficult to market a group with the hypothetical name "Coalition to Trash the Environment for Profit" (coalition to destroy the environment for profit). Therefore, anti-environmental initiatives are 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 light of the fact that surveys indicate that protecting the environment is a social consensus. At the same time, however, there is a risk of being exposed as an anti-environmental initiative, which carries a considerable risk that the greenscamming activities will "backfire" and be counterproductive for the initiators.

Organizations and actions

Greenscamming organizations are very active in the organized climate denial scene . An important financier of Greenscamming organizations was the oil company ExxonMobil , the more financially assisted over the years as climate deniers 100 organizations and about 20 million US dollars for Greenscamming groups spent. In many of these organizations, the geologist James Lawrence Powell identified the most striking common characteristic of their "admirable" names, which for the most part sounded very rationalistic . In this context, he refers to a list of climate denial organizations prepared by the Union of Concerned Scientists , which also includes 43 organizations financed by the oil company Exxon . Not a single one of these organizations has a name from which one can deduce their stand against climate protection. The list is led by the organization Africa Fighting Malaria , on whose website articles and comments speak out against ambitious climate protection concepts, although the malaria risks could be exacerbated by global warming.

Examples of Greenscamming organizations are 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 Center for Organizational Research and Education and the American Council on Science and Health. Behind these ostensible environmental protection organizations are mainly the interests of economic sectors. For example, behind the National Wetland Coalition are petroleum drilling companies and real estate developers, while the Friends of Eagle Mountain hides a mining company that wants to turn open pit mines into landfills . The Global Climate Coalition was backed by commercial enterprises that fought against government-imposed climate protection measures. Other Greenscam organizations include the US Council for Energy Awareness, which is backed by the nuclear industry , the Wilderness Impact Research Foundation, which represents lumberjack and ranchers, and the American Environmental Foundation, which is an advocacy group for landowners.

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

In Germany , this form of mimicry or deception z. B. used by the so-called “European Institute for Climate and Energy” (EIKE), which incorrectly suggests by its name that it is an important scientific research institution. 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 .

Web links

Greenscamming. The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential .

Individual evidence

↑ Sharon Beder: Greenwashing. In: John Barry, E. Gene Frankland (Eds.): International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics . London 2002, p. 253 f.
↑ ^a ^b See Haydn Washington, John Cook : Climate Change Denial. Heads in the sand. Earthscan, 2011, pp. 72-75.
^ ^A ^b ^c Paul R. Ehrlich , Anne H. Ehrlich: Betrayal of Science and Reason: How Anti-Environmental Rhetoric Threatens our Future . Washington DC, 1998, p. 16.
↑ See Charles Harper: Environment and Society. Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues. 5th edition. New York 2016, pp. 244–246.
↑ ^a ^b See Haydn Washington, John Cook : Climate Change Denial. Heads in the sand. Earthscan, 2011, p. 75.
↑ James Lawrence Powell: The Inquisition of Climate Science. New York 2012, p. 93 f.
↑ On the mimicry of the Environmental Policy Alliance: 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 .
^ Charles Harper: Environment and Society. Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues. 5th edition. New York 2016, p. 245.
↑ Michael Brüggemann : The media and the climate lie. False skepticism and real denial. In: Volker Lilienthal , Irene Neverla (Hrsg.): "Lügenpresse": Anatomy of a political battle term . Cologne 2017, pp. 137–157, pp. 143 f u. 150.
↑ See Stefan Rahmstorf , Hans Joachim Schellnhuber : Climate change: diagnosis, prognosis, therapy. C. H. Beck, 7th edition 2012, ISBN 978-3406633850 , p. 85.

[1] Sharon Beder: Greenwashing. In: John Barry, E. Gene Frankland (Eds.): International Encyclopedia of Environmental Politics . London 2002, p. 253 f.

[Washington_Cook-2] See Haydn Washington, John Cook : Climate Change Denial. Heads in the sand. Earthscan, 2011, pp. 72-75.

[Ehrlich-3] A ^b ^c Paul R. Ehrlich , Anne H. Ehrlich: Betrayal of Science and Reason: How Anti-Environmental Rhetoric Threatens our Future . Washington DC, 1998, p. 16.

[4] See Charles Harper: Environment and Society. Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues. 5th edition. New York 2016, pp. 244–246.

[Washington_Cook_75-5] 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 f.

[7] On the mimicry of the Environmental Policy Alliance: 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 .

[Harper-8] Charles Harper: Environment and Society. Human Perspectives on Environmental Issues. 5th edition. New York 2016, p. 245.

[9] Michael Brüggemann : The media and the climate lie. False skepticism and real denial. In: Volker Lilienthal , Irene Neverla (Hrsg.): "Lügenpresse": Anatomy of a political battle term . Cologne 2017, pp. 137–157, pp. 143 f u. 150.

[Rahmstorf-10] See Stefan Rahmstorf , Hans Joachim Schellnhuber : Climate change: diagnosis, prognosis, therapy. C. H. Beck, 7th edition 2012, ISBN 978-3406633850 , p. 85.