Chevron’s Big Greenwash « It’s Getting Hot In Here

Chevron’s Big Greenwash

I want to tip my hat to the folks at LCV who are calling out Chevron for the most prolific Greenwashing campaign I’ve seen in some time. It seems that every other public bus, subway train and magazine ad I see is for Chevron’s “Will You Join Us” Greenwashing campaign, which promotes individual action as a solution to the global climate crisis. As a community organizer I have seen that the actions of the government, or a single corporation with a budget the size of many governments, can easily eclipse the voluntary actions of many individuals. Will you join us in laughing at Chevron’s big waste of money?

See the rest of LCV’s “ads.”

5 Responses to “Chevron’s Big Greenwash”

Feed for this Entry Trackback Address

1 Clark Dec 2nd, 2008 at 12:42 am

I think it is particularly important for us, as consumers, to support ‘green’ business. For example, http://www.simplestop.net stops your postal junk mail and benefits the environment.
2 Nick Magel Dec 2nd, 2008 at 3:45 pm

Ha, if i see one more bus in San Francisco drive by with this ad blitz plastered to the side of it i’m going to go nuts. This post is , unfortunately timely as yesterday Chevron was acquitted on all counts of Human Rights abuses in the Niger Delta of Nigeria.
You can read about the result here:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jK5tAMU8DLLx1A8OMM0IzxTh2ZTwD94QI1001
(WSJ always has an interesting take) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122809188904967767.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

and here is a great blog on the case and it’s history.
http://bowotovchevron.wordpress.com/about/

finally keep your ears open early next year for a very similar case happening in NY Federal courts.Shell is being taken to trial for very similar charges regarding the 1995 murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian that was organizing against Shells human rights and enviro abuses. This has the potential to set precedent for charging Multi-national Corps for crimes committed about by their subsidiaries.
3 Alex Tinker Dec 2nd, 2008 at 4:28 pm

This is the worst greenwashing I’ve ever seen – in some DC metro stops they have the entire station covered exclusively with Chevron “I’ll do this and that” ads, and some entire metro cars.

The worst part is that the things the people in these ads say they will do are teensy tiny things that won’t help much any how.

Booo Chevron. Booooo.
4 yochizakai Dec 2nd, 2008 at 4:37 pm

Thanks, Nick, I didn’t see that story.
5 Metro Dec 11th, 2008 at 5:16 pm

Thanks for the information. Me this theme too interests. I shall read still.

About

As a sophomore at Walter Johnson High School in Maryland, Yochi was recruited to join the SSC's Montgomery County Student Environmental Activists. After a couple of weeks of hanging out with the SSC'ers, he started organizing what turned into a county-wide campaign that gained media attention and attracted the support of the county council. While an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, Yochi founded a business partnership called Brewing Hope with farmers in Chiapas, Mexico. Working with students, faculty and businesses interested in promoting the fair trade system, Yochi set up a program that not only sold coffee, but also created a relationships between coffee growers and latte drinkers. Brewing Hope's student delegations visit Mexico to learn about coffee production and meet with indigenous communities while farmers from Chiapas travel to speak at educational events in the Midwest. He turned over the management reins of Brewing Hope to study the connection between biodiversity, economic sustainability and coffee certifications in Central America. Yochi now works at Co-op America, the national green business network, expanding the market for fair trade products and pressuring businesses to adopting forward thinking policies on climate change. Yochi's first blog was titled "The Neoliberal Chopping Block"