Archive for propaganda

Environmentalism is the new religion?

November 9, 2006 at 10:28 am · Filed under economics, environment, politics, propaganda, religion

“Environmentalism is the new religion in this post modern world and like all religions you have an ”end times” senario to believe in.”So us sinfull humans must be punished for our love of the fossil fuel and motorway and overseas travel.And the penance we must pay is carbon tax.And we all await a fiery future with global warming for our sins!”

Something that shits me at the moment is the frequency with which I’m seeing comments like this – that environmental activism is just a new religion. I’ve seen it on blogs, in newspaper Op-Ed pieces, and on Usenet. Often it is combined with a view that market forces will avert problems or provide the best solutions.

Yes, it’s true that environmental activism may be a religion to some. But to others it is just cold, rational, thinking. It is simply not in our interests to severely disrupt an environment that our comfort, economies and lives are deeply entwined with, in complex ways that we sometimes have a poor understanding of. ‘End-times’ scenario’s are often the realistic consequences of not changing our behaviour to acknowledge this.

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ExxonMobil letter – part two

October 25, 2006 at 11:17 am · Filed under Big Oil, environment, Peak Oil, politics, propaganda, transport

I’ve gotten a reply to my letter which I sent to ExxonMobil recently, and posted here on the 16th of October. The Public Affairs Manager, Samantha Potts, went through it point by point and expressed ExxonMobil’s position on each. I will give them credit here, as my expectation was no response at all, or a form letter response. (Though as GP pointed out, it merely says that they are well-organised and skilled at PR.)
Having said that, the reply dodges issues. For example, she writes:

However, it is important to point out that it is both false and misleading to suggest, as the Enough Rope program and the Royal Society have done, that in providing financial support to such organisations [she is referring to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), in this case], ExxonMobil controls their views and messages.

While it may be true that ExxonMobil does not control the views and messages of organisations that it funds or is a client of, it surely has some influence over those views and messages. And it can choose to end its relationship with them, citing their views and messages as a reason for this.

She points out that ExxonMobil has not funded CEI in 2006, but there is no indication that this won’t change again next year. Also the reply suggests that ExxonMobil funded them only in 2005, whereas the reality is that they had been funding them for several years.

I’ve scanned and linked the reply here. I will probably reply to this – feel free to leave a comment if you have a suggestion!

Incidently, here are some excerpts from Andrew Denton’s interview with Al Gore:

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ExxonMobil letter – part one

October 16, 2006 at 5:25 pm · Filed under Big Oil, environment, Peak Oil, politics, propaganda

I recently wrote a letter which I will send to ExxonMobil soon. Don’t like the first couple of sentences – really weak beginning, so I think it needs some more editing. It was orginally all friendly and wordy, then I made it terse and and somewhat agressive. This is the current compromise. I do of course realise that it will go straight to the circular file, or maybe their propaganda department to help them market themselves better.

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