Like a number of other mainstream companies, Volvo wants to tap into Americans overwhelming desire to move beyond fossil fuels.
Some of my favorites:
As long as we’re at it, here’s the full Donovan piece.
Like a number of other mainstream companies, Volvo wants to tap into Americans overwhelming desire to move beyond fossil fuels.
Some of my favorites:
As long as we’re at it, here’s the full Donovan piece.
Even when it’s greenwashing, I like the fact that marketing is depicting commitment to caring for the environment as a good thing.
OFF TOPIC
Here in the Netherlands TV broadcasting yesterday marked the conference in Noordwijk in 1989 30 years ago same date in which 60 countries (including Russia, China, and Japan) almost committed to a 20% CO² reduction by 2005. The date also marks the 50% mark for anthropogenic CO² emissions (doubled the past 30 years). The conference was torpedoed at the 11th hour by the US delegation, leading the Swedish environment minister to declare to the press in the middle of the night upon being queried about the status: “The Americans are fu..ing everything up”.
The American EPA minister (William Reilly) wanted to sign, as did all other delegates, but (climate denier) John Sununu, Bush’s chief of staff (Bush had acknowledged in public the importance of acting on the climate crisis), had sent a minder to rein in Reilly. The poignance of this lost opportunity is highlighted by the fact that Thatcher and the Republicans were still on board with the science at this juncture. The denialist propaganda machine financed by big oil only started up in earnest after this “near miss”.
The organizer (Pier Vellinga) had an opportunity to speak to Bush briefly on the South lawn of the White House and asked him why they had rejected the commitment. Bush is said to have replied: “The oil interests have supported my getting into office — How can I turn around and disappoint them?”
In the Netherlands sea level rise is a somewhat more acute topic of interest because more than 50% of the population lives on a delta below sea level. Unfortunately, majority public opinion takes solace with the thought that we are wealthy enough to build better defenses to keep the sea out when the time comes.
Are you really “wealthy enough” to build “better defenses”? How high a wall can you afford? 10 feet? 20 feet? That’s the same kind of wishful thinking that many along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the USA display rather than face the truth that some areas are too expensive and/or difficult to “protect” and will simply need to be abandoned. We have room here for resettlement—-where will folks in the Netherlands go?
The “jar” clip is terrific visually compelling, and clever and impactful with its final “blow” at the cabin—watched it all twice
The Budweiser claim is a bit misleading—-“offsetting” does NOT mean that some, if not all, of the widely scattered breweries are still using some electricity generated by burning coal. Build a wind farm next to each brewery and take them all off the grid—-THEN start crowing about how green you are.
Like money, grid power is fungible: If you want to limit breweries to operating only while the wind rotors are turning, it completely circumvents (no pun intended) the concept of efficiently distributed power generation, consumption and storage.