Climate and Environment

February 26, 2019 | The American Prospect

Jeff Hauser Eleanor Eagan

Op-Ed

2020 Election/TransitionClimate and EnvironmentRevolving Door

BlackRock’s ‘Greenwashing’ Threatens to Undermine Climate Action

Fake environmentalism is an especially rampant and worrisome form of corporate propaganda—indeed, there is even a specific term for it. Scientific American defined the “essence” of “greenwashing” as efforts “falsely conveying to consumers that a given product, service, company or institution factors environmental responsibility into its offerings and/or operations.” If you want an idea of how empty these promises tend to be, consider that Donald Trump once signed a “Business Leaders” letter in The New York Times urging then-President Obama to aggressively push for climate action at the 2009 Copenhagen talks.