False Solutions

Alliance To End Plastic Waste Members Created 1,000x More Plastic Than They Cleaned Up

November 25, 2024 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. Educate! False Solutions, plastic pollution, Plastics, pollution

In 2019, a group of major companies from around the world agreed to form the Alliance to End Plastic Waste (AEPW), an alliance that set out to reduce the amount of plastic flowing into the environment by around 15 million metric tons by the end of 2023. But according to a new report by Unearthed, a Greenpeace investigative journalism team, the initiative members have actually produced more than 1,000 times the amount of plastic than they’ve cleaned up in the 2019 to 2023 timeframe. The report found that the initiative was established by American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade association, and a PR company. According to Unearthed, the project aimed to “change the conversation – away from short-term simplistic bans of plastic.”

Evidence During COP29 That Biomass Is A Disaster

November 19, 2024 The Canary. Educate! Biomass, climate crisis, COP29, Energy, False Solutions

The global biomass energy industry will triple by 2030, increasing woody biomass supply from monoculture plantations by 13 times and woody biomass supply overall by three times, according to a new report Burning up the Biosphere: A Global Threat Map of Biomass Energy Development released on Monday 18 November by the Biomass Action Network of EPN International. The natural forests which supply the wood burnt for energy production will suffer from intensified logging, degradation, and plantation conversion, exacerbating both the climate and biodiversity crises and adversely affecting communities throughout the global supply chains.

‘As The Coal Age Ends’: UK Announces Ban On New Mines

November 18, 2024 Cristen Hemingway Jaynes, EcoWatch. Educate! climate crisis, Coal, emissions, False Solutions, Mining, net zero, United Kingdom (UK)

In a landmark decision, the United Kingdom’s energy secretary Ed Miliband has announced the banning of new coal mines in Britain, as part of the country’s drive to reach net zero. The UK government has committed to introducing legislation to restrict the licensing of future coal mines by amending 1994’s Coal Industry Act, a press release from the UK Government said. “Coal mining powered this country for over 140 years and we owe a huge debt to workers who kept the lights on for homes and businesses across the country. Now the UK is in prime position to lead the way in phasing out coal power around the world, which remains the single largest contributor to global emissions,” said Energy Minister Michael Shanks in the press release.

‘Give Trees A Hand’: Ad Agencies Sell Sketchy Climate Solutions

November 18, 2024 Ellen Ormesher, DeSmog. Educate! Advertising, climate crisis, False Solutions, greenwashing, Media, Oil and Gas Industry

The video opens on an anonymous industrial site, where a woman stands under a clear blue sky. She’s wearing a white hard hat and a grey utility shirt with the name “Regina” stitched above the breast pocket. Smiling into the camera, she tells viewers that “the world needs ways to reduce carbon emissions.” Speakers from diverse backgrounds then reassure viewers that, luckily, they’re working on solutions to that very problem, “like carbon capture, and clean energy from hydrogen.” If it weren’t for the logos appearing on their uniforms, it would be easy to miss that these characters are representatives of one of the world’s biggest oil companies — until Regina reappears to say, “Believe it or not we’re ExxonMobil.”

How A Former ExxonMobil Employee Confronted Climate Disinformation

November 8, 2024 Matthew Green, DeSmog. Resist! Activism, Disinformation, Energy, ExxonMobil, False Solutions, Retaliation

Lindsey Gulden, a climate scientist, spent more than a decade working as a data scientist for ExxonMobil until she was fired in 2020 after internally reporting an allegedly fraudulent overvaluation of the company’s assets in the Permian Basin, an oil and gas-producing region spanning Texas and New Mexico. (ExxonMobil says her termination was unrelated and denies fraud took place). That experience prompted her to ask deeper questions about the oil and gas company’s assurances to staff that it is committed to playing a leading role in the energy transition.

Big Ag Uses ‘Regenerative Agriculture’ To Mask Business-As-Usual

October 23, 2024 Rachel Sherrington, DeSmog. Educate! Big Ag, False Solutions, Food and Agriculture, Report

During September’s Climate Week in New York City, the world’s major food companies lined up to share their pro-nature credentials, claiming that they are embracing “regenerative agriculture” practices that will reduce their massive carbon footprint. However, a new report finds that multinational food and ag companies – such as Cargill, Bayer and Unilever – which are using the term, have barely changed how they do business. A total of 30 major agriculture companies were analysed in the report, which was released in September by the New Climate Institute. It found that while around 80 percent of the firms were heavily referencing the phrase “regenerative agriculture” in their climate and sustainability strategies, only a third had targets, and many lacked specifics on how plans would be implemented, or applied them to just small subsets of their total operations.

Climate Activists Battle The False ‘Solution’ Of Forest Biomass

October 10, 2024 Nick Engelfried, Waging Nonviolence. Resist! Biomass, climate crisis, Climate Justice, Energy, False Solutions, Forests, West Coast

“Who will own the forests? Who will own the sky?” sang dozens of umbrella-wielding protesters as rain drizzled outside the World Forestry Center in Portland, Oregon on Sept. 25. Inside the building, timber company representatives, investors and others involved in deciding the fate of forest ecosystems were meeting for an event called CANOPY: Forests + Markets + Society. Billed as “the premier annual event on institutional forestland investing,” CANOPY is a conference whose 2023 attendees included Weyerhaeuser, Boise Cascades, biomass energy giant Drax and J.P. Morgan.

Violations Discovered At Nation’s First Carbon Capture And Storage Project

September 14, 2024 Sharon Kelly, DeSmog. Educate! Carbon Capture, Carbon emissions, False Solutions, Fossil Fuels

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found multiple Safe Drinking Water Act violations at the nation’s first carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) storage project, PoliticoPro’s E&E News reported today. The Decatur, IL, project, run by Archer-Daniels-Midland (ADM), violated rules meant to protect against leaks of captured carbon, the EPA wrote in a notice of violation issued on August 14th. The EPA said it had inspected three ADM wells in mid-June — one used for storing captured carbon dioxide and two used to monitor for leaks and other problems. ADM told E&E News that the violations relate to corrosion in one of the two monitoring wells — a problem that ADM said it had discovered back in March.

US Leads Way In Public Spending On False Climate Solutions

August 31, 2024 Julia Conley, DeSmog. Educate! climate crisis, False Solutions, Fossil Fuels, United States

Among the world’s wealthiest countries, the U.S. leads the way in spending public money on so-called climate “solutions” that have been proven to “consistently fail, overspend, or underperform,” according to an analysis released Thursday by the research and advocacy group Oil Change International. The group’s report, titled Funding Failure, focuses on international spending on carbon capture and fossil-based hydrogen subsidies, which continues despite ample data showing that the technological fixes have “failed to make a dent in carbon emissions” after 50 years of research and development.

When Is ‘Recyclable’ Not Really Recyclable?

August 21, 2024 Lisa Song, ProPublica. Educate! Environment, False Solutions, Plastics, Recycling

Is there anything more pathetic than a used plastic bag? They rip and tear. They float away in the slightest breeze. Left in the wild, their mangled remains entangle birds and choke sea turtles that mistake them for edible jellyfish. It takes 1,000 years for the bags to disintegrate, shedding hormone-disrupting chemicals as they do. And that outcome is all but inevitable, because no system exists to routinely recycle them. It’s no wonder some states have banned them and stores give discounts to customers with reusable bags. But the plastics industry is working to make the public feel OK about using them again.

Fire Reveals How Oil Industry Environmental ‘Solution’ Spurs Climate Crisis

August 14, 2024 Sharon Kelly, DeSmog. Educate! Carbon Capture, climate crisis, Energy, False Solutions, Fires, Oil and Gas

The trouble began at Piñon Midstream’s Dark Horse Treating Plant in Jal, New Mexico, on November 25, 2023, with an unexpected loud “pop” in the early afternoon, the company would later tell state regulators. A poisonous mix of flammable gasses hissed out from a pipeline feeding into the plant. Within a minute, a worker radioed in to the plant’s control room that a dense cloud of vapor had enveloped part of the plant. Within two minutes, Dark Horse was ablaze in what the company would later call an “intense and sustained fire.” Within 15 minutes, more pipes ripped open, and a towering fireball tore through the plant.

World’s Biggest Meat And Dairy Companies Spend More On Ads Than Cutting Emissions

July 22, 2024 Clare Carlile and Brigitte Wear, DeSmog. Educate! Big Dairy, Big Meat, False Solutions, Food and Agriculture, greenwashing, Report

Global meat and dairy giants are investing just a fraction of their revenues into cutting emissions despite being among the world’s largest polluters, according to new estimates. Company spending on advertising outstripped that on low-carbon solutions, the report by campaign group Changing Markets Foundation found, as corporations ramped up attempts to win consumers over with their green credentials. The meat and dairy sector – responsible for over 14 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions – has come under increasing pressure in recent years to tackle major climate harms. The New Merchants of Doubt, published on Thursday, examines the climate targets, lobbying records and advertising campaigns of 22 of the largest livestock companies

Big Oil Aims To Cash In On Hydrogen Tax Credits With Natural Gas

June 15, 2024 Adam M. Lowenstein, DeSmog. Educate! Big Oil, Energy, False Solutions, Hydrogen, Natural Gas, Politics and Policy

Less than two years after securing generous subsidies in President Joe Biden’s landmark climate legislation, some of America’s largest oil and gas companies are directing their advocacy toward shaping one of the law’s obscure but potentially lucrative provisions: a tax credit for hydrogen production. The hydrogen tax credit – known among advocates and industry players as “45V” for the section of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that created it – felt at times as if it were the sole focus of the Hydrogen Americas Summit, a two-day industry confab held June 11-12, that wrapped up yesterday in Washington, D.C.

Canceled Canadian CCS Project Deemed ‘Not Economically Feasible’

May 12, 2024 Taylor Noakes, DeSmog. Educate! Canada, Carbon Capture, Carbon emissions, climate crisis, Energy, False Solutions

Capital Power Generation has canceled a $2.4 billion carbon capture and storage (CCS) project at their Genesee Generating Station, claiming it is “technically viable but not economically feasible.” The project aimed to capture and sequester up to 3 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the Genesee Power Plant, located southwest of Edmonton, Alberta, a plant that’s in the process of being converted from coal to natural gas. Julia Levin, associate director of National Climate with Environmental Defence, characterized the cancellation as yet another failure for carbon capture.

Climate Criminals Put Profits Over Humanity At COP28

December 21, 2023 Indigenous Environmental Network. Educate! climate crisis, COP28, Dubai, False Solutions, Indigenous Activism

Dubai, UAE — The outcomes of the UNFCCC 28th Conference of Parties has left Indigenous Peoples and frontline communities across the world sitting in disappointment as world leaders put forward watered-down climate commitments and text that continue to compromise our future. The biggest takeaway from this year’s climate summit is the grotesque depth of greed and disregard for humanity as a whole. There was a huge missed opportunity to implement real climate solutions, but bullies from the Global North reaffirmed their false solutions to maintain their extractive economies, and so, lined their pockets with their reinforcement of settler-colonialism and imperial dominance over the Global South.

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