False Promises or Real Environmental Change?

Every day a new government or large company is throwing around sci-fi words like carbon capture, clean hydrogen, and net-zero emissions, promising to usher us into the seemingly green utopia just on the horizon. However, in the Guardian article “How to spot the difference between a real climate policy and greenwashing guff” a hard look is taken into how a lot of overpromising and greenwashing has been mixed in with realistic and sustainable environmental goals.

The article points out how companies like Blackrock preach the dire importance of addressing climate change, yet their “Carbon Transition Readiness” fund includes fossil fuel companies. It also points to how governments have been announcing carbon emission targets to reach yet have fallen flat on creating policies to enforce them. The Guardian article critiques and questions whether or not many of these climate goals are realistic enough, impactful enough, or fast enough to actually bring us a sustainable future.

How media will continue to write about these entities’ green initiatives (positive press for promising to go green or negative hard-hitting journalism that looks for tangible outcomes) needs to be analyzed. To see our full analysis of this Guardian article, click here. And check out Science4data’s Climate Corner for the latest analysis of climate change in the news and media.