Big tech helps big oil spread subtle climate denialism
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Saturday
April 01, 2023

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
    • Aviation
    • Bazaar
    • Budget
    • Industry
    • NBR
    • RMG
    • Corporates
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
    • Book Review
    • Brands
    • Earth
    • Explorer
    • Fact Check
    • Family
    • Food
    • Game Reviews
    • Good Practices
    • Habitat
    • Humour
    • In Focus
    • Luxury
    • Mode
    • Panorama
    • Pursuit
    • Wealth
    • Wellbeing
    • Wheels
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • Videos
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • COVID-19
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
  • বাংলা
SATURDAY, APRIL 01, 2023
Big tech helps big oil spread subtle climate denialism

Thoughts

Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg
25 January, 2023, 10:00 am
Last modified: 25 January, 2023, 10:02 am

Related News

  • Bangladesh seeks urgent action for protection of climate migrants
  • UN votes to ask world court to rule on national climate obligations
  • UN votes to ask world court to rule on national climate obligations
  • World's most polluted countries
  • UN considers 'historic' Vanuatu-led climate resolution

Big tech helps big oil spread subtle climate denialism

After decades of fossil-fuel companies pushing what some environmental activists call “predatory delay,” we are running out of time to make the hard changes needed to avert catastrophic global warming

Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg
25 January, 2023, 10:00 am
Last modified: 25 January, 2023, 10:02 am
Big tech helps big oil spread subtle climate denialism

Fossil-fuel companies' climate messaging may have changed to fit the new century, but the goal is the same as the industry has had for decades: to delay action and protect profits for as long as possible. Even in the face of an increasingly obvious climate emergency, this message still resonates with many people. Maybe that's because the biggest social media companies help amplify it.

In the latest example, a study finds that industry groups, including an arm of the American Petroleum Institute, spent up to $4 million on nearly 4,000 Facebook and Instagram ads sowing climate misinformation before and during the United Nations climate conference last November, also known as COP27.

Some ads, such as those from PragerU and other conservative groups, promoted old-school climate denialism of the sort Exxon and others peddled for decades, contradicting their own scientists. Others were more subtle, acknowledging human-caused climate change while raising doubts about the viability of green energy and the need to quit using fossil fuels. Some warned a quick transition could hurt national security and cause inflation. 

Some of the advertisers were fossil-fuel companies themselves, including Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp., which bragged of green credentials while eliding how their businesses keep pumping carbon into the atmosphere. Many companies and petrostates used a technique known as "nature-rinsing," or associating their product with images of sparkling, clean wilderness. The study, by Climate Action Against Disinformation, an advocacy-group coalition, was based partly on data from the publicly available advertising database of Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms Inc.

These ads are part of a media strategy that oil companies and utilities have tapped in recent years aimed at dressing up their messages in socially acceptable garb. Maybe it's placing sponsored content with big media brands or quietly pumping money and talking points to local news networks. Maybe it's sponsoring climate-change newsletters, which is how we ended up with the debacle of Semafor Climate, a newsletter reporting on climate change that was twice sponsored by Chevron.

And sometimes the work is a little less socially acceptable, such as when a freelance ABC News producer reportedly was paid by representatives of Florida Power & Light and other companies to attack environmentally minded politicians. 

It's also a reminder of the problem social media has with addressing climate misinformation. Most companies lack clearly defined standards or procedures for handling it, and transparency around how their algorithms promote false ideas is scarce. Twitter, currently run by electric vehicle mogul Elon Musk, is the least transparent of the major platforms, according to CAAD's metrics.

The view from a drone of flooded properties after rainstorms swelled Scotts Creek in Upper Lake, California on 5 January 2023. Photo: REUTERS
The view from a drone of flooded properties after rainstorms swelled Scotts Creek in Upper Lake, California on 5 January 2023. Photo: REUTERS

All these companies must do a better job of exposing and combating misinformation. Ad-tech companies, ad agencies and government regulators have a role to play, too. Their inaction risks weakening the world's defenses at a critical moment in the fight against climate change.

After decades of fossil-fuel companies pushing what some environmental activists call "predatory delay," we are running out of time to make the hard changes needed to avert catastrophic global warming. Today's climate denialism may be more subtle — now it's "delayism" and "inactivism" — but it's still damaging.

Momentum seems to be on the side of denial. COP27 was swarmed by fossil-fuel lobbyists pushing their go-slow agenda, and this year's confab will be, too. It will be hosted by an oil-company CEO from the United Arab Emirates. Another burst of propaganda to go along with it would only make necessary change even more difficult to achieve.


Mark Gongloff is a Bloomberg Opinion editor and writer of the Opinion Today newsletter. A former managing editor of Fortune.com, he ran the HuffPost's business and technology coverage and was a reporter and editor for the Wall Street Journal. @markgongloff

Disclaimer: This article first appeared on Bloomberg, and is published by special syndication arrangement.

Big Tech / climate change

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • New export support fund yet to pick up pace
    New export support fund yet to pick up pace
  • Foreign ministry denounces int'l coverage on Journalist Shams's detention
    Foreign ministry denounces int'l coverage on Journalist Shams's detention
  • Prothom Alo journalist Shamsuzzaman Shams in Dhaka Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court premises on 30 March. Photo: Collected
    Journalist Shams sent back to Keraniganj jail from Kashimpur

MOST VIEWED

  • Illustration: TBS
    What makes this economic slowdown different from the others?
  • A UK flag flies on the bank of the River Thames in London. Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg
    The UK can learn from Bangladesh on adapting to the climate crisis
  • Md Jamal Hossain. Illustration: TBS
    The impact of ChatGPT on education in a corrupt system
  • Photo: Collected.
    Bangladesh Oman energy cooperation: Diversification of the domain of energy for Bangladesh
  • Zannat Husna. Sketch: TBS
    ULAB's 'Maternal Mental Healthcare' dialogue: How good is our treatment protocol?
  • Sketch: TBS
    Why agribusiness potential and mechanisms should be highlighted in our universities

Related News

  • Bangladesh seeks urgent action for protection of climate migrants
  • UN votes to ask world court to rule on national climate obligations
  • UN votes to ask world court to rule on national climate obligations
  • World's most polluted countries
  • UN considers 'historic' Vanuatu-led climate resolution

Features

Photo: Courtesy

Meating Minutes: Kabab items that make us salivate

3h | Food
Photo: Courtesy

Iftar delicacy at Courtyard at Park Heights

4h | Food
Photo: Collected

Instagram launches ‘collaborative collection’ feature: All you need to know

3h | Tech
AI generated images of Trump being arrested and the pope wearing a trendy jacket went viral recently. Photo: Collected

Midjourney ends free trials due to ‘extraordinary abuse’

3h | Tech

More Videos from TBS

It's good time to invest in growing companies

It's good time to invest in growing companies

3h | TBS Markets
Pakistan's matches in the World Cup could take place in Bangladesh

Pakistan's matches in the World Cup could take place in Bangladesh

1d | TBS SPORTS
Putin launches nuclear drills with Yars missile

Putin launches nuclear drills with Yars missile

1d | TBS World
Hritika's dream, transgenders will establish by studying

Hritika's dream, transgenders will establish by studying

1d | TBS Stories

Most Read

1
Nusrat Ananna and Nafis Ul Haque Sifat. Illustration: TBS
Pursuit

The road to MIT and Caltech: Bangladeshi undergrads beat the odds

2
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Tech

Microsoft-owned Github fires entire Indian engineering team

3
Representational image
Bangladesh

Airport Road traffic to be restricted on Fridays from 31 March

4
Sadeka Begum. Photo: Courtesy
Panorama

Sadeka's magic lamp: How a garment worker became an RMG CEO

5
Photo: Texas A&M
Science

Massive asteroid expected to pass by Earth this weekend

6
Photo: UNB
Bangladesh

Strong nor'wester likely on 30 March-1 April, casualties feared

EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2023
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net