On December 3rd, media outlets received a press release claiming that the members of the US Climate Action Partnership (USCAP), including BP, Alcoa, and DuPont had committed to a 90 percent reduction in their greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. In addition, the release claimed that the members had called for an immediate moratorium on the construction of all new coal-fired power plants. A few reporters ended up with egg on their face when they filed the report without contacting USCAP, but most realized that this could not be real. In fact, the spoof press release was put out by an organization called Rising Tide North America, a loose collaboration of 2 dozen core activists and their individual and organizational supporters. Started in spring of 2006, Rising Tide North America is modeled on Rising Tide organizations in Europe and Australia as a way to address the fossil fuels issue and focus on community based solutions. I spoke with Brian Sloan, the co-coordinator of what Rising Tide North America calls their “false solutions campaign”.

According to Sloan, who has been involved in the environmental and anti-globalization movements in the U.S. for the last decade, including participating in the WTO protests in 1999, “Rising Tide sees itself as fusing environmental activism with a broader analysis about globalization and the global power of large multi-national corporations.”

When asked about the impetus for the fake press release, Sloan says:

We wanted to draw attention to USCAP as a group of corporations that is starting to have a big influence on climate policy in the US. We’re concerned about their influence because we don’t think they’re sincere about taking the actions needed to stop climate change. If some of the biggest polluters in the world are not sincere about serious reductions in the use of fossil fuels, and if they are just putting out policy papers saying that they are for this or that, they are the ones hoaxing us. BP, for example, is part of USCAP but is also one of the biggest companies behind the development of the Tar Sand project in Canada, one of the biggest new fossil fuel developments. Tar Sand is promoting the conversion of very hard to process oil shale into liquid fuel, mostly in Alberta. It’s very energy intensive but allows Canada to consider itself one of the top oil producers in world.

The implication is that it is easy for BP to talk about its commitment to addressing climate change, but when it comes to its actions, it is actively engaged in new business that will have a detrimental effect on the environment.

The fake press release was initially picked up by a few media outlets in the U.S. and elsewhere as actual news. And according to Sloan, within 2 and a half hours, USCAP and its members went on the defensive, including contacting Rising Tide’s web server to shut down the fake site they had referenced in the release. The goal of exposing the USCAP members as not taking any real action was accomplished, according to Sloan. The hoax was picked up by Wired Magazine, Business Week, blogs on the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian and News.com.

What was interesting was that in all of the media responses, quite a few started from the premise that sometimes what appears to be too good to be true isn’t true and that there was no way that these companies would take these actions as voluntary measures and legislate themselves into a position to do these things.

Some of the reports also poked fun at the naivety of reporters that believed the release was real.

When asked if there a role for business in solving the climate crisis, Sloan gives a definitive no.

What is needed is to make changes that give communities more say in the control of energy directly and not through intermediaries of large corporations. We need to have policies which are purely based on environmental protection and stopping climate crisis. If this coincides with business plans, great, but business should be an after thought and not the primary motivation.

Sloan points out that much of the focus in climate change remediation is on protocols and technologies that benefit companies, like biofuels and investment in minor efficiency projects in Africa, Asia and South America, rather than taking major actions to change the sources of energy. And according to Sloan, “the record has shown that there is really almost no success with these supposedly corporate and climate-friendly mechanisms. Agribusiness-fuels create a new crisis and do nothing for the climate.” Sloan sees a similar crisis coming from offset projects that displace people to create carbon forests and change the focus from reducing emissions, leading to diminishing returns in 10 – 15 years.

Sloan is adamant that although business has created the bulk of the problem, it is individuals that will need to solve it. He says that looking to businesses to solve the climate crisis is like if we had decided to give the apartheid government in South Africa more power in order to address institutionalized racism instead of giving power to the indigenous community. Sloan believes that ‘We can’t ask those that create the problems to make the solutions.” This view is hardly universally excepted among environmentalists and climate change activists, many of whom see business and the growth it can experience from developing solutions to the climate crisis, as an important ally.

Next up for Rising Tide is “Fossil Fools Day of Action” on April 1st (US April Fool’s Day). Rising Tide is encouraging direct actions around the world aimed at promoting the message that in order to stop the climate crisis, we must keep fossil fuels in the ground. They want to see activists non-violently target fossil fuel infrastructure like gas stations and coal plants, and try to shut them down, just as Rising Tide North America did in its first action, when they shut down the American Electric Power (AEP) Clinch River coal plant.

Whether business can actually play a productive role in solving the climate crisis remains to be seen. Rising Tide has certainly sold the point, however, that any drastic changes in the way corporations operate needed to address global warming are not likely to be voluntary. A point they plan to continue to drive home.

Further Reading:

• Veiling Our True Predicament: Politics & Industry
• The Rise & Predictable Fall of Globalized Industrial Agriculture
• The Establishment Rethinks Globalization
• Industry's Plans for Us
• Carbon Trading - a Critical Conversation on Climate Change, Privatisation & Power
• Skip the Reformation, Indulgences are Enough
• Only 10% Trust Corporations & Government on Global Warming
• Why We Should Shop Local
• The Corporation
• Coal to Liquids - the Fuel from Hell
• Carbon Sequestration
• Wal-Mart - the High Cost of Low Price
• The Denial Machine