I first became aware of this scheme years ago in my work to protect rivers in Colorado. As climate change was increasingly accepted by government agencies in Colorado as being real, they started arguing that it was causing a need to build more dams. Because climate change was decreasing the amount of water available in rivers, the agencies argued for more dams on rivers to try and store more water.Nevermind the fact that less water in rivers means less water to fill reservoirs, the marketing gambit started racing forward.
Recently, the hydropower industry has also used this marketing ploy. They argue that hydropower is “clean energy” and “emissions free” and so a frenzy of new hydropower dam schemes – including bills in congress right now – are racing forward. Nevermind again that for over 35 years, science has increasingly recognized that dams and reservoirs – including hydropower – emit greenhouse gases and make climate change worse. Nevermind further that hydropower dams kill rivers and the species that depend on them for survival.
I call this new public relations scheme “climatewashing”, which is a new type of “greenwashing”, and it’s no longer limited to governments trying to build dams that destroy rivers. Just say the magic word, “climate”, and any amount of environmental destruction seems to be now justified.
Across the U.S. and the world, forests are being logged, sagebrush landscapes are being mined for “rare metals”, and ecosystems and wildlife habitat are being bisected with massive transmission lines, all under the guise of fighting climate change.
First about logging: So-called “wildfire mitigation” and “forest thinning” is raging across the Western U.S., including here in Colorado where a colleague of mine calls it the “Colorado Chainsaw Massacre”. Ironically, forests and their majestic trees are carbon sinks – in fact, tree planting is a guaranteed “climate solution” to get carbon our of the air and locked in a forest, yet the chainsaws are ripping through the public forests of the West funded by your tax money. Further, if you look at the facts, you see that most of the problem is with people building homes in the forests, not with the forests themselves. The science also indicates that fire-proofing a house is an effective deterrent, whereas “thinning” – a.k.a. “logging” – mostly keeps the timber industry in business.
Second about mining: Mining our public lands for rare earth minerals – especially lithium which is used to store electricity in batteries – is the new rage across the American West. My colleagues fighting against lithium mines in Nevada have made national news in their battle to protect the sensitive ecological landscape from massive open pit mines. The Biden administration has been front-and-center pushing for more mining, even spinning it with a tinge of nationalism and national security propaganda. Nevermind that all of this mining uses huge amounts of fossil fuels and causes massive environmental damage.
Third about transmission lines: The transmission line frenzy has gone full Madison Avenue with the so-called “Big Wires Act” spinning its way through congress right now. Whether it be massive swaths of deforestation in the north woods of Maine, or landscape- and bird-killing transmission lines across Wyoming, in order to “fight climate change” we’re told we must sacrifice landscapes, ecosystems, wildlife, and our beautiful open spaces across the U.S. to build these electric transmission lines for more so-called “clean energy”.
Finally, one of my favorite adversaries in the climatewashing business is the rabid push to “densify” cities in order to pack-and-stack more people in condos as the human population continually expands. Just recently, the new “progressive” Mayor of Denver touted a massive new downtown development along the South Platte River as “helping us meet our climate goals”. Nevermind that the greenhouse gas emissions from the construction alone – with huge walls of steel, concrete, and glass – would catapult Denver and the state’s greenhouse emissions ever higher. Also nevermind that all the new people living in this complex will increase the crowding and environmental impacts across the state on our open spaces, rivers, and landscapes.
Underneath every one of these schemes you can always find a profiteering motive where “public-private partnerships” using your tax money are supposed to create these so-called “climate solutions”. The underlying truth – now metastasizing to state and local governments across Colorado and the U.S. – is a neoliberal push for more and more economic growth. We’re told that instead of billionaires in the coal/oil/gas industry, all we need to do to save the planet is to make billionaires in the solar/wind/mining/real-estate industry.
Obviously, I’m highly skeptical. Even though most mainstream environmental groups have jumped on the bandwagon, more and more local people and grassroots groups are seeing an emperor with no clothes. A populist backlash has found company in the 2024 election where presidential candidate and environmentalist, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., called some of these projects “another high-tech mirage that sacrifices landscapes, ecosystems, and people for a theoretically better future”.
We must face the fact that the ever-growing human enterprise – with over 8 billion people on the planet, and over 330 million in the U.S. – causes massive environmental impacts. Further, all forms of energy production and storage have some level of negative environmental impact and climate-pollution emissions. Balancing these impacts for the broader public good is necessary work, especially in how it impacts local and frontline communities, but totally ignoring the facts and lying to the public about “climate” and “clean energy” invites outspoken criticism and populist backlash.
It’s time to tell the truth about #climatewashing. Clean energy is not always green.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gary Wockner, PhD, is Executive Director and Co-Founder of Save the Colorado. Gary has been active in environmental protection most of his adult life. Over the past decade, Gary has spearheaded the protection and restoration of his local watershed in Fort Collins, CO, and has played an increasing role around Colorado River protection throughout the Southwest U.S.. In 2010 Gary co-founded and launched the Save The Colorado River Campaign with New Belgium Brewing of Fort Collins (makers of Fat Tire Beer). With financial support from New Belgium, Patagonia, and Clif Bar, from 2010 – 2014 Save The Colorado was a small philanthropy that donated funds to non-profit environmental organizations throughout the Colorado River basin. Due to its success, in 2015 Save The Colorado spun off to be a free-standing 501(c)3 with the mission above. Gary is an award-winning environmental activist and writer — he has been named a “River Hero,” an “Eco-Rockstar Impacting the Planet,” and a “Renowned Environmental Leader” by environmental publications. Contact: https://garywockner.com.
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