I had meant to make this post back when the NCAA tournament was going on, but ... well ... I'm getting around to it now.
Every year I get excited about the NCAA tournament and this year was no exception. There were some real exciting games and great upsets. However, one thing I did not enjoy was all the greenwashing by Exxon. It seemed they had a commercial played during every timeout on CBS. In particular, the Capturing CO2 ad really struck me as inaccurate.
In the ad, a scientist working for Exxon describes CO2 as an impurity of natural gas that can be taken out and stored safely away from everybody (and the atmosphere in particular). Unfortunately, this is not exactly true. CO2 is a natural byproduct of natural gas combustion because it exists within the molecular structure of the gas itself! Although carbon sequestration should become part of a comprehensive solution to global warming, no one has been able to successfully achieve this on the scale required and it has many environmental, economic, and health related risks. In the end, we need to move away from fossil fuels and into a renewable energy future if we are ever to achieve the dream of a sustainable future.
This topic is still relevant because Thursday is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day so many companies will be out there trying to promote themselves as environmentally friendly. Be sure to read between the lines, do your own research and don't fall for the hype! Earth Day is a great opportunity to generate awareness and inspire action and should not be hijacked for a little corporate greenwashing.
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