Today’s reports that the last decade has been the hottest ever on record landed alongside news of the displacement of 100,000 people due to wildfires in California. This sits uncomfortably with the decision from JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs to drop out of the UN Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
These latest stories of corporate ‘Greenlash’ reflect the pressure on organisations to deliver on their climate commitments and resulting row backs on targets such as reducing the use of virgin plastic (Unilever), cutting carbon emissions (Microsoft), or justifying sustainability headcount (Nike).
But is it really game over for action on climate change? Should we just pack up and go home in the face of such seemingly monumental indifference by big business?
Let’s be honest, we love a buzzword and the online algorithms gleefully sink their teeth into a negative ‘greenlash’ story and send us spiralling down a gloom and doomscroll. Now that we know how this works, we can stop rewarding media companies with our attention. A good friend of mine who is himself a journalist, has a new signal blocking gadget stuck to his wall that prevents him using apps at certain times. He claims to have clawed back 2 hours every day from the doomscroll.
This is certainly one positive intervention. Another is to proactively seek out good news stories – better for our mental health than a diet of mono-saturated hopelessness. The truth about Greenlash is that its impact is more nuanced than it appears. Many companies are still taking action on the climate and biodiversity crises, but they believe they will be lambasted for talking about it, so their comms focus is elsewhere.
But there are organisations, associations, communities and podcasts who are keen to share news of progress. If you are feeling like you need a new year news lift, check out The Weekly Anthropocene: Dispatches Against Despair, from the Wild, Weird World of Humanity and its Biosphere; or Sustainability By Numbers, by Hannah Ritchie, visit canopyplanet.org to read about ancient forests protection by the fashion pack, or marvel in the innovations reported on by the Biomimicry Institute here.
The truth is that despite there always being a slew of negative news, there is a lot to be hopeful about, we just need make sure we see it.
