Environmental Activism: Public Relations and Justice for the Environment Leads to Greenwashing

Many public relations firms and well-known advertisement companies have been linked to contributing to the cost of global warming and climate change. Professionals in the working field are assisting major gas companies in their efforts to expand and bring about acceptance of the devastating effects of fossil fuels. It sounds condescending. However, public relations specialists and communication experts do this in a subtle way that is relatively easy to avoid.

As established, good PR is an invisible PR, and this connotation has a solid binding force with how the oil industry and PR firms have found ways to manipulate the public into accepting fossil fuels.

Before diving deep, let’s first talk about the objectives of a public relations specialist and what their job entails.

A PR specialist or communications expert is responsible for constructing subject matters that portray a good light as they represent a client even if it's not the case. The same concept is in retrospect to the fact that it is part of their obligation to do so. Unfortunately, many PR professionals know their responsibilities as experts who dominate in communications. Their main objective is to deliver a message that resonates with a larger audience, and they have done this successfully by advocating for major oil companies.

 PR firms and advertisement companies have unknowingly become the pillars of environmental inaction. Their role in delivering misinformation about carbon neutral goals have led to a collection of disbelief on global warming. Because of this, the fossil fuel industry has gotten away from taking responsibility for climate change and it has been seen to show more growth in the future. A domino effect that leads to higher political inaction from our leaders, especially since there is no to very little economical gain in the development of the environmental movement.

Fortunately, it is not too late to make a difference. PR specialists can shift their focus on educating the public about the effects of fossil fuels and they can do this by promoting more sustainable approaches to consumption.