Exposing ExxonMobil's Climate Change Doublespeak

onApr 28, 2009 @ 17:23 PDT

As President Obama hosts the world’s 17 largest economies to discuss a new desperately-needed global binding treaty on climate change, the oil, coal and gas companies are in overdrive trying to undermine the process and maintain their profits.

And Avaaz.org is calling out the worst of the bunch, ExxonMobil Corp., in a new commercial they want to run on CNN.

The video plays off an ExxonMobil ad that might look familiar given its heavy rotation on the major networks lately. Here’s a screenshot of the original ad – and below that is the much more reality-based Avaaz version:

If you want to see this ad run on CNN you might consider throwing a couple of bucks Avaaz’s way to help with the ad buy – think of it as offsetting the big polluter’s hot air.

By Kevin Grandia

Kevin is a contributor and strategic adviser to DeSmogBlog.

He runs the digital marketing agency Spake Media House. Named a “Green Hero” by Rolling Stone Magazine and one of the “Top 50 Tweeters” on climate change and environment issues, Kevin has appeared in major news media outlets around the world for his work on digital campaigning.

Kevin has been involved in the public policy arena in both the United States and Canada for more than a decade. For five years he was the managing editor of DeSmogBlog.com. In this role, Kevin’s research into the “climate denial industry” and the right-wing think tank networks was featured in news media articles around the world. He is most well known for his ground-breaking research into David and Charles Koch’s massive financial investments in the Republican and tea party networks.

Kevin is the first person to be designated a “Certified Expert” on the political and community organizing platform NationBuilder.

Prior to DeSmogBlog, Kevin worked in various political and government roles. He was Senior Advisor to the Minister of State for Multiculturalism and a Special Assistant to the Minister of State for Asia Pacific, Foreign Affairs for the Government of Canada. Kevin also worked in various roles in the British Columbia provincial government in the Office of the Premier and the Ministry of Health.

In 2008 Kevin co-founded a groundbreaking new online election tool called Vote for Environment which was later nominated for a World Summit Award in recognition of the world’s best e-Content and innovative ICT applications.

Kevin moved to Washington, DC in 2010 where he worked for two years as the Director of Online Strategy for Greenpeace USA and has since returned to his hometown of Vancouver, Canada.