This is a pretty shocking new ad campaign from the American coal industries that I felt I should bring to people’s attention, mostly just to highlight how incredibly sick and ignorant the themes in the video are.
It seems to state that now is the time to invest in all the ‘unsurpassed coal reserves’ available to the country, which can provide ‘centuries of affordable electricity’, whilst apparently dancing round the fact that this adventure into their vast reserves will doom the planet to the 2C rise so many have warned us against, and bring about inevitable climate change on scales we can’t predict.
However this isn’t the worst part; it goes on to mention the money spent on ‘clean coal technologies’ that have resulted in ‘real environmental progress’. Now, this may just be me, but I’ve never heard of anything termed as clean coal, and in fact find it hard to string both the words together in a sensible-sounding sentence, and yet here we are, hearing it on national tv, through the calm and wise-sounding voice of some fossil fuel industry wordsmith.
Add to this the blatantly offensive phrase ‘real environmental progress’ and many might start to think that the coal industry has actually cleaned itself up and overcome those age-old issues related to carbon dioxide emission? Well bravo if they have, but as I say, I’m pretty sure I’ve never heard of such things, unless they’re subtly trying to talking about carbon-capture and storage, and even then that technology doesn’t have a place in this specific situation.
We all know that the coal industries will defend their precious resources till the bitter and expensive end, and without a doubt the US lobbies have a lot of clout when it comes to spinning stories and shamelessly playing down climate issues. What’s worrying about this development, is that by using the medium of tv and advertising, whilst making the advert out as knowledgable, trustworthy and grounded in science by throwing in a few dodgy facts, it’s highly likely some of the public is simply going to believe them.
This has always been the case, and has always been an issue of communicating the challenges of climate change to the wider populace, but the fact that campaigns like this are still allowed to happen in the modern age given our extensive wisdom on sustainability and energy, is a shock to say the least. This is exactly how people are coerced into thinking coal could actually be clean and safe, and that to abandon that would be to abandon a future.
I do feel that this campaign is the beginning of the end (pardon the cliched phrase) of the bullish industry however, as to me, this ad seemed like a clutching-at-straws scenario, a desperate attempt at clawing back support. With coal on the defensive due to recent EPA emission regulations, popular support for renewables nationwide and the prospect of losing their subsidies, the industry is actively having to reach out and effectively lie to maintain loyal followers.
By touching on themes such as domestically produced resources, they talk to the part of each and every American wanting the old US back, the country that exported not imported, and this clever tugging at feelings felt throughout the population will no doubt win them some support. Let’s just hope people begin to see reason and regulations are brought in denying any form of fossil fuel advertising.
As the video says, time is ticking America, don’t let these dirty industries shorten that time left.
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