Greenwashing: the new term of hate

Vincent J. Curtis

5 March 24

Greenwashing, following fascist, “white supremacist, and “-phobe” is fast becoming the latest epithet of hate, worse in its category than “climate denier.” Greenwashing has never been precisely defined, but greenwashing appears to mean vaguely, deceptively claiming to be protecting the planet from greenhouse gases but in fact doing the opposite.

The accusation of “greenwasher” was tossed at a farmer who claimed that the cows he was breeding belched and flatulated less, and therefore were better for the environment. The letter writer to the Dog’s Nest Dispatch of this date condemned the farmer as a “greenwasher” and intolerantly displayed her complete ignorance of basic facts about the greenhouse effect. For example, she made the claim that “animal agriculture is the no. 1 contributor of greenhouse gases on the planet.” This is nonsense on stilts!

To start with, it’s animal husbandry, not agriculture (for agriculture pertains to plants); and the no. 1 contributor to the greenhouse effect is water vapor, with carbon dioxide a distance second, and a distant third being ozone.  A far distant fourth is methane, which is present in the atmosphere at a negligible 2 ppm concentration.

The mindset that so easily tosses around epithets like “greenwasher” and the equally absurd “climate denier” (for no one denies the existence of climate) is intolerant and seeks to win something by bringing hatred against the target of the accusation.

Keep an eye out for the term “greenwashing.”

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