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George Monbiot See Newspapers Warn Of Climate Change Amid Adds For Budget Flights And Oil Companies

by | 14th, August 2007

HE writes:

A few weeks ago I was challenged by the editors of a website called Medialens over advertisements carried by the Guardian. Does not part of my living ultimately come from the companies I campaign against? Why don’t I discuss this contradiction in my column?

It is a good question, and it requires an answer. You cannot open a newspaper without being confronted by a host of incongruities. Yesterday, the Telegraph urged people to share their car journeys as “a simple way to lessen your carbon footprint”. Beside this exhortation, and at six times the size, was an ad by Ryanair for £10 flights to France. Johann Hari in the Independent urged people to join the climate campers at Heathrow, then that newspaper pressed its readers to take advantage of its own special offers – to fly to Spain, Kenya or California. The Guardian led on its story about the government’s renewables policy, then ran an ad for renewable energy by E.ON, which (in view of its plans to build new coal-burning power stations) looks to me like greenwash. The paper also carried a reader offer of a cruise around Scotland, which begins by “flying from a range of UK airports”. The editorials urge us to cut our emissions. The ads urge us to raise them.

Very good. And then: “Almost all advertising – by promoting excessive consumption – threatens the biosphere.”

Eh?

Spotter: Tim 



Posted: 14th, August 2007 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink