From: imbibe@mindspring.com   
      
   ‘Greenwashing’: Painting a Facade of Ecological Concern   
   By Ben Zimmer, Nov. 10, 2022, WSJ   
      
   When the U.N. climate conference known as COP27 kicked off earlier this week   
   in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, one notable no-show was the Swedish climate   
   activist Greta Thunberg. The U.N. conferences, Ms. Thunberg explained to a   
   gathering in London, “are    
   mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get   
   attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing.”   
      
   “Greenwashing” refers to superficial attempts by corporate and political   
   leaders to present an environmentalist or “green” image. That may involve   
   overstating the impact of climate initiatives such as the use of carbon   
   offsets to make up for    
   greenhouse-gas emissions. Or it may involve making a show of eco-friendliness   
   while clamping down on climate activism.   
      
   Other ‘whitewashing’ spinoffs used by activists include ‘p   
   rplewashing’ for feminist issues and ‘redwashing’ for leftist issues.   
      
   The term “greenwashing” is often credited to the New York environmentalist   
   Jay Westerveld, who reportedly used the term in a 1986 essay that cast a   
   critical eye on hotels that urged guests to reuse their towels as an   
   environmental measure. Mr.    
   Westerveld told me that the word caught on in New York environmental circles   
   before spreading more widely.   
      
   “The word ‘greenwashing’ just came to me,” Mr. Westerveld recalled in   
   a 2011 interview. “It seemed really logical, pretty simple, kind of like   
   whitewashing.”(Around the same time, others hit upon “greenwash” or   
   “greenwashing”    
   independently, as it appeared in newspapers in Colorado in 1983 and Tennessee   
   in 1987.) The term works as a colorful riff on “whitewashing,” which has   
   long referred to covering up faults or giving the false appearance of   
   respectability.   
      
   Historically, “whitewash” was a mixture of water and powdered chalk or   
   slaked lime, as calcium hydroxide was traditionally known. It was applied to   
   walls and other surfaces to give them a fresh appearance without the need for   
   scrubbing. Examples date    
   to the 1580s, as in an account of a Puritan clergyman in the English town of   
   Ashford who covered up his church’s Catholic images by having them   
   “slubbered over with a white wash that in an hour may be undone.”   
      
   Literal whitewash persisted for centuries—think of Tom Sawyer in Mark   
   Twain’s telling, convincing his friends and neighbors to whitewash a fence   
   so that he can avoid the tedious chore. But the more metaphorical meaning of   
   glossing over faults or    
   errors emerged by the 18th century. When Edward Lewis published a flattering   
   biography of Henry VIII in 1768, one reviewer wrote, “All the white-washing   
   Mr. Lewis bestows upon Henry never can clear him from the charge of being, in   
   civil and domestic    
   matters, a barbarous and unrelenting tyrant.”   
      
   Further variations on the “whitewashing” theme retained the idea of   
   deceptive image-making while swapping out “white” for another color or   
   related term. “Pinkwashing,” for instance, was originally used to   
   criticize companies for cynically co-   
   opting breast cancer awareness campaigns and their pink ribbons. Eventually   
   “pinkwashing” also came to be used to refer to groups insincerely   
   displaying support for LGBTQ rights—also sometimes called “rainbow   
   washing.”   
      
   Other “whitewashing” spinoffs used by activists include “p   
   rplewashing” for feminist issues and “redwashing” for leftist issues. In   
   Canada, “maple-washing” has been used to refer to sanitizing the   
   country’s history of racist treatment    
   of indigenous groups. And “sportswashing” is reserved for when sporting   
   events are used to rehabilitate a government’s reputation.   
      
   In environmental circles, “greenwashing” has proved popular enough that it   
   has inspired other terms for shady practices such as “greenscamming.” And   
   at COP27, many companies are taking a step back from trumpeting    
   mbitious-sounding claims of    
   helping the environment by setting emissions targets. The sudden lack of   
   publicity around corporate climate-action efforts has been dubbed   
   “green-hushing.” With so many potential pitfalls in promoting a truly   
   eco-friendly agenda, it’s not easy    
   going green.   
      
   https://www.wsj.com/articles/greenwashing-painting-a-facade-of-e   
   ological-concern-11668113593   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)