Big Oil Invented Carbon Footprints to Gaslight the Public

Climate change and public relations

If you’re an engaged citizen, chances are you try to lower your carbon footprint and make climate-conscious decisions. You recycle, maybe you’ve cut back on plastic, or invested in an electric car or solar panels.

But did you know that the concept of “carbon footprint” was the inspiration of an advertising firm working for none other than oil giant, BP?

Almost 20 years after its conception, the term “carbon footprint” is all-pervading.

What we’re doing is good but not good enough

Many of us individuals are doing our bit when it comes to climate change, but is it enough to save the planet?

I think we should continue (and increase) avoiding consumer products and other things that damage the environment. But why are we focusing on what Jane Bloggs down the road is doing? Why aren’t we instead looking more closely at the fossil fuel companies?

Jane might live in a place where there’s no public transport so she’s forced to buy a car to get to work and buy her groceries. She might not be able to afford an electric car and, besides, there are no places to charge it. Maybe she doesn’t recycle because there are no collection services. Maybe she buys food covered in plastic wrapping because that’s the only option at her local shops.

If I didn’t think closely about Jane’s situation, I’d feel annoyed by her choices. Just like I’m annoyed with my friends when they buy a giant SUV or plastic bottled water. I feel annoyed at these individuals but why do I rarely think about the companies who produce all this crap? Crap we sometimes don’t even have a choice but to consume.

Because they duped us.

BP and Ogilvy — an oily dream team

BP is one of the largest private oil companies in the world. With a 12-month revenue of $222.7 billion, they explore, produce, and supply oil and petrochemical products. Or “energy solutions” as they prefer to say. Perhaps you’ve dropped into a BP service station to fill your car up with some of their energy solutions. Although I try to avoid them as they’re on the pricier side.

When climate change became more and more of a global concern, BP decided to do something about it. They hired the advertising agency, Ogilvy, to publicise the idea that climate change is not the fault of a poor, innocent oil giant. Oh no, climate change is the fault of you, me, and Jane Bloggs.

In 2000, BP and Ogilvy launched the $200 million Beyond Petroleum campaign — promoting the idea that it’s up to us individuals to reduce our carbon footprints and save the planet.

“Ogilvy’s advertising efforts sought to divert attention from the fossil fuel industry to reframe climate change as an issue of individual responsibility. The branding efforts were met with several accolades including PRWeek 2001 ‘Campaign of the Year’.” Brown University paper, The role of public relations firms in climate change politics (peer-reviewed), supplementary material

In 2004, Ogilvy released a carbon footprint calculator. Perhaps you’ve used it? The calculator tells you how much the things you do, like going to work, buying essentials, and occasionally having the audacity to travel, are contributing to global warming.

With clever PR and a nifty calculator, BP laid the blame for climate change at Jane Bloggs’ door whilst making themselves look like a good guy who is “transforming” into a lovely green energy provider.

Drilling deeper into PR and climate change

Fossil fuel companies want to keep right on selling oil and gas. They make good money from it — some of them almost $600 billion a year. But this isn’t a good public image.

“It’s not okay anymore to be an outright climate denialist. No one’s going to listen to you. So instead, PR firms are changing the context in which climate communications take place. It’s even more insidious.” Melissa Aronczyk, Associate Professor of Media Studies, Rutgers University and author of Public Relations and the Politics of American Environmentalism

BP wants you to accept responsibility for climate change.

Beverage companies want you to feel bad about the pollution you cause with the plastic bottles and cans you buy. Alcohol companies want you to feel bad about the damage done to your health when you don’t “drink responsibly”. Tobacco companies want you to feel bad about becoming addicted to their carcinogenic products.

They don’t want you to blame them, and so these companies rely heavily on PR firms when it comes to health and climate politics.

Major oil and electricity companies have been employing PR agencies for over 30 years and are the biggest employers of these firms.

Terms such as “clean coal”, “renewable natural gas” and, of course, “carbon footprint” were all the brainchildren of PR firms. Check out the website of any dodgy organisation and they’re all “transforming” and “building a better future”.

Greenwashing at its finest.

The American PR firm, Edelman, has made a fortune helping fossil fuel trade groups influence climate politics:

• $21 million from American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers between 2012 and 2018.
• $439.7 million from the American Petroleum Institute since 2008.

What’s BP doing today?

“Our purpose is reimagining energy for people and our planet. We want to help the world reach net zero and improve people’s lives.” BP.com

Uh-huh.

After the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill — the one where BP leaked 4 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico — Ogilvy launched a new campaign. The Possibilities Everywhere campaign hyped BP’s investment in renewal energies like solar power and kept the company’s far larger investment in fossil fuels on the quiet.

“I guess, looking at it now, ‘beyond petroleum’ is just advertising. It’s become mere marketing — perhaps it always was — instead of a genuine attempt to engage the public in the debate or a corporate rallying cry to change the paradigm … they [BP] didn’t go beyond petroleum, they are petroleum.” John Kenney, one of the Beyond Petroleum creators

Sure, fossil fuel companies invest in renewable energy. 12% of the 2022 capital expenditure of BP, Shell, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies was forecast to go towards “low carbon” activities.

But none of those companies’ forecasts for oil and gas production appear to be on track to meet the International Energy Agency’s target of net-zero emissions by 2050. Indeed, several fossil fuel companies plan to increase oil and gas production between 2021 and 2026.

Today, about 80 percent of our energy needs continue to be served by fossil fuels.

What can we do?

Individual actions, doing our bit to help the environment, are great. Sure, they’re just a drop in the ocean but if we take collective action, if we combine all our drops, we fill an ocean.

If none of us consumes fossil fuel products, the bastards will have to stop producing them.

Also, we can vote.

We can elect leaders who’ll put a stop to this rot.

And if there are no leaders, let’s seek them out and lift them up. Around the world, there are people doing great things to help the environment. You can read some good news stories here.

If governments mandate energy efficiency and come down hard on companies who don’t go green, then fossil fuel organisations won’t be able to peddle and lie and gaslight.

While I don’t think climate change is the responsibility of us ordinary people alone, we do have the power to do something. Go Jane Bloggs!