Nowadays, almost all petroleum giants are espousing their “green credentials”. The other day I was watching a commercial from our home grown Bharat Petroleum – for a moment I thought it wasn’t a campaign for petro retail giant at all! The other BP – British Petroleum has been busily engaged in a multi-million dollar green washing campaign since long. BP has doubled its spending on corporate advertising to $150 million this year to enhance its environmental credentials. The company adopted a new slogan, “Beyond Petroleum,” and began a “rebranding” effort to depict itself as an environmentally sensitive, green enterprise, epitomizing 21st century corporate social responsibility.

It’s going to take more than shrewd ad campaign to wipe out the image of oil spreading across the Gulf Coast from BP’s offshore rig, and dead sea life washing up onto its beaches. Even as it magnanimously agreed to cover the costs of cleaning up the gargantuan spill, BP on Monday was still insisting that it wasn’t at fault for the accident that caused it. So much for green corporate social responsibility!!!

I might be wrong, but personally I feel the green image that these petro giants are trying to cultivate is nothing but a scam. While making peanut investments in things like solar power, biofuels, and carbon fuel cells, these companies have continued to work relentlessly to expand its oil and gas operations. For example, BP has earmarked $8 billion over the next decade for green pursuits whereas its revenue for last year was $246 billion! So BP is investing 0.0032% of its revenue in its green initiative!

Sadly these histrionics seem to be working. In 2001, BP was chosen as the greenest company.

And what was going on at BP while it was supposed to be “becoming greener”?
• In 2006, more than 260,000 gallons of crude poured onto the Arctic tundra from a BP pipeline—the worst onshore spill in Alaskan history.
• In October 2007, the BP was fined for a series of violations related to a near-blowout at an offshore rig in 2002. The violations included inadequate training of BP workers who claimed to be in “well control.”
• The massive offshore oil spill disaster that is happening RIGHT NOW.

Conclusion:
My dad, a doctor says - The worst diagnosis is a watered down diagnosis.

In a similar vein, the big corporations etc who are making all these noise about going green are doing a very watered down adoption of green technologies. We are just slowing down an inevitable annihilation.

What’s your say on the topic? Your views are most welcome.