Not even Global PR will help BP now

When a public relations disaster this big happens, there is little PR can do to sort things out. Even at the best of times, it is little more than papering over the cracks unless you have something genuinely valuable to say. That's not to say there is no art in writing a good press release, of course, but a spoof Twitter feed offers the reader so much more value. The mock billboard above is from a collection of pics created by another smart-arse an enterprising designer from the @BPGlobalPR Twitter feed, which now has 92,849 followers. The author is now selling #bpcares T-shirts to raise money to clean up BP's mess.

Who writes these "crude" but humorous updates? Nobody knows, and that's the way it should be. Nothing is more effective against faceless capitalism than faceless protest, yet as soon as the identity of the tweeter is exposed, it becomes just another engine of that person's reputation, i.e. PR.

In the meantime, as this excellent CNET run-down of the mystery says, it's pure "black comedy gold".

No monkey business necessary in the fight against bottled water

The Story of Bottled Water
Uploaded by visionontv. - News videos hot off the press.

Following on from the Greenpeace "twitstorm" reported on yesterday, here is something a bit less gruesome than biting through the finger of an Orangutan from the good people at Storyofstuff.org.

And remember, this site has been hating the mineral water scam for some time - check out TapIt.

Nike wants to make the world a better place, and this time they're serious

Although articles like this have made a big deal of Nike's involvement in GreenXchange, the video above from the online collaboration's website makes no mention of the sweatshop shoemaker. How very uncorporate of Nike - thumbs up!

Here's the skinny, in case you can't be bothered to follow that first link:

The idea for GX came from "Wikinomics" author Don Tapscott and Nike's Sustainable Business and Innovation Lab. The lab imagines that one possible subject for the GX is Nike's Environmentally Preferred Rubber, which has 96% fewer toxins than Nike's traditional rubber. If licensed on the GX, other footwear companies like Mountain Equipment Co-Op might be able to get greener footwear to market more quickly than if they had to come up with similar technology by themselves.

Participation in the GX doesn't mean companies have to reveal all information about a certain product--instead, they are offered a number of licensing structures, including research and attribution recognition, non-competitive use and simple fee structures.

Corporate hippies, yeah!

Guerrillas can be gardeners, too

 

We first got wind of Richard Reynolds from an article in February's UK edition of Wired magazine and a link to guerrillagardening.org, which promotes illicit gardening designed to brighten up London. Who could argue? 

Was the Daily Express joking about a bit of snow bringing an end to global warming "conspiracy"?

I sure hoped so, or we really are all doomed. The answer to the above question is in the article itself, and sadly, it's mostly "no". I read the piece waiting at least for an explanation that "global warming" and "climate change" are not the same thing, but it never came. There was, however, this:

The Met Office’s Barry Gromett said December and January’s cold weather was “within the bounds of variability” in a global trend of rising temperatures in which 2009 is set to be the fifth warmest year on record.

He added that while Siberia, the UK and parts of the US were very cold, other areas including Alaska, Canada and the Mediterranean were warmer than usual. But China faces its worst winter in 20 years, with temperatures down to -43C.

But it was quickly followed by this:

Christopher Booker, author of The Real Global Warming Disaster, said: “It is amazing how this scaremongering from climate change lobbyists keeps arising even though they are constantly being proved wrong.

“Last year there was snow in Saudia Arabia and still they persist in saying the temperature is going up.”

Sigh.

Electronic gadgets to make saving electricity fun

As we shift from worrying about the environment and blaming others, there are a whole lot of companies offering gadgets to help homeowners monitor their energy consumption quickly and easily. And they're all listed on this government sponsored site. The Wattson above is the best-looking of the bunch.

Oh, and I found this via the 10:10 Twitter feed, @tentenuk.

At last, a grass-roots, corporate sponsored attempt to overcome climate change

People are always trying to save the environment by coming up with sexy new technologies or hoping that others (governments chief among them) do something about the catastrophe about to unfold. In fact, one of the main (and easiest to address) causes of global warming aer waste, poor insulation, air conditioning, unnecessary car journeys, the list goes on. Today, that is about to change with 10:10, a pledge by ordinary people to cut their emmissions by a whopping 10% in 2010.

See, it's easy.