Global Spin:
the corporate assault on environmentalism
by Sharon Beder
"The most complete study so far of the elaborate multi-billion dollar propaganda machine that the transnational corporations have built up to discredit the environmental movement" - Edward Goldsmith
"Global Spin is outstanding. Sharon Beder has taken the taboo subjects of propaganda and censorship in free societies and exposed their insidious threat. This is such an important book that I would put it on every school curriculum" - John Pilger
"The most important contribution to the environmental debate that I have read" - from the Foreword by David Edwards
Global Spin reveals the sophisticated techniques being used around the
world by powerful conservative forces to try to change the way the public
and politicians think about the environment. Large corporations are using
their influence to reshape public opinion, to weaken gains made by
environmentalists, and to turn politicians against increased environmental
regulation.
The corporations' techniques include employing specialized PR firms to set up front groups that promote the corporate agenda whilst posing as public-interest groups; creating 'astroturf'-artificially created grassroots support for corporate causes; deterring public involvement by imposing SLAPPS-strategic lawsuits against public participation; getting corporate-based 'environmental educational' materials into schools; and funding conservative think-tanks, which have persistently tried to cast doubt on the existence of environmental problems and to oppose stricter environmental regulations.
In the media, corporate advertising and sponsorship are influencing news content, and industry-funded scientists are often treated as independent experts. In the shops, 'green marketing' is being used to reassure consumers that corporations are addressing serious environmental problems.
Global Spin shows how, in a relentless assault on democracy and its institutions, the massive, covert power of large corporations has enabled corporate agendas to dominate the international debate about the state of the environment and the most effective means of solving environmental problems.
Dr. Sharon Beder is a professional engineer and Senior Lecturer in Science
and Technology Studies at the University of Wollongong, Australia. She is
the author of The Nature of Sustainable Development, The New Engineer,
Toxic Fish and Sewer Surfing, and numerous articles on environmental and
other issues.
288pp with references, bibliography & index
ISBN 1 870098 67 6, price Engl. Pound 10.95
To be published on 23rd October 1997
Available through your bookseller or direct from Green Books, Foxhole, Dartington, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EB, UK.
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A US edition will be published in February 1998 by Chelsea Green Publishing Co, Vermont, price $19.95.
Green Books, Foxhole, Dartington, Totnes, Devon TQ9 6EB, UK
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web site: www.greenbooks.co.uk/books
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