The Future We Create
Dow Chemical Greenwashing Exposed
When a Dow Chemical PR firm asked "green" author Anna Lappé to contribute a video about the future of water for Dow's flashy new greenwashing effort called "The Future We Create," she was delighted to provide them with exactly what they had asked for. In her 60-second submission, Lappé stressed that toxic chemicals are one of the biggest global threats to water and people, and that Dow itself is one of the biggest sources of such threats.
The PR company swiftly rejected the video, but asked Lappé to record a new video. She didn't. Instead, Lappé is launching her rejected video today on a YouTube channel that invites videos from the public about the future they'd like to create.
At the same time Dow launches their "virtual conference," the company is actively fighting multiple lawsuits from communities alleging the company has polluted their water—including Dow's own hometown of Midland, Michigan. More information on Dow's history of water contamination, and on organizations fighting for clean water, is available in the tabs to the right.
Dow's PR firm did not at first understand why Lappé had sent them a video attacking Dow. "Dow, as a huge corporation with resources, is sponsoring that ["Future We Create"] effort, which you have to admit is pretty cool," a PR rep wrote to Lappé.
"What would be pretty cool," Lappé replied, "would be if the company put even a fraction of the resources it spends on marketing into cleaning up communities whose water it has polluted."
The Yes Lab, a project of The Yes Men that helps activist groups carry out media-getting creative actions on their own, assisted Lappé in developing her response.
For more information or for interviews, please contact Anna Lappé, Small Planet Institute, 917-476-4896, anna@smallplanet.org (website: www.smallplanet.org). For more about the Yes Lab, please contact info@yeslab.org.
Dow Chemical: A Timeline
(See the company’s slightly more upbeat timeline here)
1897 – Dow Chemical founded.
1969 – Dow oversees Rocky Flats Plant near Denver, Colorado. Burning plutonium dust in the facility sends radioactive particles into the atmosphere; the costliest industrial accident in the United States up to this point. A class action lawsuit was settled in 2008; Dow and one other company fined $925 million in damages.
1965-1969 – Dow is among the key manufacturers of Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant used as chemical warfare during the Vietnam War. As many as 3 million people are affected by the widespread use, resulting in thousands of birth defects as well as numerous deaths and cancers.
1970’s – Dow produces permeable silicone breast implants, allowing the silicone gel to leak out over time causing a range of health problems, especially to the immune system. Internal memos would later reveal that Dow officials were fully aware long before releasing the products on the market that silicone affects the immune system and that the implants leaked.
1977 – U.S. regulators require Dow to phase out its pesticide DBCP, long after it is known to be a neurotoxin in the short-term and in the long-term, cause tumors, cancer, sterility in humans and animals, and other serious health effects. As early as 1958 studies pointed to adverse effects on lab animals, but Dow petitioned the U.S. government for commercial use in 1964, before the chemical was finally banned. Note: DBCP is still exported for use abroad.
1984 – Gas leak at a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India owned by Union Carbide, which Dow Chemical purchased in 1999, immediately kills 8,000 people and leads to thousands more dead and many thousands born with birth defects. The incident is one of the world’s worst industrial catastrophes. Citizen groups continue to push Dow to be held accountable for the incident.
2000 – The EPA announces it is phasing out approval of Dow’s insecticide, and potent neurotoxin, Dursban for new home construction in the United States because it is linked to serious illnesses and even death in children. Five years later, the chemical was still in use in U.S. homes.
2003 -- Dow settles a $2 million lawsuit, the largest penalty ever in a pesticide-related case, with the state of New York for repeatedly violating an earlier agreement about proper advertising of its products and making misleading safety claims in print, video and online ads.
2007 – Dow settles with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $325,000, admitting to bribing officials in India to register chemicals such as Dursban.
2007 – The highest level of dioxin contamination ever measured by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is found in the Saginaw River, near Dow’s global headquarters. Testing by the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality found dioxin levels more than a thousand times higher than the state residential standard. A lawsuit is pending.
2010 – Greenpeace International files a lawsuit against Dow, its PR firms, and several individuals, alleging they hired private investigators to spy on the organization from 1998 to 2000. Lawsuit pending.
2011 - Community members in Midland, Texas file suit against Dow, alleging that company drivers drained toxic fluids out of their trucks at the former Dow Chemical facility located near the company’s headquarters.
Beyond Pesticides works to protect public health and the environment to help transition to a world free of toxic pesticides. Beyond Pesticides has historically taken a two-pronged approach: identifying risks of conventional pest management practices and promoting non-chemical and least-hazardous management alternatives. Beyond Pesticides believes that people must have a voice in decisions that affect them directly; decisions should not be made for the public by chemical companies or by decision makers who either do not have all of the facts or refuse to consider them.
Corporate Accountability International
Corporate Accountability International works toward a world where major decisions affecting people and the environment are based on the public interest, not on maximizing corporate profits. To reach this vision, corporations must obey the law, limit their political influence, and be more transparent about their activities. One of CAI’s current campaigns is around the protection of access to public water.
Center for Biological Diversity
The Center for Biological Diversity believes that the welfare of human beings is deeply linked to nature — to the existence of a vast diversity of wild animals and plants. Because diversity has intrinsic value, and because its loss impoverishes society,the Center works to secure a future for all species, great and small, hovering on the brink of extinction. Among its strategies the Center uses science, law, and creative media, with a focus on protecting the lands, waters and climate that species need to survive.
The Network includes public health advocates, chemical disaster survivor groups, legal experts, investors, environmental health & justice organizations, corporate accountability groups and human rights organizations. The core of the Network includes survivors of the Bhopal chemical disaster, as well as activists in Vietnam, Nicaragua, and Michigan and the many other places faced with the public health and environmental fallout from Dow Chemical's production and use of dangerous chemicals.
The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal (ICJB)
The campaign is working to achieve justice and dignity for survivors of the Union Carbide disaster in Bhopal, which includes the tens of thousands affected by the gas leak in 1984 and the subsequent soil and water contamination, including children born damaged as a result of their parents’ exposure. The campaign is also working to help support and share knowledge and resources with communities all over the world that are similarly impacted by chemical contamination and irresponsible development. (Dow Chemical now owns Union Carbide--see our timeline).
Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water, and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping the global commons — our shared resources — under public control.
Greenpeace is a leading international organization to protect our environment. Its Project Clean Water works around the world to provide a public platform to engage on water issues.
Pesticide Action Network North America works to replace the use of hazardous pesticides with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives. As one of five PAN Regional Centers worldwide, the organization links local and international consumer, labor, health, environment and agriculture groups into an international citizens’ action network. This network challenges the global proliferation of pesticides, defends basic rights to health and environmental quality, and works to ensure the transition to a just and viable society.
Visit our YouTube channel to see more videos on the future we really should be creating. To contribute your own 60 seconds to the mix, we invite you to record a one-minute video sharing your thoughts on paths to a sustainable future. Below are some questions to consider. Send us a link to your video once it is uploaded: lida[at]smallplanet.org. Thank you and we look forward to hearing your 60 seconds of insight!
- What is one action you're taking that is helping create a sustainable future?
- What role should chemical companies play in ensuring a sustainable future?
- What is one specific success you've had in making change that gives you most hope?
Tips on Uploading
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