On Not Using Corporate-Created Buzzwords

by dday

I know that he appears to be doing one interview after another and spinning reporters on how good his Presidency was, but George Bush is keeping busy by stripping collective bargaining rights from federal employees and throwing more dirt into possible sources of drinking water. These may not SEEM like vital national priorities, but then again, you don’t personally profit from them, do you?

And by the way, this is a perfect example of the danger of validating phrases like “clean coal”.

In giving his blessing to the new regulation, Mr. Johnson, the head of the E.P.A., noted that Mr. Bush had promoted the use of clean coal technology as a way to reduce dependence on foreign oil.

“Americans should not have to choose between clean coal or effective environmental protection,” Mr. Johnson said. “We can achieve both.”

Clean coal technology refers to the capture and sequestration of carbon and other harmful byproducts. And, I might add, no such technology currently exists). Clean coal has nothing to do with allowing rock and dirt to cascade into valleys and streams. But you repeat the phrase enough, and in particular you get a Democratic President-elect to repeat it, and you give polluters and anti-environmentalists the ability to apply it to virtually anything. And when Obama or Democrats in general object that we maybe shouldn’t be slicing off the top of mountains and let the residue fall into streams and reservoirs, they are suddenly going against their promise to deliver “clean coal.”

There’s nothing new about PR maneuvers like this from coal manufacturers. In the 1920s and 1930s they called it “smokeless coal”. It’s how they continue to extend an industry that consistently makes people sick.

You can make the argument about how technology may be able in the future to capture carbon cleanly and safely, but under no circumstances should anyone who presumes to be committed to the environment or global warming ever use the term “clean coal.” And this of course is just one example. Controlling the terms of a debate is fundamental to controlling the debate itself.

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