How PR buries the environment
Global Spin: the corporate assault on environmentalism
Revised edition
By Sharon Beder
Scribe Publications
336 pp., $29.95 (pb)
Global Spin reveals the sophisticated techniques being used around the world by powerful business forces to try to change the way the public and politicians think about the environment. Large corporations — acting through specialised public relations firms, favoured think-tanks, law suits, educational campaigns and on-side media outlets — are using their clout to reshape public opinion, to weaken gains made by environmentalists and to persuade politicians against increased environmental regulations.
When Global Spin was first published in 1997, the Institute of Public Affairs called it "vile", newspapers would not review it and commercial radio would not touch it.
But activists (including Green Left Weekly, issue #299) and independent specialists raved about it, and the first edition has sold out. The new issue includes three explosive new chapters on corporate-sponsored confusion about global warming, Sydney's phoney "green" Olympics and Greenpeace Australia's apparent sellout to business interests. Get a copy!