Oily Green: Time for Washing up Some Washington Greenwashing

The Washington Nationals have a beautiful new stadium. A tax-payer paid stadium. A stadium padded itself on the back for its green attributes.  This beautifully green stadium is plastered with: advertisements for that every so environmentally friendly Exxon-Mobil.  Yes, that Exxon-Mobil that has so happily (and generously) supported global warming denialists as a path to keep the taps running as long as possible on their ability to dump their trash into the atmosphere without financial constraints. This is now going further:  visitors to the stadium have the ability to work their tightened muscles during the Exxon-Mobil 7th inning stretch.  Wonder whether they hand out some black massage oil to work out those kinks and knots built up during tense games?

This is, of course, all part of Exxon-Mobil's greenwashing efforts, to use their $10s (and growing) of billions of profits to influence the discussion and debates to keep the window open as long as possible for ever more excessive profit making off their serial polluting.

leaders from three concerned climate groups met with Nationals officials in April to demand the team stop accepting Exxon’s ad dollars in this supposedly "green" park. But the Nationals have refused.

The time has come to call more attention to this absurdity and to make it counterproductive.

The Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) has decided to take up the mantle along with several other organizations.  While Exxon-Mobil has a lot of cash in hand (and getting more every day), CCAN has motivated grass roots activists: motivated over concerns over our path forward and whether there will be a world of seventh-inning stretches for future Americans or whether catastrophic climate change will so disrupt the economy and society such that "America's pasttime" will become something of the past.

Why worry about Exxon-Mobil?

ExxonMobil is the single biggest contributor to global warming of any corporation. Period.

There will be a

sustained, summer-long campaign to publicly demand Exxon voluntarily discontinue advertising at Nationals Park. We will begin with a well-publicized press conference outside the park on June 20th. This will be followed by the presence of volunteers - including lots of folks in polar bear suits — distributing literature and broadcasting anti-Exxon messages at EVERY remaining home game in 2008 until the advertising stops. Our goal is to get fans to boo loudly during the ExxonMobil 7th inning stretch. Our goal is tag the company as highly controversial from the opening press conference forward so that we end this practice.

A question for you: Are you up to wearing a polar bear suit?  If so, CCAN and its partner organizations will fit one to your size.

Not into wearing fur in Washington, DC, summer weather?  That's okay, there are plenty of other volunteering opportunities.

PS: This is one of those sign-up early opportunities.  First five volunteers at any game get free tickets.

PSPS: Join the  Daily Kos Environmentalists.