Thread by @David_Ritter

This week people were angered to find that massive polluter @WoodsideEnergy is sponsoring parliament's midwinter ball.
It's just one tactic in Woodside's industrial scale 'reputation washing' strategy to enable it to keep on polluting. Thread…
🧵 #auspol
tinyurl.com/yywm7xsz

Woodside’s problem is that it makes profit by mining and selling oil and gas - fossil fuels that are driving the climate emergency.
Indeed Woodside is now one of the ten biggest oil and gas majors in the world - and the only one based in Australia:
marketindex.com.au/news/a-merged-…

In Australia, Woodside is best known as a gas producer.
As @adamlmorton noted this week in a helpful explainer piece, “gas is a central driver of the climate emergency”:
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

The devastating impacts of gas on climate, nature and humanity is why the International Energy Agency has called for a total moratorium on opening any new coal, oil or gas projects to avoid climate disaster:
iea.org/reports/net-ze…

However, Woodside is ignoring the International Energy Agency - and the findings and pleas of about a gazillion climate scientists - by wanting to lock in fossil gas pollution for decades to come, including opening up massive new offshore gas mines:
woodside.com/what-we-do/gro…

According to researchers at Climate Analytics, Woodside’s expansion plans are ‘not 1.5°C consistent’ and ‘represents a bet against the world implementing the Paris Agreement’: theguardian.com/environment/20…

Another way of putting this, is that Woodside’s entire business strategy is betting on the acceleration of what 11,000 scientists described earlier this year as “untold suffering due to the climate crisis”:
theguardian.com/environment/20…

So how does Woodside plan to get away with a business based on driving conditions leading to untold human suffering?
They have a bunch of strategies.
In this thread I will concentrate on ‘reputation washing’.
Some others are set out here in @arenatweets: arena.org.au/gaslit-futures…

As Tim Winton said in a fantastic truth telling speech earlier this year, huge polluting fossil fuel corporations like Woodside now rely on ‘trafficking in cognitive distortion’. Reputation washing is a big part of this:
thesaturdaypaper.com.au/opinion/topic/…

Woodside doesn't want us to think of them as threatening the future of life on earth.
The Woodside corporate vision is to be ‘society's trusted energy partner’.
As any swindler knows, there are plenty of ways to win trust.
Let’s dig into this…
woodside.com.au/who-we-are/pur…

Publicly listed companies will only do things that cost money when there is a business case.
When Woodside says it ‘has an active role to play in contributing to the well-being of our communities’, it is because it can see business advantage in doing so:
tinyurl.com/37z6vxhh.

‘Reputation washing’ describes the use of positive activities to distract from or legitimise negative operations or strategies.
Woodside gains business advantage - keeping social licence to keep pumping out deadly pollution - through large-scale, multi-layered reputation washing.

In exchange for sponsorship dollars, the @WoodsideEnergy brand and accompanying propaganda is smeared over all sorts of institutions, places and people.
The Woodside logo even turns up on the bodies of some of our children…
nipperswa.com.au/what-is-woodsi…

Now let’s check out some more examples of Woodside engaging in 'reputation washing' in education, sport, the arts and the wider community.
In WA in particular, they are everywhere - but the tentacles extend wide across Australia.

Perth has two AFL teams. At one of them, the @freodockers, the players have taken a strong public stand for climate action - but the club jumper carries the Woodside logo as major sponsor: fremantlefc.com.au/news/1023050/f…

Woodside is deep into schools.
Health professor Charles Watson has described this infiltration of the education system as a campaign to convince the community "that oil and gas aren't really anything to worry about”.
Shameful.
abc.net.au/news/2021-08-2…

Woodside is all over high culture. For example, the logo of @WoodsideEnergy brings that je ne sais quoi of deadly gas pollution to the @WABallet...
waballet.com.au/our-partners

And here’s @WoodsideEnergy again, bringing the spirit of deadly gas pollution to the world of classical music as 'Symphony Partner' at @WASymphony...
waso.com.au/support-us/spo…

Woodside is especially deep into @uwanews.
This one really hurts, because I am a UWA grad and I love the place.
But “UWA” now risks being known as the “University for Woodside’s Advantage”.
This a gross betrayal of the public purpose of universities:
theguardian.com/australia-news…

It is not just West Australian universities that have the Woodside logo smeared all over them.
@MonashUni has gave naming rights to Woodside over a new building, accompanied by an unsubtle greenwashing video...
monash.edu/it/woodside-bu…

Woodside aims to be seen as caring about humanity’s future - instead of wrecking it.
So the company sponsors a ‘Future Lab Network’ with the ostensible aim to ‘accelerate growth for better ways of working, a better workplace, and a better world’:
woodside.com.au/what-we-do/inn…

The ‘Woodside Development Fund’ claims to be animated by ‘one global vision: every child thrives in their development, learning and life’.
This, from a massive corporate driver of climate pollution, which threatens the future of every child on earth... woodside.com.au/sustainability…

And while we are doing breath-taking cynicism, let's remember that earlier this year Woodside sponsored an orchestral event entitled ‘Become Ocean’, a piece expressly inspired by the composer’s rumination on the impacts of climate change:
theguardian.com/culture/2022/f…

According to CEO of Climate Analytics, Bill Hare, if all countries acted on the same principles as @WoodsideEnergy, the world is headed for the unmitigated catastrophe of global temperature increase of between 3C and 4C: theguardian.com/environment/20…

Humanity can still build a bridge to a world of regeneration and future flourishing - but only if the likes of @WoodsideEnergy are held to account.
It's time to rid our institutions of the scourge of 'reputation washing' by fossil fuel corporations.
arena.org.au/gaslit-futures…'