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BP Target of Prank: Company Dropped from Olympics, Hoax Website Reports
The Campaign for a More Sustainable Olympics takes credit for fake website
BP was the target of a hoax this morning, when the Campaign for a More Sustainable Olympics made a fake website announcing that The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games was "looking for a new ‘Sustainability Partner’ after an internal review concluded that BP was no longer going to fill this role."
The website continued, "The review concluded that BP does not meet the standards required to be a champion for Sustainability at London 2012, due to the extent of its global carbon emissions, its involvement in unsustainable extraction projects such as the Alberta oil sands, and its safety record, particularly in regard to the ongoing ecological impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill."
Organizers of the Olympic games have been criticized for choosing BP as a sustainability partner, given BP's poor environmental record.
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Business Green: Green campaigners target BP's support for Olympics in elaborate hoax
BP has been targeted by green campaigners over its role as sustainability partner for the London Olympics, after a hoax website this morning claimed the oil giant had been dropped as the Games' sustainability partner.
A statement on the fake website, which had been designed to mimic the authentic Olympic Games website, said BP would be replaced as sustainability partner for the games, because a London Organising Committee (LOCOG) review had found BP did "not meet the standards required to be a champion for sustainability at London 2012, due to the extent of its global carbon emissions".
The "story" was reported by City AM and LBC Radio, before being swiftly corrected. LBC also interviewed a man masquerading as LOCOG's Sustainability Partnerships manager, using the pseudonym Steve Wren.
Both BP and LOCOG confirmed that the statement was a hoax, but refused to answer further questions on the incident.
"It was a hoax and that was all. Nothing to do with BP," a spokeswoman for BP told BusinessGreen.
The Campaign for a More Sustainable Olympics (CAMSOL) later admitted it had set up the fake website to protest against LOCOG's decision to use BP as its green partner, on the grounds that it investment in Canadian oil sands and its role in the Deepwater Horizon oil spill had significant environmental impacts.
CAMSOL's Harry Broadbent admitted he had posed as Steve Wren on LBC and taken calls from around 25 journalists, including BusinessGreen, wishing to interview him about the fake story.
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BP to be replaced as London 2012 ‘Sustainability Partner’
11 Apr 2012The London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG) today announced that it is looking for a new ‘Sustainability Partner’ after an internal review concluded that BP was no longer going to fill this role.
LOCOG has placed sustainability at the heart of the Games, which aim to set new standards of excellence and innovation, and create positive, lasting change for the environment and local communities. It has been conducting a review of the choice of Sustainability Partners, against criteria that include the sustainability of the partner’s business activities and its contribution to climate change, as well as other issues such as waste and biodiversity. The review concluded that BP does not meet the standards required to be a champion for Sustainability at London 2012, due to the extent of its global carbon emissions, its involvement in unsustainable extraction projects such as the Alberta oil sands, and its safety record, particularly in regard to the ongoing ecological impacts of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
LOCOG is now looking for a new Sustainability Partner which can embody the Olympic values of social responsibility, environmental protection and respect for universal fundamental ethical principles. As a Tier One Partner, BP will continue to play an important role in the delivery of London 2012, as oil and gas partner, and backer of a number of National Olympic and Paralympic Committees, teams and individual athletes from the local communities in which it operates, including the UK, US, Azerbaijan, Georgia and United Arab Emirates.
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Indymedia London: CAMSOL: LOCOG drop BP as sustainability partner
LOCOG have demonstrated a clear disregard for any ethical concerns in their election of Sustainability Partners, and BP is just one example of this. It is demonstrative of the power of corporate money to buy whatever image it chooses and deliberately mislead the public. Recent research has pointed to the positive shift in public opinion towards BP since its recent large scale sponsorship deals in the cultural and sporting sectors: 38% of those polled believe 'that BP had been getting better at working towards a cleaner planet'. This, despite it being less than two years since one of the greatest environmental disasters in modern history taking place off the Gulf of Mexico.
This action was not the first to be taken against the unethical sponsorship of the Olympics and nor will be it be the last. CAMSOL is joining groups across the globe in standing up to the power of big money and its role in driving man-made climate change.
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Show AllNow, if only the people behind CAMSOL can go beyond calling for "a More Sustainable Olympics" and see that it is an oxymoron, and, in the interest of true sustainability, call for abolishing the whole damn thing!
Until such time when scientists are able to say that the world has pulled back from the brink of disaster and that the carbon cycle is back in balance, or pretty close to what nature can handle, ALL non-essential burning of fossil fuels should be avoided, and banned, if possible.
While air travel itself may be unavoidable, all this needless flying around of the teams, athletes and officials for these mega sporting events -- and there are just too damn many of them -- should be banned.
So, in the interest of credibility, forget the oxymoron "a More Sustainable Olympics", and just say "No Olympics!" and "No!" to all the mega sporting events that have such a large carbon footprint. Example from last year: The Stanley Cup of the NHL, where the teams played 7 games for the trophy, and flew back and forth between Vancouver and Boston a few times -- across a whole damn continent. And all for what? And, like I said, the examples for such needless flying around are just too damn many!
Dow Chemical
Andy Bichlbaum, a member of the Yes Men, appears on BBC World to take full responsibility for the Bhopal disaster.
On December 3, 2004, the twentieth anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, Andy Bichlbaum appeared on BBC World as "Jude Finisterra",[12] a Dow Chemical spokesman.[13] Dow is the owner of Union Carbide, the company responsible for the chemical disaster which killed thousands and left over 120,000 requiring lifelong care.
On their fake Dow Chemical website, the Yes Men said that Dow Chemical Company had no intention whatsoever of repairing the damage.[14] The real company received considerable backlash, and both the real Dow and the phony Dow denied the statements, but Dow took no real action.
The Yes Men decided to pressure Dow further, so as "Finisterra," Bichlbaum went on the news to claim that Dow planned to liquidate Union Carbide and use the resulting $12 billion to pay for medical care, clean up the site, and fund research into the hazards of other Dow products. After two hours of wide coverage, Dow issued a press release denying the statement, ensuring even greater coverage of the phony news of a cleanup. By the time the original story was discredited, Dow's stock had declined in value by $2 billion.[15]
After the original interview was revealed as a hoax, Bichlbaum appeared in a follow-up interview on the United Kingdom's Channel 4 news.[16] During the interview he was asked if he had considered the emotions and reaction of the people of Bhopal when producing the hoax. According to the interviewer, "there were many people in tears" upon having learned of the hoax. Bichlbaum said that, in comparison, what distress he had caused the people was minimal to that for which Dow was responsible. The Yes Men claim on their website that they have been told by contacts in Bhopal that once they had got over their disappointment that it wasn't real, they were pleased about the stunt and thought it had helped to raise awareness of their plight.[17]
At the International Payments Conference on April 28, 2005, 'Dow representative' "Erastus Hamm" unveiled Acceptable Risk, the Acceptable Risk Calculator, and the Acceptable Risk mascot — a life-sized golden skeleton named Gilda — to an audience of about 70 banking professionals.