Shell's climate poll on Twitter backfires spectacularly

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Shell’s climate poll on Twitter backfires spectacularly

Oil giant accused of gaslighting after asking users: ‘What are you willing to change?’

Damian Carrington Environment editor
@dpcarrington
Tue 3 Nov 2020 13.09 GMT

A climate poll on Twitter posted by Shell has backfired spectacularly, with the oil company accused of gaslighting the public.

The survey, posted on Tuesday morning, asked: “What are you willing to change to help reduce emissions?”

Link to tweet

Though it received a modest 199 votes the tweet still went viral – but not for the reasons the company would have hoped. The US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was one high-profile respondent, posting a tweet that was liked 350,000 times.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
@AOC
·
22h

US House candidate, NY-14
I’m willing to hold you accountable for lying about climate change for 30 years when you secretly knew the entire time that fossil fuels emissions would destroy our planet 😇

Link to tweet

Greta Thunberg accused the company of “endless greenwash”, while the climate scientist Prof Katharine Hayhoe pointed out Shell’s huge contribution to the atmospheric carbon dioxide that is heating the planet. Shell then hid her reply, she said.

Link to tweet

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/nov/03/shells-climate-poll-on-twitter-backfires-spectacularly

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