{"id":8656,"date":"2015-05-31T07:49:09","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T12:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=8656"},"modified":"2015-05-31T07:49:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T12:49:09","slug":"peabody-energys-insincere-energy-poverty-campaign-takes-major-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=8656","title":{"rendered":"Peabody Energy’s Insincere ‘Energy Poverty’ Campaign Takes Major Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peabody Energy’s Insincere ‘Energy Poverty’ Campaign Takes Major Hit<\/a><\/h3>\n

Two stories out late last week in the\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0will seriously test the resolve of Peabody Energy’s\u00a0\u201cAdvanced Energy for Life\u201d<\/a>\u00a0campaign.<\/p>\n

The first\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0article’s title says it all:\u00a0\u201cExclusive – Energy giant exploited Ebola crisis for corporate gain, say health\u00a0experts.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Ouch.<\/p>\n

Journalist Suzanne Goldenberg reports that as part of a \u201cPR<\/span>\u00a0offensive to rebrand coal as the ’21st century fuel’ that can help solve global poverty\u201d Peabody Energy’s\u00a0CEO<\/span>\u00a0Greg Boyce\u00a0claimed in a powerpoint presentation that more energy would \u201chave spurred the distribution of a hypothetical Ebola\u00a0vaccine.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reacting to Peabody’s Ebola claim, public health experts described it as \u201cludicrous, insulting and\u00a0opportunistic.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0article,\u00a0also by Suzanne Goldenberg<\/a>, exposes a questionable video interview posted on Peabody Energy’s Advanced Energy for Life campaign\u00a0site.<\/p>\n

The video, titled:\u00a0\u201cFrom Candles to Computers\u201d\u00a0<\/a>is the of story Linda Jing, a woman growing up in rural China who only has candles available to do her schoolwork. As the story goes, Ms. Jing is saved from a life of impoverished living by the wonders of\u00a0coal.<\/p>\n

As the\u00a0Guardian<\/em>\u00a0reports,<\/a>\u00a0it turns out that Ms. Jing, who is now\u00a0an executive at Monsanto<\/a>, actually grew up in relative prosperity in China. Ms. Jing’s late father was appointed to a senior position at the Dantong coal mining sector in rural China. Her two elder brothers and sisters-in-law still work at the Dantong mine, which also just happens to be the same region that Peabody Energy recently completed a major new\u00a0deal.<\/p>\n

Jing says she was recruited to do the video after she was approached by Peabody at a women’s networking\u00a0event.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peabody Energy’s Insincere ‘Energy Poverty’ Campaign Takes Major Hit Two stories out late last week in the\u00a0Guardian\u00a0will seriously test the resolve of Peabody Energy’s\u00a0\u201cAdvanced Energy for Life\u201d\u00a0campaign. The first\u00a0Guardian\u00a0article’s title says it all:\u00a0\u201cExclusive – Energy giant exploited Ebola crisis for corporate gain, say health\u00a0experts.\u201d Ouch. Journalist Suzanne Goldenberg reports that as part of a \u201cPR\u00a0offensive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5889,5317,223,5606,5890,3771,1162],"class_list":["post-8656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","tag-advanced-energy-for-life","tag-desmog-blog","tag-ebola","tag-energy-poverty","tag-greg-boyce","tag-guardian","tag-peabody-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8656"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8656\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8657,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8656\/revisions\/8657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}