Peter Dykstra: There's plenty of environmental coverage — if you like misleading ads

Apparently the environment exists solely to make us rich, make us healthy, or kill us.

I spent nearly 20 years cashing paychecks from commercial TV, vainly hoping for the day when our environment would be front and center.


It would seem that day is here.

But it’s nothing like I imagined: It’s in ad breaks, where nature awaits in abundance to make us rich, or make us healthy, or kill us. Let me count the ways.

  • Gold: Hollywood geezers like William Devane pitch us in TV ads on gold, an investment so safe it’s been locked underground for eons. Gold, we’re told, is a hedge against global instability. By the way, modern gold mining often employs cyanide to leach out gold flakes.
  • Glyphosate: Following a blockbuster $275 million jury verdict in a 2019 case involving a gardener’s health claims, trial lawyers’ interest grew from a flock to a swarm. Much larger class action suits with potential payouts in the billions emerged. Broadcasters and website operators as a rule don’t disclose ad sales figures, but the American Tort Reform Association says glyphosate law firms have spent $131 million on 625,000 ads since 2015.
  • Mesothelioma: At an estimated 3,000 new U.S. cases per year, the disease may actually have fewer actual cases than it has those ubiquitous TV ads about it. For years, viewers have heard a mournful voice pushing the free info at www.mesobook.com on this asbestos-related ailment. While the law firm Maune Raichle Hartley French & Mudd distributes the book and promises that meso cases are “all we do,” quite a few other big firms take meso clients as well.
  • Talc: The link of talc – a.k.a. good ol’ baby powder — to asbestos-related diseases has spawned its own frenzy of whiplash-lawyer ads.
  • Camp LeJeune: The sprawling North Carolina Marine training base fed contaminated water to its troops, support staff and neighbors for more than 30 years. When President Biden signed a bill offering more than $2 billion in settlement funds for victims in August, trial lawyers went on an advertising rampage, reportedly buying at least $45 million in local and late night TV time to pitch their services for contamination cases
  • Oil: But the real money may be in not how much harm exists in lawyers touting the risks in some pesticide and cosmetics products, but in petrochemical makers telling us that they’re really good citizens after all. The trade group American Petroleum Institute and Big Oil firms shower news and public affairs shows with ads about their clean energy efforts. Drexel University Professor Emeritus Bob Brulle has estimated that the transfer of money from Big Oil to Big Broadcast is “in the billions” over the years.

This month the airwaves are extra-rotten with cash from both political parties. Few of these ads discuss broad visions or aspirations. They overwhelmingly focus on opponents’ moral failings, leaving viewers to conclude that both major parties are hopelessly corrupt. And while there may be a large element of truth to this, it doesn’t leave many of us hopeful that we’re up to tackling climate change any time soon.

And those ads reporting staggering winnings for a few victims of mesothelioma or glyphosate? Those funds are often diverted to pay trial expenses and attorney fees of 40% or more of the judgement.

And who walks away clean from all of this? The broadcasters and web operators who sell the airtime and webspace for those billions of dollars.

Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist and can be reached at pdykstra@ehn.org or @pdykstra.

His views do not necessarily represent those of Environmental Health News, The Daily Climate, or publisher Environmental Health Sciences.

‘It’s ridiculously antiquated’: Could robot boats transform marine science?

No one has yet been able to sail an autonomous boat across the Atlantic, but a young couple in Wales hope their craft will revolutionise ocean monitoring of temperatures, wildlife and more.

Senator Whitehouse & climate change

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.
trains commuting energy emissions climate
Photo by Mike Kotsch on Unsplash

When it comes to climate change, Amtrak is stuck in a catch-22

Trains were supposed to be climate-friendly transportation. Now, extreme weather is making them less dependable.

By 2100, farm numbers will halve and farm size will double

This world in which fewer large farms replace numerous smaller ones carries rewards and risks for humans and the food systems that us," a new study says.

Pittsburgh-area utilities and transit agencies are launching hydrogen pilots

The hydrogen wave began to gather strong momentum around the turn of the decade and continues to build, with the carbon-free fuel widely promoted as a solution to hard-to-electrify sectors like steel manufacturing and long-haul transportation.

waste incinerator climate
Image by katermikesch from Pixabay

With billions in climate cash flowing, companies that burn trash race to rebrand

Incinerators, plastics companies and big agriculture race to position themselves as climate-friendly as billions in federal subsidies flow.

meat cattle climate emissions
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

Eat less meat this Memorial Day weekend

As America gets ready to grill on Memorial Day, a reminder of meat’s role in climate change.
extinct insects biodiversity climate
Photo by Michael B on Unsplash

Discovered in collections, many new species are already gone

Scientists are increasingly seeing evidence of “dark extinction” in museums and botanical garden collections.
From our Newsroom
halliburton fracking

How the “Halliburton Loophole” lets fracking companies pollute water with no oversight

Fracking companies used 282 million pounds of hazardous chemicals that should have been regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act from 2014 to 2021.

President Joe Biden climate change

Op-ed: Biden’s Arctic drilling go-ahead illustrates the limits of democratic problem solving

President Biden continues to deploy conventional tactics against the highly unconventional threat of climate change.

oil and gas wells pollution

What happens if the largest owner of oil and gas wells in the US goes bankrupt?

Diversified Energy’s liabilities exceed its assets, according to a new report, sparking concerns about whether taxpayers will wind up paying to plug its 70,000 wells.

Paul Ehrlich

Paul Ehrlich: A journey through science and politics

In his new book, the famous scientist reflects on an unparalleled career on our fascinating, ever-changing planet.

oil and gas california environmental justice

Will California’s new oil and gas laws protect people from toxic pollution?

California will soon have the largest oil drilling setbacks in the U.S. Experts say other states can learn from this move.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.