The Real "Climate Scam" Is Business as Usual — Here's How We Challenge It

Climate change skeptics often point to fake greenwashing solutions promoted by big business and governments as proof that climate science itself is a lie. This misses a fundamental truth that is essential to understanding how global capitalism operates.

That truth is - yes, of course capitalists will attempt to profit off of every crisis! Profiting off crisis is as old as capitalism itself.

The powers that are truly responsible for climate destabilization are well aware of their role. Internal company documents show they've known for over 50 years! And so of course we should expect just what we have seen. Any business that faces an existential threat to its bottom line will labor by all available means to protect those interests. This includes getting ahead of the issue by promoting “solutions” that don’t threaten their bottom line, on the one hand, and funding think tanks and politicians that promote "hoax" theories and doubt on the other.

Corporations did it with cigarettes, sugar, asbestos, DDT, opioids, forever chemicals, plastics and countless other products. They're doing it now.

Massive disinformation campaigns on one hand, fake solutions on the other.

Take, for instance, the emphasis on carbon offsets, which allow corporations to buy their way out of reducing emissions by paying to protect forests or plant trees that may never grow to maturity. Offsets create the illusion of action while allowing oil companies, airlines, and other polluters to keep emitting at unsustainable rates.

Similarly, we see a push for “clean coal,” a term that feels straight out of George Orwell's 1984. Then there’s the promotion of biofuels like corn ethanol, which consume vast amounts of arable land and water while driving deforestation. 

Electric vehicles are also touted as a miracle cure, yet many automakers continue to churn out gas-powered SUVs and luxury EVs for the wealthiest consumers, prioritizing profits over affordable options that would spur greater adoption. Meanwhile, investment in public transit, the expansion of national rail networks or walkable city design barely get the time of day.

Unsurprisingly, the solutions that get air time are the ones that most benefit the industries that own and influence the major political parties in most nations.

Behind closed doors, lobbyists for oil, agribusiness, and finance work to ensure that governments pass legislation that appears climate-friendly but is ultimately toothless. Policies are crafted with loopholes, subsidies are funneled to polluting corporations, and climate talks are dominated by corporate interests that work to delay true change.

The real solutions to climate change—massive reductions in fossil fuel extraction, a transition to agroecology, public ownership of energy, and a reduction in global consumption—pose a genuine threat to the power of these industries. If implemented, these solutions would disrupt the profits of oil and gas giants, industrial agriculture, and financial institutions that thrive on endless growth.

Public ownership of energy, for instance, would mean that communities, not corporations, control the transition to renewable energy, allowing resources to be directed toward rapid decarbonization rather than shareholder returns. Agroecology would mean replacing industrial monocultures with sustainable farming systems that prioritize biodiversity, soil health, and the well-being of farmers, reducing the power of agribusiness giants. Yet, these solutions are systematically marginalized, painted as “radical,” or “unrealistic.”

Instead of confronting the root causes of environmental degradation, the right-wing and corporate media work in tandem to demonize our movements. They promote climate denialism and conspiracy theories that frame genuine environmental movements as dangerous or even authoritarian, turning public opinion against the very ideas that could save the planet. This is no accident—it’s a strategic pincer move to keep the public divided and misinformed.

The right-wing has been especially effective in weaponizing these fears, painting environmental activists as “elites” who want to take away people’s jobs, cars, and lifestyles. They whip up fears of a “green dictatorship,” pushing the narrative that climate action is a threat to individual freedoms. Meanwhile, the corporate-friendly neoliberals in power promote hollow greenwashing solutions that offer no substantial challenge to the industries destroying the environment.

This divide-and-conquer strategy serves a clear purpose: it neutralizes mass public dissent against the fossil fuel and industrial agriculture companies that are pillaging the planet. As long as the public conversation is dominated by fear, doubt and false solutions, movement-led solutions get sidelined. 

To break free, we must see through these manipulations and demand solutions that hold corporations accountable. This starts with ending all fossil fuel subsidies and redirecting funds towards the rapid transition to 100% solar, wind and geothermal energy. 

Climate action cannot be a consumer choice or an individual lifestyle adjustment; it must be a movement that directly challenges the industries profiting from ecological devastation, from the fossil fuel industry to industrial agriculture to the military industrial complex. This constellation of corporations makes up the true ruling class of our society. They own and control most governments regardless of who is in power, and it is their armies of lobbyists that have captured every COP climate conference that must be confronted.

The working-class must name them as the true source of our problems if we're ever to free ourselves from their grip. Trump and Harris are two figureheads owned by slightly divergent but overlapping donor classes and we have to reckon with that.

Our collective NO must also carry with it a collective YES, which includes a just transition for all workers in these legacy sectors, public ownership of renewable energy, regenerative agriculture and an "economics of happiness" grounded in localization and true democracy in our workplaces and cities.

Our flagship call is for The Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty. It's been endorsed by 120 cities, 10 indigenous nations, 14 global south governments, 2,700 organizations and 900,000 citizens.

Inspired by anti-nuclear proliferation treaties, it calls for an international agreement to:

1. End New Fossil Fuel Expansion: Halt the development of new coal, oil, and gas projects.
2. Phase Out Existing Fossil Fuel Production: Manage a fair and equitable decline of current production to align with climate goals.
3. Support a Just Transition: Provide financial and technological support to workers and communities dependent on fossil fuels, especially in the Global South, to transition to sustainable livelihoods.

Momentum is building for real solutions. Join us! Get involved with the Fossil Fuel Treaty movement. There are lots of ways to help, including getting your city to sign on.

Local Futures has also produced a fantastic localization action guide. Their “big picture” approach to change continues to be my North Star.

Tim Hjersted is the co-founder of Films For Action.