On the surface, Blue Planet Run sounds like an innovative event supporting an important cause. Basically, it’s a long run covering “15,200 miles, across 16 countries and 4 continents, 24 hours a day for 95 days” intended to bring attention to the fact that 1/6 of people in the world don’t have access to safe drinking water.

The presenting sponsor funding Blue Planet Run: Dow Chemical.

Dow’s latest greenwashing tactic is so absurd as to be funny. Dow Chemical’s disgusting environmental record’s well known; a brief scan of its Wikepedia entry outlines only a few of the many environmental disasters the company has caused. Dow’s the 11th top corporate air polluter in the US.

And Dow’s in fact a major polluter of water! Earlier this month, Dow Chemical finally agreed to clean up a major dioxin contamination it created in and around the Tittabawassee River near Dow’s manufacturing plant in Midland.

Blue Planet Run’s sponsorship page touts Dow’s “commitment to addressing some of the most pressing challenges faced by humankind.” Is this for real?

Of course I want well-meaning organizations and nonprofits to get the money to do their work. I just find it both shocking and depressing that some nonprofits get their funds at the cost of greenwashing the very companies that continue to create the problems that the nonprofits are trying to solve.

3 Comments