This article identifies greenwashing not as a mere communication error, but as a deliberate ideological strategy in which language is used to distort reality. Companies strip terms like “sustainability” of their meaning, creating an illusion of environmental change without altering their polluting production structures. By disconnecting words from facts, a “grammar of deception” is generated, allowing the economic status quo to be maintained while public perception is manipulated. The relevance of greenwashing lies in how this referential opacity undermines transparency and accountability. Through vague claims lacking verifiable data, corporations and their accomplices—including the media and governments—create a smokescreen. This erodes citizens’ critical capacity to assess the real impact of their consumption and weakens the possibility of a genuine ecological transition, as action is replaced by narrative. Although new regulations seek to ban such ambiguous slogans, the article warns that without rigorous enforcement and structural transformation, these rules could be co-opted. The fundamental issue is the struggle for interpretive control: as long as the language of power continues to disguise inaction, the planet will face a dead end. True sustainability requires that words strictly align with actions, dismantling the semantic illusions that conceal the climate crisis.
Source: eju.tvPublished on 2024-10-20