Graphic by Kayleigh Woltal
The year was 2009. Clad in bright orange capri pants and a t-shirt generously adorned with peace signs, I was on the edge of my seat in anticipation of the premiere of the most ambitious piece of media to ever come across my screen: the episode of the “Suite Life on Deck” where the casts of “Wizards of Waverly Place” and “Hannah Montana” join Zack and Cody on their school boat. As I anxiously waited in the wings of the commercial break, no doubt wondering if I would come out of this artistic experience unchanged, I was forcibly pulled out of my stupor by the sounds of uplifting canned music and the sights of teenagers with aggressive side parts in pastoral settings.
Anyone who was also a steadfast Disney Channel devotee during their youth knows that I am of course referring to Disney Channel’s Friends for Change Initiative. In 2009, Disney released the promotional material for Friends for Change, an environmental campaign that stressed the importance of individual actions and donations in the fight to make our world a greener place to be. They combined their messages on the importance of recycling and turning the lights off when you leave the room with the star power of 2009s’ biggest A-list celebrities for tween girls. The Sprouse twins were there in skinny ties apropos of the time period. Demi Lovato was present and accounted for in a casual blazer and midi skirt combo. Miley Cyrus and Emily Osment laughed together under the crushing weight of their honey-gold extensions. By god, even the Jonas brothers were there — and WITHOUT their purity rings at that!
It was obvious to me that if Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Nick Jonas were all willing to stand on the stage together for it in the middle of their very public love triangle, clearly environmentalism was some pretty serious stuff. Assemblies I attended in school echoed the value of “going green,” championing phrases like, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” (which was of course the influence for Mitchel Musso’s smash hit The 3 R’s). In the 2010s, the narrative on environmentalism focused heavily on ways that the individual could do their part to help save the planet. However, Gen Z climate activists like Greta Thurenberg’s critical attitudes toward capitalism have shifted a lot of our perceptions of the importance of our individual carbon footprints in the battle against climate change. When corporations make up the highest percentage of polluters with a level of emissions that are lightyears beyond anything that an individual could conceivably let out, some people feel that the average person should not be held accountable for any perceived failures to live sustainably because it is actually corporations that are doing the polluting. While I agree that we should recognize that it is corporations and not people causing the most harm to the environment, it does not exonerate us of our individual responsibility to live sustainably. Rather, I think it is important for us to recognize that although it is corporations that are destroying the environment, those corporations are led by individuals who are making the choices that lead to destruction.
In recognition of the lack of public accountability for the people who are destroying the earth, I have compiled a list of the top five polluters and information about the teams that make their decisions based on the Greenhouse 100 Polluters Index published by the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Though the government refuses to put any meaningful sanctions in place to curb the negative environmental impacts of these companies, by bringing their names into the public eye we rob them of the ability to do their work behind the shield of an organization.
5. American Electric Power
Based out of Columbus, Ohio, this electric and gas group came in at number five on the polluters index with 52,990,661 metric tons of carbon emissions in 2020. According to their website, AEP has existed as a corporation for over one hundred years and services over 5.6 million customers in over eleven different states. Though the company is owned by a conglomerate of investing groups (including the Vanguard Group, BlackRock fund advisors and Morgan Stanley Smith Barney), it is currently run by its president and chief executive officer, Julie Sloat.
The company has attempted to reconcile its environmental impact by conducting a yearly Corporate Sustainability Report, but despite these attempts to distance itself from its problematic past, American Electric Power was involved in the largest settlement under the sanctions of the Clear Air Act. Under the settlement, AEP had to spend over $4.6 billion to comply with the terms of relief for sixteen of their coal-fired power plants.
4. Berkshire Hathaway
Unlike AEP, Berkshire Hathaway deals in a wider range of business past just gas and electric. The corporation deals in fashion, insurance (they own the Geico gecko!), food service, railroads, petroleum and power plants. The diversified holding company is run by investor Warren Buffet — who has amassed public notoriety during his 60+ year career in investing — and a board of other investors. According to the report, they released 67,213,495 metric tons of carbon emissions across their various ventures in 2020.
On May 26th, 2023, Berkshire Hathaway shareholders rejected proposals that tackled environmental, social and governance changes to the way that Berkshire Hathaway conducts business. One of the rejected proposals would have required Berkshire Hathaway to be more forthcoming about their carbon emissions and environmental impact.
3. Southern Company
Founded in 1945 in Delaware, the Southern Company does all things electric. Led by CEOs Chris Womack and Thomas Fanning (who was at the center of an absolutely insane espionage plot that you can read about here), the report states that Southern Company (which has since moved its company headquarters to Georgia) released 75,880,072 metric tons of carbon emissions in 2020. Similarly to AEP, Southern Company has a page on its website entirely devoted to providing a sustainability report and a commitment to cleaning up its practices in accordance with environmentalist suggestions. Despite its attempts at sustainability, Southern Company is known for having spent over 62 million dollars creating ads that attacked climate change scientists for their claims. While Southern Company’s representatives have now acknowledged the legitimacy of climate change, their attack ads continued for years even after receiving indisputable evidence of climate change from qualified scientists.
2. Duke Energy
Within the first paragraph of Duke Energy CEO Lynn Good’s introduction page, there is mention of his commitment to leading Duke Energy through, “the nation’s largest clean energy transition.” Duke Energy has announced that they intend to have net-zero carbon emissions from electricity generation by 2050, which may be in response to the study finding their emissions to be at 76,661,234 metric tons in 2020. Even though Duke Energy claims to be on the forefront of the clean energy revolution, they continue to make headlines for leaking SF6 into the atmosphere and building unnecessary gas pipelines and power plants.
- Vistra Energy
Vistra Energy tops the report with a whopping 95,036,473 metric tons of carbon emissions in 2020. The company’s energy generation Texas headquarters are led by Jim Burke, the company’s chief executive officer. In 2022, the company released its first sustainability report under Burke (who was onboarded as CEO in 2021). Coming from a state going through an energy crisis like Texas, Burke’s comments on the strategic company actions towards sustainability are concerningly non-reflective of the data that is published within the report. Eyes will be watching Texas when the next index report’s data is published by UMass Amherst.
The effects of climate change are serious, and the impact they leave will be catastrophic. The United States government does not take climate change seriously, failing time and time again to pass policy that is in the interest of putting laws in place to protect the earth and its inhabitants. As companies continue to emit millions of tons of carbon emissions each year, it is essential that we begin to dole out accountability and bring these companies and names into the daily discussion of the climate crisis. Citizens can and should attempt to demand answers from these individuals about how they plan to handle their individual role in destroying the climate that we all have to live within.
While an introduction to the basics of sustainability consciousness via a one minute campaign led by everyone who has ever been on the cover of a “Tiger Beat” magazine may give off the impression that the minute actions of the individual are useless in the face of industry-driven carbon emissions, our individual impact on our local communities is still massively important in the fight against climate change. As the Friends for Change ads aptly point out, it is people mobilizing together in their communities that issues change. We owe it to our planet, as well as Disney Channel’s brightest stars, to take a targeted approach to our everyday discourse and actions in support of the fight against climate change. Climate fighting initiatives popping up in individual communities have been proving to be enormously successful in the fight against climate change, and educating ourselves on what is working in other communities is the first step towards adopting those initiatives all across the country. Though most of us have transitioned into stances on climate action that surpass the activism suggested in the Friends for Change ads, it is time for us to readopt its spirit of a community approach to fighting climate change. In my next installation to this series, I will explore some of the community organizations that have popped up across the United States to do just that!