Gerau, M. (2022). Spin cycle: Public relations, financial reporting, and the myth of corporate greenwashing. Oxford University Press.
Larsen, P., & Vale, S. (Eds.). (2023). The certification dilemma: Auditing sustainability from forestry to finance. Earthscan Publications.
Schmidt, A. (2024). The green industrial transition: Reports from the front line. Policy Press.
World Bank Group. (2023). Financing the transition: The World Bank’s role in green infrastructure and climate-resilient development. World Bank Publications.
The Carbon Illusion – Part 1: Displacement in the Name of Climate Neutrality
Carbon Illusion 1 The Carbon Illusion – Part 1: Displacement in the Name of Climate Neutrality 2 The Carbon Illusion – Part 2: The Dark Engine of Charcoal: Burning the Carbon Sink 3 The Carbon Illusion – Part 3: The Myth of the Monoculture: Why Native Savannah Stores Triple the Carbon 4 The Carbon Illusion – Part 4: Certification Compromised: When Audits Ignore Violence and Water Loss 5 The Carbon Illusion – Part 5: From Minas Gerais Furnaces to Hamburg’s "Sustainable" Subway ← Series Home The Modern-Day Gold Rush Threatening a Generation’s Home Brazil is currently experiencing what has been described as a modern-day gold rush, driven by the expanding promise of global climate protection. This rush brings consequences that are alarmingly familiar, including widespread environmental destruction, violence, and the displacement of local communities. In regions like Minas Gerais, massive reforestation projects are advancing under the guise of offsetting CO2 emissions, yet this promise of sustainable development is simultaneously being weaponized to dispossess traditional communities of their ancestral land. Families like Eddison’s, who have lived in Pindaiiba for generations, face an uncertain future as they battle to protect their home.
...
The Carbon Illusion – Part 2: The Dark Engine of Charcoal: Burning the Carbon Sink
Carbon Illusion 1 The Carbon Illusion – Part 1: Displacement in the Name of Climate Neutrality 2 The Carbon Illusion – Part 2: The Dark Engine of Charcoal: Burning the Carbon Sink 3 The Carbon Illusion – Part 3: The Myth of the Monoculture: Why Native Savannah Stores Triple the Carbon 4 The Carbon Illusion – Part 4: Certification Compromised: When Audits Ignore Violence and Water Loss 5 The Carbon Illusion – Part 5: From Minas Gerais Furnaces to Hamburg’s "Sustainable" Subway ← Series Home The Illusion of Climate-Friendly Monoculture In glossy public relations videos, global steel producers like Gardell, which is publicly listed and worth billions, showcase their use of CO2 certificates and present themselves as aggressively climate-friendly. This narrative centers on the idea of large-scale tree plantations offsetting industrial emissions. However, the core claim being propagated—that clearing naturally grown savannah woodlands that have evolved over thousands of years and replacing them with monoculture plantations constitutes climate protection—is fundamentally challenged by the trail of destruction. If the goal is climate neutrality, the massive areas of land required for these protection plantations must be sourced, and the method of utilizing the planted trees is central to evaluating the success of the model.
...
The Carbon Illusion – Part 3: The Myth of the Monoculture: Why Native Savannah Stores Triple the Carbon
Carbon Illusion 1 The Carbon Illusion – Part 1: Displacement in the Name of Climate Neutrality 2 The Carbon Illusion – Part 2: The Dark Engine of Charcoal: Burning the Carbon Sink 3 The Carbon Illusion – Part 3: The Myth of the Monoculture: Why Native Savannah Stores Triple the Carbon 4 The Carbon Illusion – Part 4: Certification Compromised: When Audits Ignore Violence and Water Loss 5 The Carbon Illusion – Part 5: From Minas Gerais Furnaces to Hamburg’s "Sustainable" Subway ← Series Home Challenging the Plausibility of Industrial Reforestation The industrial reforestation projects in Brazil are founded on a seemingly plausible hypothesis: that the naturally growing, unmanaged Siadu savannah can be improved upon and transformed into a superior climate protection ecosystem through the implementation of large-scale tree plantations. This belief justifies replacing thousands of years of natural growth with fast-growing, single-species eucalyptus monocultures. However, this assumption has necessitated rigorous testing, especially given the ongoing land conflicts and human rights violations documented in the regions where these projects are expanding.
...
The Carbon Illusion – Part 4: Certification Compromised: When Audits Ignore Violence and Water Loss
Carbon Illusion 1 The Carbon Illusion – Part 1: Displacement in the Name of Climate Neutrality 2 The Carbon Illusion – Part 2: The Dark Engine of Charcoal: Burning the Carbon Sink 3 The Carbon Illusion – Part 3: The Myth of the Monoculture: Why Native Savannah Stores Triple the Carbon 4 The Carbon Illusion – Part 4: Certification Compromised: When Audits Ignore Violence and Water Loss 5 The Carbon Illusion – Part 5: From Minas Gerais Furnaces to Hamburg’s "Sustainable" Subway ← Series Home The Assurance of the Green Seal Multinational steel companies operating in Brazil, including Arcelor Metal and Aparam, extensively promote their reforestation efforts using the seal of approval from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The FSC, an international certification body headquartered in Germany, is intended to signal compliance with rigorous environmental standards and respect for human rights. In the lucrative world of carbon trading, this FSC label is an exceptionally valuable asset, lending credence and market access to the “green steel” narrative.
...
The Carbon Illusion – Part 5: From Minas Gerais Furnaces to Hamburg’s "Sustainable" Subway
Carbon Illusion 1 The Carbon Illusion – Part 1: Displacement in the Name of Climate Neutrality 2 The Carbon Illusion – Part 2: The Dark Engine of Charcoal: Burning the Carbon Sink 3 The Carbon Illusion – Part 3: The Myth of the Monoculture: Why Native Savannah Stores Triple the Carbon 4 The Carbon Illusion – Part 4: Certification Compromised: When Audits Ignore Violence and Water Loss 5 The Carbon Illusion – Part 5: From Minas Gerais Furnaces to Hamburg’s "Sustainable" Subway ← Series Home Following the Industrial Footprint The supply chain for “green steel” begins with the massive environmental destruction and social conflict documented in Brazil’s Minas Gerais. It starts where the eucalyptus, planted under carbon offset schemes, is immediately burned in hundreds of charcoal ovens. The charcoal, harvested from trees meant to store carbon, is then loaded onto trucks and transported past vast mining operations, eventually converging at massive industrial complexes characterized by fire, smoke, and searing heat. This is the junction where the charcoal trail terminates, feeding the furnaces that convert iron ore into pellets.
...
