Scientific debunking of institutional and corporate communication

Greenwashing sounds like a trivial manoeuvre that can easily be circumvented. In practice, private companies and institutions deploy a wealth of inventiveness to take away your vigilance. As a canonical example, it took forever before it was realized and admitted that the tobacco industry had a tremendous health burden. As scientists, we have the means to scrutinize the borderline communication, that stands half way between journalistic investigation and activism. That is the purpose of Scientist Rebellion in particular, which is particularly concerned with environmental challenges. Of course, it often requires to go beyond our daily scientific expertises, that we are trained for. Using two recent examples, I will showcase two case studies from Scientist Rebellion in France. The first one deals with the analysis of financial institutions regarding their oil and gas strategies, and the subsequent media coverage of activist communication, and an insider view on the impact of it had on the orientation of their strategies. The second one is an exploration of the governmental communication on adaptation strategies to climate change, with consideration on its political implications.