Op-Comic: The real perpetrators of gaslighting

Illustration of a smoke stack with fire coming out of it.

By Kevin C. Pyle

Dec. 18, 2022 3:15 AM PT

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Merriam-Webster has picked "gaslighting" as its "word of the year" for 2022.

This term has come to mean something broader in the age of fake news — more a deliberate conspiratorial effort to mislead

Ironic in this age of climate crisis that this "gaslighting" definition apply so well to tactics of the oil and gas industry

The oil and gas industry chose to bury research and spend millions on propaganda to convince the public otherwise

"Companies claim they are part of the solutio, but internal documents reveal they are continuing with business as usual."

ExxonMobil, while publicly stating it's "committed" to Paris Agreement, pushed "to remove Paris reference" from announcement

Shell has touted an ambitious path to achieve "net zero" but internal emails state that is "not a Shell business plan"

A UN expert group called corporate claims little more than "greenwashing," another term to describe the industry's misleading

Earlier this year, the Inflation Reduction Act authorized more than $350 billion in spending on climate initiatives

Yet the act also requires the government to lease out at least 60 million acres a year for offshore oil and gas exploration

Experts warn concept of net zero, with its reliance on theoretical future offsets, encourages "burn now, pay later" approach

Perhaps "gaslighting" will be just the first of many old words with new definitions — joining new words for old deceptions.

Kevin C. Pyle is an illustrator and the author of several graphic novels and nonfiction books, including “Migrant: Stories of Hope and Resilience.”

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