Will the coronavirus mean the end of cash? Treehugger

Well TreeHugger sure seems to think that would be a good idea. The author is “getting really tired of collecting all that change”. But I’d wager billions of people not ready to give up everything about their lives the surveillance state would disagree.

And about TreeHugger. Never noticed the website before seeing it linked to here in recent years, and the sentiment of the articles I’ve seen posted here seems OK, if generally a little lacking on detail. But in the new Planet of the Humans documentary, it mentions that TreeHugger has ties to some pretty bad actors in the corporate world – IIRC the movie tied TreeHugger to the Koch brothers, but I was unable to make that particular connection through a quick search and I don’t have the time to rewatch the whole movie to verify my memory.

But there are connections to be made. Checking the ‘About’ section on TreeHugger’s website tells you that they are “part of Narrative Content Group”. If you check Narrative Content Group’s website, you will find that “Narrative has worked with many of the world’s leading brands on a variety of content and marketing programs” immediately followed by a list of those brands which includes Coca Cola, CSX, Delta Airlines, Georgia Pacific, Johnson & Johnson, Miller-Coors, and Walmart, to name some from the list, with promo videos also included for a few of those companies.

Now Narrative Content Group’s website also says that they are in turn a subsidiary of IAC, a media holding company, and that they sold TreeHugger just this year to DotDash, however they are also a subsidiary of IAC.

I’ll let someone more interested in byzantine corporate architecture sort all that out, but it appears pretty safe to say that Treehugger is a small part of a large media conglomerate that has no problems promoting the interests of pretty bad corporate actors. In other words, greenwashing, which is exactly what Planet of the Humans was talking about – ostensible environmental groups being taken over by the corporate world.

I’d take anything from TreeHugger with a full shaker of salt – clearly they have ulterior motives.