Virtue signalling has been described as:
a public act with very little associated cost that is intended to inform others of one's socially acceptable alignment on an issue.
One article asks "Is virtue signalling a perversion of morality?"
Accusing someone of virtue signalling is to accuse them of a kind of hypocrisy. The accused person claims to be deeply concerned about some moral issue but their main concern is – so the argument goes – with themselves. They’re not really concerned with changing minds, let alone with changing the world, but with displaying themselves in the best light possible.
We all know about hypocrisy. It too can be defined a number of ways:
the practice of professing standards, beliefs, etc, contrary to one's real character or actual behaviour especially the pretence of virtue and piety
the false profession of desirable or publicly approved qualities, beliefs, or feelings, especially a pretense of having virtues, moral principles, or religious beliefs that one does not really possess.
carry fire in one hand and water in the other. To be duplicitous, to engage in double-dealing; to be two-faced, to speak with forked tongue. The expression comes from Plautus; it continues “to bear a stone in one hand, a piece of bread in the other.” Thus, the expression indicates that a person is prepared to act in totally contradictory ways to achieve his purposes.
Is LafargeHolcim – parent company of Aggregate Industries – guilty of virtue signalling, guilty of hypocrisy, carrying fire in one hand and water in the other; pretending to care about climate change one day whilst advancing polluting unsustainable schemes the next?
LafargeHolcim is one of 42 companies that recently called on Joe Biden and Congress to address climate change, one of 42 companies that apparently "view climate action as a business imperative", one of 42 companies that are apparently "taking major steps to reduce our climate impact":
Our communities and our economy are enduring not only a devastating pandemic but also the rising costs of climate change. Record wildfires, flooding, hurricanes and other extreme weather are upending lives and livelihoods. And science makes clear that future generations will face far greater environmental, economic and health impacts unless we act now.
We’re taking steps toward a #netzero economy, but effectively tackling climate change requires strong federal policy solutions. In the US, we’ve joined 42 leading companies and @C2ES_org in calling for ambitious, durable, bipartisan climate policy.https://t.co/tmfgh2gMcD pic.twitter.com/2CT6JJvr8Q
— LafargeHolcim (@LafargeHolcim) December 3, 2020
@LafargeHolcim is very proud to be part of the 42!
— MagaliAnderson (@AndersonMagali_) December 6, 2020
LafargeHolcim – the world’s largest cement producer with annual CO2 emissions more than many countries – seems eager to call on others to address climate change, but is it doing enough to tackle emissions in its own house?
Despite all the company's assurances over the years that it is taking climate change seriously, LafargeHolcim emitted 148 million tonnes of CO2 in 2019, still 2% higher than 2017.
The 2.5 million mile haulage plan proposed by Aggregate Industries for Straitgate Farm is just one example of the mismatch between rhetoric and reality.
.@_EricOlsen If you want to #ActOnClimate & #CO2 why is @LafargeHolcim @AggregateUK planning a 2.5 million mile haulage scheme across Devon? pic.twitter.com/MQy66zijL4
— Straitgate Action Gp (@straitgateactgp) February 14, 2017
