The first is a piece by the American News Project that explains how Big Oil has borrowed a page out Big Tobacco’s playbook — use junk science and slick marketing to stir doubt and uncertainty about real, credible scientific research.

The second clip is a Colbert Nation spoof on the greenwashing fed to the American public by the oil companies. As Stephen Colbert says, “A lot of people talk about loving the earth but how many of them actually penetrate it?”

The third is an ad titled, “Repower America,” created by Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection.  ABC refused to run the ad because it considered it too “controversial.” Why? Is it because ABC doesn’t want to offend its other clients — the ones who give the network millions to help Americans feel all warm and cozy about oil and coal? You can ask ABC yourself by clicking here.

This strange scene on the National Mall is one in a series of street art installations that have popped up around Washington, D.C. in recent weeks. I haven’t actually seen one in person but I was on the Metro the morning one of these sculptures shut down a station because officials thought it might be a bomb or something sinister.

Uh, yeah.

The homeless polar bears are a collaboration between Greenpeace and artist Mark Jenkins to raise awareness about global warming. If only it was that easy for the polar bears to pack up their shopping carts and head south after the Artic ice melts away.

Instead, it looks like those bears are in some deep shit, with the ice literally melting out from underneath them. This post on the Bright Green Blog explains the bears’ dilemma. And this one on the DCist shows some of the local reaction to the appearance of the polar bear art.

There have been four sculptures in various locations, holding signs that say things like, “Victim of oil addiction,” and “Need more ice, not more oil.”

According to the Greenpeace Web site, Jenkins hoped that by putting the fate of the polar bear into a human context, his art could strike a chord with the public.

My intention with this project was to leverage my street installations to promote awareness about the issue of global warming and the plight of the polar bear. It was our shared goal that the public would develop empathy for the polar bear as they have for the homeless which we see as two connected issues.

I think the homeless polar bears are pretty effective, in a creepy sort of way. But the subtlety only goes so far.

The problem is that the public in general and the Bush administration in particular doesn’t have too much empathy for the average homeless person on the streets of the District, which gives you an idea of how motivated they’re going to be to save polar bears thousands of miles away.

Perhaps, if Jenkins had created some sculptures of homeless investment bankers pushing shopping carts . . .

Flickr photo by Polar Pic Pool