{{Short description|Public relations professional (1932–2021)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}} {{Infobox person | name = E. Bruce Harrison | image = | alt = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = April 3, 1932 | birth_place = [[Alabama]], United States | alma_mater = | occupation = [[Public relations]] | death_date = January 16, 2021 | death_place = | other_names = | spouse = [[Patricia Harrison]] | website = | employer = | known_for = [[Greenwashing]], [[climate change denial]] }}
'''E. Bruce Harrison''' (April 3, 1932 – January 16, 2021)<ref>{{cite news|title=E. Harrison Obituary (1932–2021)|newspaper=[[Washington Post]]|via=Legacy.com|url=https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/e-harrison-obituary?id=6124930|date=January 22, 2021|access-date=July 23, 2022|archive-date=July 24, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220724033837/https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/washingtonpost/name/e-harrison-obituary?id=6124930|url-status=live}}</ref> was a [[public relations]] expert who organized several campaigns for U.S. industry against [[environmental law|environmental legislation]] from the 1970s to the 1990s. Harrison's company is credited with industry opposition to the [[Kyoto Protocol]] and preventing the United States from ratifying it.<ref name="bbc">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62225696|publisher=[[BBC News]]|author1=Jane McMullen|title=The audacious PR plot that seeded doubt about climate change|date=23 July 2022|access-date=23 July 2022|archive-date=23 July 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220723034755/https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62225696|url-status=live}}</ref>
==Career== The publication of [[Rachel Carson]]'s ''[[Silent Spring]]'' in 1962 created the first wave of environmental action, and caused concern amongst industrial corporations across the United States. Harrison, who was then working for the [[American Chemistry Council|Manufacturing Chemists' Association]], led a campaign to defame Carson and prevent new regulations to restrict pesticides and industrial pollution, a campaign that Harrison and the association ultimately lost.<ref name="westervelt-2021">{{cite news |last=Westervelt |first=Amy |url=https://drilled.media/news/harrison-1 |title=E. Bruce Harrison: The godfather of greenwashing |work=Drilled |date= 6 July 2021}} *{{cite news |last=Westervelt |first=Amy|url=https://www.thenation.com/article/environment/climate-change-compromise/|title=There can be no compromise on a burning planet |work=[[The Nation]]|date= 27 October 2021}}</ref>
He ran his eponymous PR firm, which he co-founded with his wife [[Patricia Harrison]], from 1973 until 1997, when he sold it.<ref name="bbc" /> Harrison pioneered the use of economic analysis in opposing environmental action. He developed a messaging strategy which promoted the balance of "the three Es": Environment, Energy, and Economy. Following the creation of new environmental legislation and the creation of the [[Environmental Protection Agency]], Harrison was employed by the [[American Petroleum Institute]] as a lobbyist and PR representative. In this role he created the National Environmental Development Association (NEDA), a lobby group that represented a coalition of chemical, mining, oil and gas companies which sought to limit further regulation and sow misinformation about the environmental and climate impacts of fossil fuels.<ref name="bbc"/>
NEDA was the first client of his PR firm. In the early 1990s, he conducted a comprehensive PR campaign for the [[Global Climate Coalition]], an industrial lobby opposing action to reduce [[greenhouse gas emissions]].<ref name="brulle-2019">{{cite journal |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2022.2058815 |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|title=Advocating inaction: a historical analysis of the Global Climate Coalition |date=11 April 2022 |doi=10.1080/09644016.2022.2058815 |last1=Brulle |first1=Robert J. |journal=[[Environmental Politics (journal)|Environmental Politics]]|pages=1–22 |s2cid=248112482 |access-date=23 July 2022 |archive-date=4 July 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220704021217/https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09644016.2022.2058815 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }} *{{cite book|last1=Brulle|first1=Robert|last2=Aronczyk|first2=Melissa|date=2019|chapter=Environmental countermovements: Organised opposition to climate change in the United States|pages=218-230|title=Routledge Handbook of Global Sustainability Governance|isbn= 9781351691291|publisher=Taylor & Francis|oclc=1125109561|editor-last1=Kalfagianni |editor-first1=Agni |editor-last2=Fuchs |editor-first2=Doris |editor-last3=Hayden |editor-first3=Anders}} *{{cite news|last=Dreyfuss|first=Robert|date=November 19, 2001|url=https://prospect.org/2001/11/19/toxic-cash-lobbyists-poisoned-epa/|title=Toxic Cash: How Lobbyists Poisoned the EPA|work=[[The American Prospect]]|access-date=2025-01-05}}</ref> In 1995 he wrote that the "GCC has successfully turned the tide on press coverage of global climate change science".<ref name="bbc"/>
==Legacy== In 1999, ''[[PRWeek]]'' included Harrison into its hall of fame, and followed this in 2000 by naming him as one of the '100 Most Influential Public Relations Professionals of the 20th Century'.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.prweek.com/article/1231530/beltway-prsa-inducts-50-hall-fame |title=Beltway PRSA inducts 50 into hall of fame |work=[[PRWeek]]|date= 4 October 1999}}</ref>
Harrison and his agency are acknowledged as the creators of modern [[greenwashing]], producing misinformation and disinformation campaigns for companies including [[General Motors]], [[Monsanto]] and [[BP]]. His work has had a lasting impact on promoting misinformation about [[climate change]],<ref name="brulle-2019"/> particularly in misleading the public about the economic costs of mitigating the impacts of climate change.<ref>{{cite news |last=Aronczyk |first=Melissa | url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/02/21/spin-doctors-have-shaped-environmentalism-debate-decades/ |title=Spin doctors have shaped the environmentalism debate for decades |work= The Washington Post|date= 21 February 2021 |access-date=2026-01-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Cottle |first=Michelle |date=September 1994 |title="Hellbound" |url=https://www.motherjones.com/politics/1994/09/hellbound/|work=Mother Jones|access-date=2026-01-05}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=McMullen|first1=Jane |last2=Taddonio |first2=Patrice | url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/video-big-oil-campaign-against-climate-change-action/ |title='Truth has nothing to do with who wins the argument': New details on Big Oil's campaign to defeat climate action |work=Frontline| publisher=[[PBS]]|date=April 19, 2022}}</ref>
Media historian [[Melissa Aronczyk]] considered Harrison "a master at what he did".<ref name="bbc"/> [[Al Gore]], former U.S. vice president, described the GCC campaign as the worst moral crime since the world wars.<ref name="bbc"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, E. Bruce}} [[Category:American public relations people]] [[Category:Climate change denial in the United States]] [[Category:1932 births]] [[Category:2021 deaths]]