London is a water playground. St. Mark’s Square in Venice is full of rainbow colored, tropical birds. The giant statue of Jesus is standing on water in Rio de Janeiro with his arms stretched wide. The Great Wall of China is half buried under new desert sand as a brunette model perches atop the wall emptying sand out of her Diesel heels.

The ads are stamped "Global Warming Ready."

Ever since Al Gore’s documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth", global warming has not only crept into the world’s conscience but also into advertising.

Diesel, the Italian clothing manufacturer, launched this year’s spring/summer collection with a new provocative advertising campaign within days of the release of the fourth Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report on climate change.

David Dempsey, SF State Professor of Meteorology, explains that the recent IPCC report no longer asks is the world warming or if people have anything to do with it, but how much do people have to do with it.

University of California at Berkeley PhD Ecosystem Science Division student, Jorge Curiel Yuste says over reliance on fossil fuels and poor land management have increased the concentration of certain trace or greenhouse gases in the atmosphere (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide). These greenhouse gases trap heat radiation in the Earth’s atmosphere, acting like a blanket around the world to warm the planet.

Diesel’s newspaper, magazine and billboard advertisements show airbrushed models posing in Diesel clothing, seemingly unperturbed by the extreme changes caused by global warming: increased temperatures and raised water levels.

The world is their new playground.

The Diesel Worldwide Team states that over the years, their ad campaigns have touched on several global issues in a surreal and irreverant way.

"We are only a fashion company and do not think that - with just one campaign - we can save the world, but if our unconventional tone of voice and the reputation of our brand can grab and hold people's attention a little longer than a news feature can, make them think twice about the consequence of all our actions and realize our individual responsibility, then something at least will have been accomplished."

Lynda Grose, Professor of Sustainable Fashion Design at the California College of the Arts (CCA), defines sustainable fashion design as a blend of design, education and activism. Sustainable fashion designers should be aware of the environmental and social impact of their clothing – from the material used, the life and durability of their clothing down to the shipping.

“Our long term goal is to have the fashion industry operating like a complex eco-system. It’s not all about growth, so there’s no waste,” Grose says.

Similarly, sustainable design is designing places, products and services in a way that reduces the use of non-renewable resources, minimizes environmental impact and connects people with the natural environment. And sustainable or “green” marketing may mean advertising products with environmental-friendly characteristics, but it should also address how their products, production, packaging and advertising affect the environment.

Grose says the Diesel ads are fabulous and doing a lot to spread awareness, but her question to them is how do their products and manufacturing processes affect global warming?

“Green marketing is really dangerous,” Grose says. “It gives people the impression they’re doing something when they’re not.”

Companies like General Electric and General Motors have also jumped onto the green marketing bandwagon, but Jay Baldwin, Professor of Industrial Design at CCA and someone who has been involved in green design for over 50 years, cautions consumers.

“The phenomenon dubbed ‘green washing’ is rampant right now and getting worse by the day. Some tactics are pretty sneaky. For instance, Toyota is making a big noise about how green they are, but they continue to advertise for their huge, fuel-hungry but very profitable 4x4 truck line,” Baldwin says.

Baldwin gives another example of corporations, such as Exxon Mobil spending millions buying scientists to oppose the opinions of thousands of noted scientists on matters of ecology and climate. They also spend millions on advertising deriding environmental concerns and spreading misinformation, such as fuel-efficient cars not being as safe because they are smaller. However, government and insurance statistics show that deaths and serious injuries are about the same for passenger cars and SUVs.

Sue Redding, part of the Industrial Design faculty at CCA, says a number of people in the country are calling themselves green marketers, but they have no place being considered a leader in sustainable green design.

For example, in 2005, Carpet America Recovery Effort (CARE) was named one of 25 Environmental Champions by Interiors and Sources magazine.

“Quite an accomplishment for someone who has no design, sustainable design or environmental background,” Redding says.

In order to be earth conscious, the designer must be incredibly knowledgeable about, not just recycled paper, but world economies, biochemistry, farming, production and the list goes on.

“It’s just easier not to think about. Clients should know that fighting global warming is more than buying a Prius, it’s about big lifestyle changes in buying, manufacturing, daily habits, etc.,” Redding says. “If one person buys a cup of coffee at Starbucks, it’s not a problem. If ten million buy cups, we have a huge amount of non-recyclable cups in the landfill. So what do we do – not buy coffee? We can’t stop that. After all, we’re a market economy.”

And back to Diesel – according to Dempsey, the implication is if you buy or wear their clothing, you’re doing something positive, but there’s no information in the ads about global warming. It’s pure marketing.

On the other hand, Diesel’s website encourages visitors to purchase a DVD of An Inconvenient Truth and are directed to a website dedicated to raising awareness of global warming. And in case visitors wanted to know how to better treat the environment – without changing their glamorous lifestyle of course – Diesel provides a list of suggestions (some counter-productive) like this one: instead of turning up the heat, have sex. And if you’re worried about releasing greenhouse gases when you scream with pleasure, try gagging each other – kinky!

According to Yuste, there are a few ways to advertise using global warming: make the information reachable and understandable for the non-scientist or simply use the problem to make a profit.

“Diesel clothing is not for regular people,” Yuste says. “It’s for people with money. I think that it’s fair in a free market like the one we live in for people to use common problems to make a profit, but to be honest, I don’t give a damn about this kind of campaign directed to a sector of the population that isn’t going to suffer any less from the consequences of this big problem.”