Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

This edition is all about what is arguably the oldest storytelling trope of all time—the war between good and evil. Right and wrong. Or, in this case, a war between truth and lies; a war of narratives. 

On one side, we have the World Health Organisation (WHO), which did something a little out of the ordinary this week. In case you didn’t know, Tuesday was No Tobacco Day, and the WHO put out a message asking people to stop smoking. 

If you’re thinking—“Hold up, Ruhi! What’s out of the ordinary about that?”—I don’t blame you. I mean, the WHO literally has the word ‘health’ in its name. And by now (no thanks to Big Tobacco), you, me, and your uncle know that consuming tobacco isn’t exactly good for your health. 

Only, that’s not what the WHO’s No Tobacco Day message was this year. It didn’t ask tobacco users to quit because tobacco was bad for their health. 

It asked them to quit because it was bad for the environment. 

And the WHO’s change in tack hasn’t happened in isolation, which brings us to the other side in this battle—Big Tobacco, and its attempts to paint the tobacco industry as a sustainable, eco-friendly enterprise. The WHO’s Tuesday message is an attempt to counter this greenwashing project. 

But here’s the thing. 

When you have two opposite narratives duking it out, how do you tell which one is a lie? 

The WHO wants you to quit tobacco… for the environment

Before we get into the lie versus truth bit, though, we should look a bit more closely at WHO’s message this year. 

Earlier No Tobacco Days have seen the WHO mostly talk about the impact of tobacco on human health. Last year, it urged tobacco users to commit to quit. Before that, it has spoken about tobacco taxes, and the problems with how tobacco products are packaged. All of these, ultimately, were connected to how bad tobacco was for the human body. 

But this year, it wasn’t just human health the agency was batting for. It was the health of the Earth itself.

And I think the WHO has gone after two birds with one stone here. 

First, it has neatly sidestepped a recent health-related narrative that tobacco companies have been spinning—that while traditional forms of tobacco consumption might be dangerous, newer forms such as e-cigarettes and vaping devices might not be as unhealthy.