Boycott the oil barons
saves money at the same time ...
My May 24 post bemoaning the difference between reality and the rose-tinted predictions of climate change by the IPCC spurred a reaction from my colleague, Gunther Seckmeyer, a professor at Hannover, Germany. He says it was even a motivating factor in him giving a TV interview explaining how we can fix the problem (unfortunately in German). I’m humbled
He passed on this tell-tale internal staff letter, written by Exxon oil barons more than 40 years ago.
The ‘briefing material’ mentioned included the black and white plot below. The red and blue markings were added 38 years later (back in 1982, were coloured plots even invented? 😊). The upper curve, referred to the left axis, gives the predicted increase in CO2 largely due to the burning of their product. The lower curve, referred to the right axis, gives the temperature increase they predicted due to those CO2 increases. The coloured lines for 2020 show their predictions were pretty good. The actual concentration of CO2 then were only slightly below their predicted 420 ppm. Their predicted temperature rise from 1980 was right on the money (as you can see from Hansen’s 2nd figure reproduced in my May 24 post). And huge continuing increases in both were predicted over the remainder of this century.
Do they care? Of course they do. But for them it’s only about the money.
They clearly knew 4 decades ago what was going on, and they equally knew that future profit would be affected if those effects became common knowledge. They - and the other barons - have been engaged in a disinformation program ever since. A program that was exquisitely exposed nearly ten years ago in the seminal Merchants of Doubt. Still well worth a read.
The oil barons have always been the bad guys, and sadly they still own the governments that matter. That’s why actions to fix the problem over last 40 years have been so ineffective. Just talk. Greta’s ‘Blah blah, blah’. The best we can do is to pressure our Governments to take effective action to drastically reduce the use of fossil fuels. A ray of hope has just emerged in New Zealand. The current government has just committed - with the aid of investment giant BlackRock (what’s in it for them, I wonder?) - to derive 100 percent of its electricity from renewables by the end of this decade. An ambitious target. Currently we’re at around 82 percent. Of course, electricity-use represents only about half of our total energy budget. Much of the remainder at present is from fossils fuels. But by the end of the decade a much larger fraction of our fleet will be electric. In that case, a much larger fraction of our transport energy will be from those renewables. Hopefully that commitment will survive any transition after October’s election.
In the meantime, shun the oil industry as much as you can. Disinvest in their stocks. Pressure your stockbroker to do the same. They’re last century’s darlings anyway. The more I can cut into their profits, the happier I am. I cut my use of fossil fuels - and help my bank balance at the same time - by going electric, especially during off-peak periods that favour renewables. My Tesla’s phone app tells me that I saved NZ$2500 in fuel charges over the last year. Hopefully that’s at least NZ$1000 the oil barons didn’t get from me. And the same next year, and next …
Adding rooftop solar PV to my home, reducing my need for heating by improving my home insulation, and adding another layer in winter instead of turning up the thermostat on the heat-pump are other win-wins. Good for the planet, and good for the wallet.
My friend Gunther also passed on the link below to a chilling analysis, where British Climate scientist Kevin Anderson gives his view on present politics concerning climate change. It’s well worth the 16 minutes of your time …
Anderson’s courage of his convictions is clear. He’s avoided of air-travel for nearly 20 years now. Sadly though, it will take more than the personal convictions of a few like him. The great majority don’t share his strength. Let’s be honest. That includes me. I’m ashamed to say that my last flight was less than 20 days ago. And my next flightbis in about 20 hours. Regulation is needed.