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Had world leaders acted on the evidence even as late as 1988 we likely wouldn’t be in such a predicament
The fossil fuel industry has made great efforts to present itself as an environmental champion, working hard to reduce greenhouse gases emissions. It can’t be trusted.
It has fuelled a rapidly accelerating crisis that puts the health and survival of humans and many other living beings at risk — all for the sake of enormous profits.
Industry leaders were For decades, people have been knowingly deceived about the consequences of wastefully burning their products. About 45 years ago, oil giant Exxon’s own scientists warned that excessive fossil fuel use would bring about climate disruption.
“In the first place, there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels,” Exxon senior scientist James Black told the company’s management committee in 1977. The next year, he said doubling CO2 emissions would increase average global temperatures by 2 to 3 C, which lines up with today’s scientific consensus. He added that “present thinking holds that man has a time window of five to 10 years before the need for hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might become critical.”
Exxon did not do anything about the crisis it was contributing, but executives invested enormous amounts of time and money to downplay the science and create confusion among the public. They even attempted to undermine international climate agreements, such as the 1998. Kyoto Protocol.
If world leaders had acted on the evidence as late as 1988, James Hansen, a NASA scientist, warned U.S. lawmakers about the crisis, we likely wouldn’t be in such a predicament. As Scientific American notes, “Half of the greenhouse gas emissions in our atmosphere were released after 1988.”
Recent evidence has shown that oil giants continue to use misleading and dishonest tactics, often with the support of politicians and compliant media. A peer-reviewed Japanese studyPublished in the scientific journal PLOS OneOver the past 12 year, annual reports have included increasing amounts of mentions about climate-related issues as well as company claims about shifting towards clean energy. However, the opposite is happening. Business plans are relying more heavily on oil and gas exploration, production, and export.
According to the Guardian, the new study “found mentions of climate-related keywords in annual reports rose sharply from 2009 to 2020. For example, BP’s use of ‘climate change’ went from 22 to 326 mentions.”
Companies also claim they’re reducing their own emissions, but it’s usually just from operations and not the much greater volumes from using their products as intended.
The stated goal is to maximize shareholder returns. This means hyping things that allow continued business as usual — such as carbon capture, hydrogen and biofuels — rather than facing the inevitable need to stop fossil fuel use altogether. Last year, the International Energy Agency said there can be no new fossil fuel development if the world is to meet net-zero climate targets by 2050.
These company executives and their political and media supporters know coal, oil and gas are already making life miserable for countless people confronting droughts, floods, heat domes, wildfires, increasingly inhospitable temperatures and more, and that if we continue on this trajectory, Earth’s life-support systems will become increasingly compromised. But they don’t seem to care, as long as the cash keeps rolling in.
These politicians, news media operators, and executives have worked together to portray those who want to slow down or stop the destruction of workers as enemies. Again, they’re lying. Despite the fact that the industry has been able to provide good-paying jobs over time, it is now rapidly moving towards greater automation, lower costs, increased profits, and shareholder returns. Money is more important then workers and communities.
Environmental and civil society organizations, on the other hand, have long advocated for a “Just transition” for workers. This can include government support to training in clean technology, renewable energy, programs that get industry to pay workers for cleaning up its messy legacy like abandoned and orphaned water wells, and efforts for communities to diversify their economic and employment opportunities.
Don’t buy into industry greenwashing. We don’t have time for that. We are now 21 years old.st century, it’s time to move on.
David Suzuki is a scientist and broadcaster, author, and co-founder the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington.
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