Exxon's CEO is happy to lay the blame for global heating on consumers — while his company enjoys record profits from climate-wrecking fossil fuels, and also rakes in obscene amounts of government subsidies.
HEADLINE: "Exxon CEO blames public for failure to fix climate change"
The world isn’t on track to meet its climate goals — and it’s the public’s fault, a leading oil company executive told journalists.
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods told editors from Fortune that the world has “waited too long” to begin investing in a broader suite of technologies to slow planetary heating.
That heating is largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels, and much of the current impacts of that combustion — rising temperatures, extreme weather — were predicted by Exxon scientists almost half a century ago.
Since taking over from former CEO Rex Tillerson, Woods has walked a tightrope between acknowledging the critical problem of climate change — as well as the role of fossil fuels in helping drive it — while insisting fossil fuels must also provide the solution.
For example, Woods said Exxon “could, today, make sustainable aviation fuel for the airline business. But the airline companies can’t afford to pay.”
His comments doubled down on the claim that the energy transition will succeed only when end-users pay the price.
“People who are generating the emissions need to be aware of it and pay the price,” Woods said. “That’s ultimately how you solve the problem.”
The original article in Fortune Magazine openly sympathizes with Exxon. It's a disgusting example of corporate media eagerly supporting Business As Usual.
Rather, corporate media is complicit in supporting the US war machine, the oil industry, imperialism, and consumerism. They obey orders from the owners of society, our neoliberal capitalist overseers.
And as atrocities mount, as the climate breaks down, as civility crumbles, all will be normalized.
Everything is fine...
Aaron Bushnell said something that really stood out to me. Referring to the genocide in Gaza, he said, “This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
I often wonder how people will react as the collapse of civilization unfolds. What will they do when countries start fighting over basic resources such as water? What will they say when power grids fail and tens of thousands die in heat waves? Will they finally wake up and demand an end to the system that is destroying our planet and making it uninhabitable for billions?
Maybe, but probably not. Why?
Because war, famine, and mass casualty events will be normalized. In fact, they already have been. Just think about all the crazy things happening in the world that are now considered normal.
I used to think that once the collapse became obvious, society would wake up and change. But right now, the fact that our civilization is in the early stages of collapse is pretty goddamn obvious, yet most people look at the world today and consider it perfectly normal. Even when a flood wipes out half a country’s breadbasket and displaces millions of people, government officials still say things like, “It’s called weather.”
So I guess that’s how it’s going to be. No matter how bad things get, it will be normalized.
But if you're a Big Oil executive, a Wall Street financier, or one of the many politicians they own, that phrase means everything. For capitalists, it's a wet dream come true.
That's why those criminals came up with a dirty underhanded scheme called Carbon Capture and Storage, as explained here by Naomi Oreskes...
"The False Promise of Carbon Capture as a Climate Solution"
Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is the idea that we can still use fossil fuels as long as the carbon dioxide emitted is captured and stored in the ground. In the U.S., the oil and gas industries have been pushing this approach as one of the key solutions to the climate crisis. But how realistic is it?
Despite the U.S. government already having spent billions on failed CCS projects, under the Inflation Reduction Act it is set to spend many billions more, a lot of it in tax subsidies to fossil-fuel companies. In theory, these tax credits are to be used for “secure” carbon storage, but the mechanisms for ensuring that CO2 is not leaking back into the atmosphere are flimsy at best.
And it gets worse: the Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that if the price of CCS falls — because of tax credits, for example, or economies of scale — some currently closed oil or gas fields might reopen.
Nearly all CCS projects in the U.S. are actually enhanced-recovery projects that keep the oil and gas flowing, and every new barrel of oil and cubic foot of gas sold and burned is putting more CO2 into the atmosphere. So not only do these kinds of projects not help, but they perpetuate our use of fossil fuels at a critical moment in history when we need to do the opposite.
This should be front-page headline news every day, leading every TV newscast.
But it's not. Why? Because if it was, that might deter us from accepting the perpetuation of Business As Usual.
If global temperatures increase by 1° Celsius or more above their current levels, billions of people will face wet-bulb temperatures every year so intense that their bodies will not be able to naturally cool themselves.
Indeed, if global temperatures exceed 2° above pre-industrial levels, four billion people will encounter intolerable heat and humidity on a yearly basis, often in regions where air conditioning and other forms of relief are not widely available. That could include more than two billion people in Pakistan and India, one billion in eastern China, and 800 million people in sub-Saharan Africa. Once global temperatures rise 3° above pre-industrial levels, much of the U.S. Northeast, Southeast, and Midwest will also regularly experience unlivable wet-bulb temperatures.
There is no universe in which this development will not lead to millions of deaths. "It is important to understand that wet-bulb temperatures of 95°F (35°C) are not conditions we can just get used to," said Dr. Peter Reiners, a professor of geosciences at the University of Arizona. "Human bodies have fundamental physiological limits; our planet's perturbed, angry climate doesn't care about them."
We're already at, or close to, 1.5°C above pre-industrial temperatures. And 2°C is not far away.
At the rate we're going, BILLIONS of people soon will be at grave risk of death from climate chaos.
Well, for one thing, it means more and bigger factory farms, especially in the USA, where they're encouraged by government policies and supported by government subsidies.
And all those larger factory farms means more and more greenhouse gas pollution.
American farms, especially big factory farms that generate significant greenhouse gas emissions, are growing in size. Overall, more government support is flowing to larger or more profitable operations.
“This tells a compelling story,” said Anne Schechinger, Midwest director of the Environmental Working Group. “It’s a clear picture that these larger farms are doing the best and are benefiting the most from government policies.”
An analysis by the advocacy group Food & Water Watch found the number of animals raised on large, factory-scale farms rose by 6% over 2017 and by 47% over 2002. That translates to more animals in concentrated areas, generating more manure that’s disposed of in pits and lagoons where it emits more methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas.
There is no doubt — none — that we are in a planetary climate emergency.
You would never know that, however, if you watch and read and listen to the corporate media. Their only concern is to keep us entertained, keep us sedated, and keep us going to work every day.
Above all else, you see, we MUST maintain Business As Usual.
The US military-industrial complex is very happy with the way things are going right now. That's why they're such a reliable sponsor for our weekly Monday morning BAU promotion.
One of the things we get is a colossal amount of trash — hundreds of millions of tons every year in the United States alone, most of that incinerated, piled up in landfills, or dumped in the ocean.
A huge amount of consumer waste is thrown out early in each calendar year, just after Christmas...
Around 26% of toys bought at Christmas are already being neglected by the end of January, and 40% will be thrown out within the first three months of being unwrapped. Of that, the combined weight of electronic toys comes to 3.2 billion kg, a significant proportion of the 9 billion kgs of e-waste the world produces in the same timeframe.
Data suggests that e-toys — headphones, gaming consoles, earphones, interactive toys, sound-playing books, drones, racing car sets, VR, electric trains, various robotic figures, etc. — contribute 77 times more to the e-waste problem than vapes, which are themselves a major scourge.
That's a disturbing amount of needless waste — but it's good for the economy!
Is everyone excited? It's time for another week of BUSINESS AS USUAL, sponsored this time by Saudi Aramco, Ford Motor Company, and the US military-industrial complex.
You’ve probably already heard the very bad — but completely expected — news that we have just completed our first 12-month span with global temperatures more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average.
However, according to the IPCC, this does not mean that the goal of the Paris agreement is in tatters. According to them, 1.5C will have to be exceeded over a span of 20 to 30 years (!) before they will declare the target missed.
Come on, give me a break. Do you think we’re idiots? You expect us to fall for that?
If we continue on with Business As Usual for another 20 years, the planet will heat up even more, probably over 2C if not higher.
It’s time to stop the lying. Stop covering up for capitalism. And stop drilling for more oil and more gas to burn.
As long as capitalism is in charge, then Business As Usual is inevitable.
But Business As Usual can only lead to collapse — of the ecosystem, of the economy, of governments, and of modern society.
Collapse, starting slowly and then growing, means tragedies beyond anything you have ever imagined.
If capitalism is still the dominating force ten years from now, then it’s too late. Collapse will happen. It may in fact be too late already — but we will never know unless capitalism is rejected and degrowth is adopted.
Why is Business As Usual allowed to go on? Why do governments continue to subsidize the fossil fuel industry and issue even more drilling permits when it seems obvious to most of us that this is the wrong course?
Why? Because governments don’t listen to people like you and me.
Instead, they listen to their “seasoned” advisors, ministers and cabinet members formerly employed by oil and gas companies. They listen to lobbyists for the fossil fuel industry, people who used to work beside them in government, part of that revolving door. And they listen to “experts” from the Chicago school of economics who promise them that we can do both: we can slowly reduce some harmful emissions AND keep our economies growing. It’s a win-win!
But it’s a devastating loss for Earth’s biosphere, for our climate and for our natural environment.
The system says: If you can make a big enough profit, then it must be done, no matter what cost to the environment. That’s how capitalism works.
Business As Usual must go on.
Britain has handed major oil companies the right to drill for fossil fuels in 24 new licence areas across the North Sea as part of the government’s mission to extend the life of the ageing oil and gas basin.
The government has come under fierce criticism for its stated policy to extract as much oil and gas as possible from the North Sea after leading climate experts warned that fossil fuel production must end if global governments hope to curb the rise in global heating.
Philip Evans, a campaigner at Greenpeace UK, said, “The government knows that the fossil fuel industry is driving the climate crisis, but instead of cracking down on oil and gas giants like Shell, they’re greenlighting a new drilling frenzy in the North Sea.”
In the midst of an ongoing climate and environmental crisis, why does Business As Usual still continue, week after week after week??
The simple answer is because it's so profitable.
HEADLINE: Exxon and Chevron Announce Record Shareholder Returns in Hottest Year on Record
U.S. oil companies ExxonMobil and Chevron announced their second-highest profits in a decade on Friday, with both companies paying out a record amount to shareholders in 2023, which was the hottest year on record due largely to the burning of fossil fuels.
“In 2023, we returned more cash to shareholders and produced more oil and natural gas than any year in the company’s history,” Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth boasted in a statement.
When there's so much money to be made, nothing else matters. Nothing at all.
One of our sponsors this week on the popular BUSINESS AS USUAL show is Shell Oil. Thank you, Shell!
Last week, that wonderful company shared a few of the secrets of their success with us. We learned that — if you're smart and devious and cynical like they are — you can make yourself look good by "offsetting" some of your CO2 emissions, using dubious and discredited carbon credits.
Shameful: Shell uses carbon credits under investigation to meet climate targets.
The oil and gas giant offset part of its emissions with over a million credits from Chinese projects suspended because of integrity concerns.
In 2020, the amount of human-made mass, or anthropogenic mass, exceeded for the first time the dry weight of all life on Earth, including humans, animals, plants, fungi, and even microorganisms.
Over the past century or so, human-made mass has increased rapidly, doubling approximately every 20 years. The collective mass of these materials has gone from 3% of the world’s biomass in 1900 to being on par with it today.
The current rate of accumulation for anthropogenic mass is about 30 gigatons per year. This is equal to each person on Earth producing their own body weight in human-made mass every week.
As accumulation rates increase, the amount of anthropogenic mass is predicted to almost TRIPLE the total amount of global living biomass by 2040. 🧵 1/3
Which country produces the most oil? 🇺🇸 USA! We're #1! 🇺🇸
And after drilling for all that oil, we turn much of it into plastics — then ship that overseas to China where it's made into millions of cheap products — which are shipped back to the USA, sold to us by Amazon or Walmart — and soon thrown away, eventually ending up as pollution in the ocean... ☹️
But it's good for the economy! Business As Usual, baby!!
"Ocean plastic pollution to quadruple by 2050, pushing more areas to exceed ecologically dangerous threshold of microplastic concentration"
If you believe that advanced technology, driven by free-market capitalism, has made our world a much better place over the last half-century, and if you’re convinced that future growth in even more exciting high-tech is the key to solving our climate and environmental challenges, then I invite you to follow Gerry McGovern (@gerrymcgovern) and study his posts.
Gerry is doing an amazing job of opening our eyes to the real costs of advanced technology, and big data in particular.
What a surprise. Corporate media owned by capitalists is actively supporting fossil fuel companies owned by capitalists. Good ol' Business As Usual!
Although commercial news media have recently given more coverage to the existential threats posed by anthropogenic climate change, more typically they pay only scant attention to the pernicious influence of the oil and gas industry. Corporate news outlets consistently underreport the devastating impact of fossil fuels on human health, and they tend to “greenwash” the economic and political forces that keep us dependent on carbon-intensive energy.
As greenhouse emissions rise and global temperatures inch closer to critical levels, we need media to tell the truth about the corporate behemoths responsible for the climate crisis, not media that collaborates openly with them.
US climate negotiators and US politicians (especially Democrats) love saying all the right things about Net Zero and a Green Transition — but when it comes to doing the right things about the climate, the US is clearly on the wrong track.
We must continue to demand that our governments change their ways. But when money talks so loud, will they ever listen to us?
“COP28 deal will fail unless rich countries quit fossil fuels, says climate negotiator”
The credibility of the COP28 agreement to “transition away” from fossil fuels rides on the world’s biggest historical polluters like the US, UK, and Canada rethinking current plans to expand oil and gas production, according to Pedro Pedroso, a climate negotiator who represents 135 developing countries.
“None of the major developed countries, who are the most important historical emitters, have policies that are moving away from fossil fuels. On the contrary, they are expanding,” said Pedroso, a Cuban diplomat.
The United States was by far the biggest oil and gas producer in the world last year – setting a new production record during a year that was the hottest ever recorded. The US, UK, Canada, Australia, and Norway account for 51% of the total planned oil and gas expansion by 2050.
“It’s very easy to label some emerging economies, especially the Gulf states, as climate villains, but this is very unfair by countries with historic responsibilities – who keep trying to scapegoat and deviate the attention away from themselves. Just look at US fossil fuel plans, and the UK’s new drilling licenses for the North Sea, and Canada which has never met any of its emission reduction goals, not once,” said Pedroso.
When it comes to transitioning away from fossil fuels, developed countries must go first, start immediately, stop expansion plans, and provide fair financial assistance so the rest of the world can work towards the same ends.