I’ve become a big fan of the video platform Waterbear over the last week or so, and this short video on Climate Denial has really struck a chord with me. It is all so obvious, but it is all so damaging.
It is the absolute victory of profit over science and frankly what is morally right, it is the pragmatic business approach of profit first and to be honest, I was probably the most surprised that Exxon actually listened and funded Climate Change research at all. Because who can blame them for putting profit first?
Well we should all blame them. Of course. We could have addressed climate change long before it became a crisis. And their success in denial, delay and distraction is something we will pay for.
Just this month, Europe is facing direct deaths from dramatic weather events, severe flooding has hit Germany and Belgium, there are heatwave warnings all across Europe, Canada has again beaten its highest temperatures, in short everything my science teacher, Mr Kirby, told me would happen if we didn’t act has come to pass.
In that classroom in 1985 in the Midlands I was – at first – shocked, then frankly I became complacent – because my teenage brain told me, adults just weren’t that stupid. If this outlandish tale he told us were true then surely the adults would be acting. Oh how naive I was!
It doesn’t just tell us what we may or may not already know about the history of big oil and its deliberate campaigns to deny the reality of climate change science, to delay action on a global scale, at least in part by confusing us with mixed messages and shadow groups that look like grassroots campaigns. It also shows how they shifted the blame onto us for Climate Change, the carbon footprint is a brilliant example and we the consumers absorbed this message so thoroughly that we still spend most of our time blaming each other for not doing enough.
We need a lot more green trollers to cut through this slick messaging, the newly rebranded British Petroleum ‘Beyond Petroleum’ introduced their carbon calculator tool with ‘What’s your carbon footprint?’ and were brilliantly challenged by the viral response of Mary Heglar “Bitch, what’s yours???” We need a LOT more of this to openly challenge the distract them tactic of the fossil fuel industry.
The Breakdown Episode 2: Climate Denial: 50 Years of Lies & Misinformation on Waterbear Network.
fossil fuel companies level up – Suing Countries
Once you’ve caught up on the last 50 years of profit motivated lying, you can be shocked at the next tool in the tool box from the fossil fuel industry – suing countries that take action to stop fossil fuel companies, see the Twitter thread below from one of my personal heroes – Kate Raworth.
What’s stopping faster government action on climate? In part, the fear of being sued by fossil companies over ‘lost profits’ if they are no longer permitted to drill, mine & destroy. The ISDS rules literally privilege corporate power over life on earth.
Kate Raworth on Twitter
The Guardian reported “Outrage as Italy faces multimillion pound damages to UK oil firm”
A message from the people of Italy to the executives and investors of Rockhopper Exploration plc (the UK oil company now suing the gov of Italy).
Rockhopper’s CEO Sam Moody openly admits that finance for fossil fuel projects is getting harder to find. No wonder they see suing the Italian government as such a good opportunity: it will fund their plans to drill oil in the Falkland / Malvinas Islands.
https://secure.emincote.com/client/rockhopper/agm2021/index.html
Rockhopper Exploration Plc is named after penguins. Their planned Falklands project is called ‘Sealion’. So they named themselves after the very creatures whose habitats they will help destroy, along with destroying this living planet. This company disgusts me.
Here’s the utterly outdated Energy Charter Treaty that allows corporations companies to sue governments that actually act to protect the climate and living world.
And here are the mutual funds investing in Rockhopper. These investors are hoping to successfully sue the Italian government so that they can fund their plans to drill for oil in the Falklands / Malvinas Islands.
Originally tweeted by Kate Raworth (@KateRaworth) on July 25, 2021.
Siobhan Mitchell 