Spirituality and Ecological Hope

Fostering Ecological Hope
Today from Margaret Swedish:

Exxon Mobil’s CEO, Rex W. Tillerson, offered his wisdom on global warming and climate change in a speech before a gathering of oil and gas industry leaders on Tuesday — his first contribution to the conversation following release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Basically, he said — oil and natural gas, and more oil and natural gas, because that is what keeps the global economy churning. For that reason, these products will continue to be the business of Exxon Mobil.

The scale advantages of oil and natural gas across the broad array of applications provide economic value unmatched by any alternative.

Absolutely — that is where the profits are — for now. And profits are what drives this company, last year having achieved the greatest profit of any corporation in history — just shy of $40 billion.

The article about the speech in yesterday’s NY Times business section certainly had a skeptical air about it. In the face of the report from the IPCC — nothing new, really, but dramatic because of the consensus it represents — the article presents the image of a corporate leader firmly entrenched in his company’s priorities — to make money for its shareholders –and who will not substantially alter those priorities just because the world is melting, or because his business has a lot to do with causing it to melt.

How much does it contribute to the problem of greenhouse gas emissions? This quote comes from a Washington Post article a few days ago:

Exxon Mobil has a lot at stake. According to a report by the Union of Concerned Scientists, the carbon dioxide emitted by the end users of all of Exxon Mobil’s products is greater than the emissions of all but five countries.

A lot at stake, which is the main reason that Exxon Mobil has been one of the leading voices trying to debunk climate science, putting millions of dollars into organizations leading the charge. The other day, we mentioned one of them, the Competitive Enterprise Institute. Exxon Mobil cut funding to them just last year under withering criticism about the CEI’s campaign of distortions and fabrications about the dangers of rising carbon dioxide emissions. I imagine it started to reflect badly on its business image.

Yet Tillerson is getting some credit for at least acknowledging that climate change is a problem, saying, well, okay, it’s happening; the earth is getting warmer. (Applause)

But it always comes with a caveat. The IPCC gave a level of certainty about the threat of global warming and the human cause of 90%, as close to consensus as one gets in science. But Tillerson grabbed onto that 10%.

My understanding is that there’s not a clear 100% conclusion drawn. Nobody can conclusively know how this is going to play out. I think that’s important.

Right, since we don’t know just how bad it’s going to get, what the temperature will be exactly, oh, say, in 2024, best not to do anything dramatic about it.

Tillerson is right about his business, however. If we go on as we are, as the NY Times reported:

hydrocarbons would dominate the world’s transportation as energy demand grows by an expected 40 percent by 2030.

This is very bad news for our Earth if this demand is met overwhelmingly by oil and gas. The thought that we might approach the crisis by reducing demand dramatically — well, that thought puts a shudder down the spines of industry executives and shareholders.

They are right — a big change will disrupt the global economy. There is no simple or cheap solution to the global warming crisis. There is no way to save ourselves without sacrifices and disruptions in the lives of the affluent nations. Tillerson says we must not pick winners and losers, but we must make exactly those choices — and oil and gas need to be gradually removed from our lives as much as possible as quickly as possible. They need to become the losers.

If that means staying home more, turning off more of the power that drives our extravagant lifestyles — well, the alternative is pretty grim for our children and their children.

Tillerson worries about the the damage to the global economy if drastic action is taken. He should read the Stern Report in which one of the UK’s leading economists compares the cost of doing nothing with the cost of dealing with the havoc of climate change. He should read the IPCC report. He should perhaps consider that part of the 10% uncertainty in its conclusion comes from scientists who think the report too cautious,still too conservative in its predictions.

I have said this before, and this is a central point of this website and project: ultimately, this is a moral and ethical issue, perhaps the most important of our time since it impacts virtually everything else. And it is in that light that this speech by Tillerson, and the behavior of the oil and gas industry must be put.

[tags] Exxon Mobil, IPCC, global warming, oil and gas industry, carbon dioxide emissions[/tags]