Energy firms have made record profits by increasing production of oil and gas, far from their promises of rolling back emissions

Leading energy companies are intent on pushing the world in the opposite direction, expanding fossil fuel production and insisting that there is no alternative. It is evidence that they are motivated not by record warming, but by record profits, experts say.

  • Opafi@feddit.deEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    expanding fossil fuel production and insisting that there is no alternative.

    No alternative? No fucking alternative? Like… We’re talking about extinction level scenarios and they’re like “yeah, okay, we’re all going to die, but I don’t think your suggested alternatives to that are viable”

    Like, don’t they see that their profits ultimately depend on humanity existing to consume their products? What the fuck is wrong with them? Who do they think will bail them out when the planet is too fucking hot to live on?

    • flybynightpotato@kbin.social
      1·
      1 year ago

      Companies like Exxon literally buy up green technology that could have huge, net-positive, impacts in the climate resiliency sphere/in combating climate change because they don’t want the competition. The sheer audacity of this bald-faced fucking lie. What is the point of money on a dead planet, morons?

    • Fredselfish@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      They hope or think they will be dead long before that happens and fuck future generations they are sociopaths.

  • magnetosphere@kbin.social
    1·
    1 year ago

    Remember, folks, it’s only “socialism” when we talk about sharing profits among the people. Sharing blame and responsibility is perfectly okay!

  • MxM111@kbin.social
    0·
    1 year ago

    I honestly do not think that it is oil companies that should fight climate change. They should provide oil derived product as required by economy. It is OUR COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY to act. Through individual choices, through government incentives, through carbon taxes and so on. To expect that all oil companies together will act against their profits and interests is naive.

    • I Cast Fist@programming.dev
      0·
      1 year ago

      Yes, because oil companies are totally NOT spending millions of dollars fighting every possible movement, organization or act to hold them responsible for the damage they’re causing. Clearly, we just need to hold hands and everything will be solved!

      Also, as an individual, you don’t choose whether the electricity you get comes from a gas power plant, hydro dam, coal or something else. You don’t get to choose whether the thing you’re eating was transported from a diesel truck or an electric vehicle. There are many, many steps before you get a final product that needed fossil energy

      • MxM111@kbin.social
        0·
        1 year ago

        Actually, you can change your provider and chose more green provider. Also, if you own the house, you can put solar on your roof.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldM
          0·
          1 year ago

          No I can’t. I have one option. One company. That’s it. And solar would cost me about $15,000. And that’s not counting a battery. Maybe you’re rich, but I’m not.

          • MxM111@kbin.social
            1·
            1 year ago

            15K is not rich for US. It is 1/3 of a new car price ($46,290 in 2022). It might be not very doable for you, personally, but I bet that majority of households can afford this, especially since they will get free electricity after that, and if they truly worry about climate change. If not, then why do they require for oil companies to make financial sacrifices, but not for themselves (even if it is a sacrifice at all)?

    • alvvayson@lemmy.world
      01·
      1 year ago

      Expecting oil companies to solve climate change is like expecting car companies to solve traffic jams.

      It’s naive thinking.

      Carbon taxes and cheap nuclear power. We have had the two main required policy tools and technology since the 1980s to solve climate change.

      • Meowoem@sh.itjust.works
        01·
        1 year ago

        Those two things are great solutions for the billionaires but absolutely suck for everyone else, no wonder you see them pushed so much.

        The first is a tax which will strongly affect the poor while allowing the rich to continue as normal, the second allows the rich to control power generation and essentially continue the monopoly rather than move towards decentralised sources which can be community run.

        We need to switch from a greed based system which obsesses over displays of wealth and move to a more ecologically sound way of existence, but people can’t even consider taking the slightest responsibility for their lifestyle

  • I Cast Fist@programming.devEnglish
    0·
    1 year ago

    “They (Oil companies) have left no doubt that their pledges were deployed for cynical political purposes, only to be ditched when they no longer suited the industry’s strategic position,”

    That strategic position was to avoid being governed, said Timmons Roberts, professor of environment and sociology at Brown University.

    “The climate commitments … were almost certainly made to give the impression that they don’t need to be regulated because their voluntary pledges are adequate,”

    You know, I’m kinda tired of every article about oil companies being either something straight out of police reports or just being the same “No shit, Sherlock” about them being evil, lying, manipulative and greedy assholes. I’d love to see them being fined some 50 billion dollars, but I feel they’d manage to overturn that anyway. Justice and police exist to protect property.