Exxon CEO blames public for failure to fix climate change
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 CEO told journalists. Exxon Mobil Corp. CEO Darren Woods told editors from …
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This is just blame-shifting propaganda for the uneducated. We've known for years that "just 100 companies are source of over 70% of emissions":
"Groundbreaking ‘Carbon Majors’ research finds 100 active fossil fuel producers including ExxonMobil, Shell, BHP Billiton and Gazprom are linked to 71% of industrial greenhouse gas emissions since 1988."
This assumes they just make product and shove it back into the ground.
We use it. Our parents used it.
The only thing they're guilty of is getting in the way of new development to greener tech, which is a massive thing, don't get me wrong. Edit by get in the way I mean lobby to mask impacts and block changes, which is fucking terrible.
The EPA and NASA also knew about climate change but our governments were corrupt and lobbied by these guys. THAT is a problem.
But the fact that oil was processed and consumed is not a corporation's fault, they produced it for customers. THAT PART ALONE is our fault.
If you use fuel, plastic etc, you're part of the problem.
If you corrupt government and hinder progress you're the source of the problem.
One is much worse than the other. EDIT BEING THE SOURCE IS WORSE! consumers have skin in the game but corrupt government officials (who engaged with lobbyists are worse)
Yeah great, the consumer has so much power over industry practices and standards
I clearly discussed that.
No, they don't. They only have responsibility for their consumption.
Further, they only have responsibility for the consumption AND the damage that consumption causes, WHEN THAT INFO ISNT OBSCURED FROM THEM. These corps, and corrupt government hid that info in the name of profits.
I still don't have access to good (more than 100Mbps) reliable internet service and as a consumer can do nothing to change that, how am I supposed to be able to expect a new electric vehicle fast charger in my area to cut back my emissions? Also that where I live I have no access to public transit, and am forced to drive everywhere.
I didn't say you had much control, or are.the root of the problem. But all of us have skin in the game when we consume products that cause global warming.
Things like eating beef, using gas, using plastic products. I'm not saying you have an alternative, but nobody other than you is using the gas that you're using.
The separate, bigger part of the equation is the corruption.
But if you admit that there are no alternatives then one more step down the chain would be to blame, ie the companies producing, and not providing alternatives... You're so close and keep making points against what you then say is your conclusion.
I don't entirely disagree. I'm not going to completely deny consumer responsibility, but I think it's important to hold corporations much more accountable. My reasons are: sabotaging alternatives (this is huge), tons corporate money in politics (actively preventing change even if people want it), climate denial and false research (lying), and making sure everyone but themselves gets blamed when problems can no longer be hidden.
In the case of manufacturing, when environmental controls are implemented the corporations affected often just ship the work abroad. So even if citizens manage to make change in their own country the corporations just export the damage. You may say that people could just stop buying, and there is that aspect of consumer responsibility I've acknowledged. However, when all the options are bad it's not realistic to say everyone should have forgone all cars, phones, or electricity produced by fossil fuels.
The general population has been deliberately denied information and agency to enact change. This latest statement in OP's article is just a continuation of decades of corporate greed over truth and the environment.
Woah that was not my conclusion!
Edited to clarify.
Edit I figured it was clear that systemic corruption was worse than consumer usage but I guess not
My bad. Sometimes it's hard to tell when you're having a discussion via message board because nuance can get lost. I'll edit that assumption out. Sounds like we're on the same side.
I don't get why this 100% correct take us being downvoted so hard, but I suspect that some heads are in the sand, just like with the O&G CEOs.
Don't be like them. I mean I know this is Lemmy, but just for a minute, don't be a lemming. Everyone plays a role here. The industry plays an outsized one but we also all opt for comfort and convenience and avoid dealing with the consequences. We also don't want to be told we are wrong, or what to do. It's a potent combination so keep that shit in mind when you're going about your day. You think they'd keep making soap in plastic bottles and putting them at eye level in Wal-Mart if we all collectively decided bar soap was better and shunned "body wash"? There is a reason things are this way and each of us contributes to the cause of that reason.
Yep. I'm not worried about the downvotes. Head in sand is right.
Lots of people here act like young, disenfranchised idealists who act like every comment is a litmus test if anyone shakes the narrative. "Oh you didn't say the right phrase, you aren't mad enough!" No, I'm addressing another part of the situation, not reading a loyalty list.
Yes it would be better to revolutionize our production methods, heavily shift to public transit, use green energy production, get lobbyists out of government.
But that all takes time. In the meantime, recognize you are the consumer, that you're consumption has impacts, and that all that shit was made for you to use is an important step on living a greener life.
But the fact that oil was processed and consumed is not a corporation’s fault, they produced it for customers. THAT PART ALONE is our fault.
If you use fuel, plastic etc, you’re part of the problem.
No, no, and no. You're just fucking wrong. It's most likely you're paid by petrochemical companies to spread this drivel, or maybe you're just a useful idiot. Governments and multinational corporations set the precedent for what is consumed. The average citizen has very little input, especially in regard to what the world is going to use for fuel and general material construction. Your argument reeks of victim blaming.
Edit: Sorry if that came off as too hostile. GM killed the electric car, things like that. I must emphasize: you cannot blame trends like these on the consumer. If the money wants to push a trend (eg: gas cars) they will, and short of rioting they really won't give a shit what the consumer wants. Marketing and lobbying usually take care of that.
There's nothing in my comment that is in conflict with yours. I speak specifically to corruption, lobbying, and corporate entrenching of product streams. Your examples of the electric car are exactly what I'm speaking to when I say corruption.
I never, ever blamed systemic level, or trend level actions on the consumer.
I just don't accept externalizing individual actions.
When I eat meat, I am complicit in the system of slaughter. My consumption is tied to what I consume. Same with oil, same with plastic. Do not hop skip and jump to take the words I just wrote to say I developed factory farming.
Your comments that I'm an idiot, and a shill are uncivil, and I request you remove them.
Though you don't have to believe me, I actually work in methane leak detection in wellsites in Colorado, and previously worked in protected species monitoring on sites in the same area.
Edit Externalizing personal actions is complete head-in-sand behavior by people that would prefer to bundle their sins into a nice package and throw it over the fence. Since none of us can single handedly change government policy, it's convenient to just say "me good, corpo bad" and move on, but that's not true.
Acknowledging externalities is a critical component of environmental science education.
Exxon made oil for you. You burned it. That's your fault.
Exxon buttfucked our government and made alternatives unavailable or unrealistic to pursue. That's NOT your fault.
Your comments that I’m an idiot, and a shill are uncivil, and I request you remove them.
I will clarify that I am not in particular calling you an idiot, although I do still feel your opinion is misguided. "Useful idiot" is simply a term that describes someone, potentially unknowingly, spreading mis/dis information. I will not edit my previous comment further; I already apologized preemptively for my hyperbolic nature.
However I do wish to clarify that I simply feel you are putting too much weight on the consumer in this particular context. Multinational corporation and governments have outsized power compared to an individual, or even a domestic business. Consumers and individuals can, and do, change their consumption habits.
I still feel as though you are speaking out of both sides of your mouth. You said it was the consumers fault, and then you said it wasn't.
Edited last paragraph for clarity.
Ok you're continuing to bad mouth me in between discussion so this will be my last comment with you.
The consumer is not at fault for the products available to them, the systemic issues that got them there, or the behavior of corporations and governments.
The consumer is only responsible for what they consume. I know you don't like this and folks here don't like this, but any other perspective is externalizing responsibility. I'm not saying everyone should immediately become a Luddite and eschew all modern earthly needs, but only acknowledge that when they buy a product off the shelf, they are THE REASON that product is there. NOT the reason there aren't alternatives. That's the corp.
If I kill an animal for food, I am the reason it died. If I buy a chicken from the butcher I am still the reason it died. If the butcher stops competitive vegetarian alternatives from getting to market, that is corruption. (Stretching the metaphor) In a corrupt system where I can't find good alternatives, the butcher bears far, far more responsibility for the situation than me.
Corporations, their lobbyists and corrupt government officials are the reason there are not more ethical alternatives alongside the current products.
I'm not bad mouthing you and am not in between anything. If anything you continue to further my impending belief that you're a bad faith actor (THAT'S bad mouthing).
I am not even following this entire comment chain, merely responding to couple of points in your initial argument that I found objectionable. You continue to claim that I am doing you dirty and insulting you, despite the fact that I have done no such thing. You have either lost the plot, or are doing this on purpose. If it's not the latter, I think you should take a break.
Either way, I wish you the best. To be clear.
You're breaking the community rules by being uncivil, so I'll be reporting you. Not that it matters much, I'm not the boss and I'm not trying to run the show here. I asked you to chill, and to remove specific attacks, but you don't wanna so no biggie.
You can disagree with my opinions, but calling me a shill, bad faith actor, and an idiot are uncivil actions.
I've enunciated my position clearly with multiple analogies and examples and all you've done is call me names and discredit me as a commenter. You've not once refuted my position, you've only suggested it's absurd.
Maybe it is, but you're not making a compelling argument, only suggesting Im a shill.
What I am is a cynical realist that acknowledges my climate "sins" and don't play around with people pretending ALL of their problems come from intangible, unfixable corporations and governments. Cause all that is is blissful incapability. "Out of my control, nothing I can do about it!" Rather than "this is a complex system, of which I am a small but real participant. I'll pitch in where I can. I am not the architect, but I am not innocent."
When I eat meat, I am complicit in the system of slaughter. My consumption is tied to what I consume. Same with oil, same with plastic. Do not hop skip and jump to take the words I just wrote to say I developed factory farming.
Wow. I didn't even see that on first read. I don't comment much, mostly lurk. I think this is mostly why. Feel a bit like I've wasted some energy, but thanks for the exercise! I hope someday you recognize these massive assumptions and judgements you're making with very little information, or stop fucking trolling that way, whichever one it is. But again, be well friend.
Rude. You just don't like meeting your externalities. Enjoy blissful ignorance and throwing your problems over the fence.
gtfo off lemmy corporate shill
I'm sorry you had trouble reading the parts where I clearly pointed out corruption and lobbying are the reasons, the source of the issue.
I hope you get to a point where you accept your externalities.
The only thing they’re guilty of is getting in the way of new development to greener tech,
How fucking naive every oil company has literal blood on their hands.
Lick that boot, shitbag. I'm sure your corner office is just a few thousand more slurps away.
Yeah, I heckin specified that. Good luck on developing responsibility and not just dealing with your problems but throwing them over the fence and name-calling.
Pretty immature behavior, but I know it comes from frustration of not being in control.
Here's one to help you: If you drive a large car, which are known to be very dangerous to pedestrians, and emit a lot of pollutants, are you responsible, at all, for the emissions and risk factors of your car?
By your logic, no, it's the fault of the city planners and the auto manufacturers. You have zero blame or responsibility in the matter.
All I'm saying is that you DO have responsibility in the choices you make. Your choices are potentially limited, but you own the results of your actions.
Since you weaponized the mods to harass me, I'm not dropping this.
First: eat my ass, every inch of it. Every inch. Get deep into those crevices.
Second, I have been active in local politics, volunteering on campaigns, writing my reps, protesting and modifying my lifestyle, since the early 90s.
None of it mattered, and ended up being a huge waste of time and money as anyone who gets into power immediately sucks up to corporate donations.
The ONE candidate we had that was serious about the environment was strongarmed into irrelevance and I will never stop being bitter that my vote for that election was discarded (dimpled chad).
So if every effort that can be made by a common person has zero effect on the source and cause, then we deserve zero blame.
There is no way to exist in modern society without being dependent on the products such companies make, even if you grow your own food and weave your own clothes, there are tools and supplies that will come in plastic packages shipped by burning fuel.
Thirdly, you ignore the sense of scale and responsibility. one single jet set weekend for one of the owner class produces more carbon than twenty poverty class families over an entire year. And you have the FUCKING GALL to say 'we'.
Lastly, you mistake immature behavior for INCANDESCENT RAGE at the collapse of our ecology and economy spurred by the actions of oligarchs and their little toadies like you that keep minimizing their violence.
So, go ahead, report me again. Bitch. It's not going to make me love our corporate masters an iota more.
Yeah, you don't know the rules. You aren't being civil.
Im not gonna keep fighting with you and get banned. They deleted my comments too so not sure what weaponization you're referring to.
You missed the point entirely and were rude while you did it.