Shell knew (half a century ago!) that CO2 was a problem

Posted on by under Economic issues, education, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, History, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

More often than not, the most important issues facing us are lost in the noise and bluster of day-to-day battles. Never in our lifetimes has this been more true than right now when we are all fighting about one thing or another, but almost nobody is talking about the elephant in the room. Our friend PeNdantry effectively brings the topic back to the forefront, at least for the 3-4 minutes it takes to read the post! Oh, and take a second … and a third look at the little meme at the top of his post. Just that.

Wibble

Fossil fuels are the very bedrock of our global civilization; but oil and gas ‘production’ is nothing of the sort: it’s not production, it’s extraction. Those who ‘produce’ these resources are profiteering from their historic control of them, and actually generate nothing but vast fortunes for themselves and those in league with them (banks, lawyers and lawmakers, politicians, and so on). Wealth is power, and they use their enormous riches to subjugate the rest of us. Though we hugely outnumber them, it seems we are powerless to resist – so much for ‘democracy’ – as they continue to destroy the very fabric of our home planet, Spaceship Earth.

But, worse than that, they’ve known exactly what they were doing all along. And they deliberately lied to us all, in many ways, scheming to maintain the status quo and their positions at the top of the pecking order. The evil…

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19 thoughts on “Shell knew (half a century ago!) that CO2 was a problem”

  2. Just an observation, but colour the line in the meme just a little differently, and it can look quite like a cigarette. Tobacco companies are still operating in 3rd world countries, as well as in our so-called G20 nations. Yeah, we cut them down a size or two, but we have not stopped them. What makes us think fining Big Oil will help fight climate change?
    I hope we learned something fighting Big Tobacco: We cannot take partial measures. We either go all the way, or we lose! Your choice!

    Liked by 2 people

    • Good point! Not my graph, though, so not mine to alter. Yep … the tobacco companies did a number on us and continue to do today. Big Pharma is the same, as is Big Oil. And yet, people criticize me for my hatred of the ultra-wealthy. They gain their wealth only by stepping on We the People.

      Liked by 1 person

    • Good point, well made. I’ve used this header image several times, and each time have thought that it would be better if the right-hand side were coloured yellow-red rather than red-yellow. But it’s not my image: credit where it’s due, copyright in it belongs to Brendan Leonard (@semi_rad), who kindly gave me permission to use it (and I’ve now corrected my error in omitting the credit to him for that in latest use of it).

      I think we’ve learned nothing very much about fighting Big Tobacco. Big Oil, Big Tech, Big Ag, Big Pharma… they all use the same playbook, fooling us all into believing shit that’s not true whenever it suits them, just to increase the size of their coffers even when they’re doing harm or acting amorally or inethically. It sucks.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Money rules — in their minds. The question is why. They cannot spend it in 10 generations, while they themselves only have the one term. When greed is this excessive, it hurts everyone, and everything. There can be only one winner in the race to have the most wealth as they lay on their deathbeds — everyone else is a LOSER!

        Liked by 1 person

  3. Jill, PeNdantry, great post on an important topic. Shell actually produced an educational video on (drum roll please) their concerns over climate change in the early 1990s. If you look for it, you can probably still find it. Exxon’s scientists have known dating back to the late 1970s and used to do educational conferences. The word “gaslighting” is apt for more than just the known lying.

    Just as the tobacco industry gaslit its customers for decades knowing nicotine was addictive dating back to 1964, fossil fuel companies gaslit us about climate change. The tobacco companies finally got a reckoning when fined in the multiple hundreds of millions for their subterfuge. The fossil fuel industry needs its comeuppance for its subterfuge. Keith

    Liked by 2 people

    • Thanks, Keith! The prime example of profit over people. And here we are today, at a virtual tipping point where if we don’t act NOW, there will be nobody around to play Auld Lang Syne on 12/31/2100, yet few take it seriously, it has become a political football rather than a serious global issue.

      Liked by 1 person

    • At some point, the people of this world … not just the U.S. but the WORLD … will need to decide whether they are willing to make significant sacrifices to save the environment for future generations, and whether they are willing to go toe-to-toe with the wealthy to make it happen. People try to live in a cocoon where only today matters, only their own pleasure and convenience matters, but in so doing, we are killing the future.

      Liked by 1 person

  6. Pingback: Shell knew (half a century ago!) that CO2 was a problem — Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

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