As I mulled over where to go for science-based, practical, factual solutions and what to include in this post, I kept coming up with the word survival, rather than solutions. So I decided to look up the origins of both words, unable to avoid my going off on one of my tangents to explore phrases and words. My first book on word origins didn’t list survival, but under solutions, it said see absolute. It is from the Latin ab-from and solvere-to loosen, thus, the solution to a problem is what loosens it, “especially if it is a knotty one; Then, of course, you have solved it.”[i] My second source ignored solution, but for survive referred to the Latin word vivo, meaning to live, and vita meaning life; survive incudes this form.[ii]
Our survival and that of all life forms on our planet depend on solutions. The major solution is to stop using fossil fuels ASAP. That’s the bottom line. Other solutions are also needed, but that is the most important and immediate one, and, yes, survival, depends on this.
ACTIONS of ANTI-CLIMATE CHANGERS
How in the world is this done, when in our country (not to mention others in parallel ways), the government, particularly Congress, our governmental body responsible for legislation, are tied through money and power to oil and gas and related industries and they do not want change? I’ll continue to write about solutions in future posts, but first let’s examine the role of Big Oil. I’m going to shorthand other industries as well, such as many vehicle manufacturers and the US Chamber of Commerce to Anti-Climate Changers (ACC, my label and acronym). These are NOT climate change deniers, they already know the truth and the facts, as I will report below.
Disinformation Campaign
Those industries, organizations, and politicians who represent and support the Big Oil position of fighting action on climate change are a main stumbling block to a major solution and survival. It is particularly unfortunate, as there is now internal proof that these companies have known of the dangers and increase of climate change because of the use of their products for many years. One of the roadblocks I mentioned the other day is disinformation and the susceptibility of the American people to effective media on this issue. First, let’s look at how Big Oil spent billions to spread disinformation and to prevent actual necessary actions.
Scientific American, a science and fact-based publication, wrote: “Exxon was aware of climate change as early as 1977, 11 years before it became a public issue, according to a recent investigation from InsideClimate News. This knowledge did not prevent the company (now ExxonMobil and the world’s largest oil and gas company) from spending decades refusing to publicly acknowledge climate change and even promoting climate misinformation—an approach many have likened to the lies spread by the tobacco industry regarding the health risks of smoking. Both industries were conscious that their products wouldn’t stay profitable once the world understood the risks, so much so that they used the same consultants to develop strategies on how to communicate with the public.” They not only knew the facts, their research uncovered climate change facts. In fact, they spent over $1 million doing unprecedented research on what the CO2 impact was in the oceans, as well they had built climate models and recorded CO2 levels.
In July 1977, Exxon’s senior scientist, John Black, told Exxon’s management committee: “In the first place, there is general scientific agreement that the most likely manner in which mankind is influencing the global climate is through carbon dioxide release from the burning of fossil fuels.” In 1978, he told them: “Doubling CO2 gases in the atmosphere would increase average global temperatures by two or three degrees” (a number that is consistent with the scientific consensus today). He continued to warn that “present thinking holds that man has a time window of five to 10 years before the need for hard decisions regarding changes in energy strategies might become critical.” As Scientific American continues, “By 1989 the company had helped create the Global Climate Coalition (disbanded in 2002) to question the scientific basis for concern about climate change. It also helped to prevent the U.S. from signing the international treaty on climate known as the Kyoto Protocol in 1998 to control greenhouse gases. Exxon’s tactic not only worked on the U.S. but also stopped other countries, such as China and India, from signing the treaty.”[iii] There’s more. This article was published in October 2015! Yet the hypocrisy in oil and gas ads about how climate conscious and responsible they are continues.
The PBS Frontline docuseries The Power of Big Oil, about the industry’s long campaign to stall action on the climate crisis, in which the former Republican senator Chuck Hagel reflects on his part in killing US ratification of the Kyoto climate treaty is also discussed in an article in the well-respected, investigative, and thoughtful journalism work of The Guardian, April 21, 2022. If you have any questions or concerns about the validity of the role of big oil on climate denial, please watch PBS Frontline’s thoroughly researched, documentary series.[iv]
What can be done abut misinformation? This is an area where, as individuals, we can have a large impact. Here are a few suggestions:
- Write or email the companies and the sites where they display their deceptive advertising and call them out on it. Copy your state and federal House and Senate representatives and any other officials, such as the EPA Director, the Council of Economic Advisors, the Secretaries of the Executive branch cabinet positions of Health and Human Services, Energy, Transportation, Interior. It sounds like a lot, but once you have an email group set up, it’s easy to do.
- Don’t buy their products, yes, most of us need to continue to buy gas, but we don’t have to be Exxon, Shell, and other name brands.
- Use Politifact, Factcheck.org, and Snopes to check accuracy of stories about climate change, call out any that are incorrect.
- Check your investment holdings and try to get rid of any in Big Oil.
- If you don’t already have an EV, consider buying one. I admit I don’t have an EV, but get 34 mpg and limit my driving by combining errands to one day when I have an appointment and have to go out anyway. I don’t live in an area where biking or walking to do errands is possible. I’m watching the EV market expand, as well as charging stations. Also, it matters where your electricity is coming from. If you’re charging your EV with coal-burning electric power, you should stick with a gas-guzzler for now.
- Have nonconfrontational conversations with others about correcting disinformation.
HOW BIG OIL COULD SAVE THEMSELVES
The unfortunate aspect of Big Oil throwing money at disinformation is that if they invested that in R and D, they could have had a significant role to play in quickly moving away from fossil fuels and maintained reasonable profits already. Big Oil understands drilling, for example. They could adapt to start working on hydrothermal energy. This is NOT fracking, something quite different.
Here is information on geothermal energy from the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) in the US Department of Energy (DOE): “The development of advanced exploration tools and technologies will accelerate the discovery and utilization of the U.S. Geological Survey’s estimated 30,000 MWe (megawatt electrical, a unit of electrical energy) of undiscovered hydrothermal resources in the Western United States by increasing exploration and confirmation well success rates. More effective exploration methods address a major barrier to increased geothermal energy production by lowering the high upfront risk and cost of project development. Locating undiscovered geothermal resources will support the near-term expansion of renewable energy because once found, hydrothermal resources can be brought online quickly using current technologies….A geothermal resource requires fluid, heat, and permeability to generate electricity. Conventional hydrothermal resources contain all three components naturally. These geothermal systems can occur in widely diverse geologic settings, sometimes without clear surface manifestations of the underlying resource.”[v]
Big Oil, there is an opportunity here!
Not all of us live near a volcano nor want to, but here’s another take on a renewable vehicle fuel.
“It’s handy to have a volcano in the neighborhood, at least if you want a cheap way to make recycled fuel. Carbon Recycling International, located next to a volcano in Iceland, is turning carbon dioxide into a fuel it calls “Vulcanol”–a nice homage to the original source of the power. For years, the volcano has powered a nearby geothermal electricity plant. Now, as the power plant runs, Carbon Recycling has started capturing the carbon dioxide emissions and turning it into methanol, a liquid fuel that can either be used to power cars or to make products like plywood and paint.”[vi]
You may throw up your hands at the mention of methanol, but wait. “Unlike regular gas, burning methanol doesn’t emit carbon monoxide, soot, or other carcinogens. And electric cars can use the fuel too….If we want to transition from combustion engines to EV, direct methanol fuel cells will become an important feature of future battery powered vehicles with range extension–with the added advantage that these vehicles can use our existing fuel infrastructure,” says KC Tran, CEO and co-founder of Carbon Recycling International.[vii]
ECONOMIC FEARS OF SWITCHING
This is so patently false, it’s difficult to know where to begin. There are jobs in renewable and sustainable energy, at least as many as exist in Big Oil and the ACCs industries. In fact EERE is hiring what they call Clean Energy Champions.[viii] Yes, in some cases, retraining will be necessary. This is NOT impossible. In spite of a now much-dated work experience in technology, I hate it when one of my electronic appliances or software decides to upgrade and there is a new learning curve, but I manage; sometimes even without the help of my grandchildren! You may be the same.
A major advantage for the United States to get immediately super active in R and D on renewable and sustainable energy is then the technology is ours, so to speak, or whoever gets the patents for the various solutions. We also can build the systems creating yet more jobs. According to EERE, “The United States is a resource-rich country with abundant renewable energy resources. The amount available is 100 times that of the nation’s annual electricity need.”[ix] What are we waiting for?
The energy grid in this country is in urgent need of repair, whether we switch or not. That cost is going to be present, and we have to deal with it. If so, why not build in switching from fossil fuels at the same time? That would actually save money ultimately.
There is a documented trend among young couples who are seriously considering not having children because they don’t want to bring them into this dying world. “In a world of pandemic chaos, political strife and climate catastrophe, some would-be parents see the future as too dark to procreate….In a note to investors this past summer, Morgan Stanley analysts concluded that the ‘movement to not have children owing to fears over climate change is growing and impacting fertility rates quicker than any preceding trend in the field of fertility decline.’”[x]
Is that not enough to make switching imperative? It bears repeating: If we continue on this path, there is no question but that civilization and the biosphere in which we live will be destroyed. BUT we don’t have to continue on THAT path!
More to come, but, hopefully, you can see this research takes time, and I also need to tend my gardens and watch the hearings!
[i] Shipley, Joseph T., “Dictionary of Word Origins,” Philosophical Library, NY, 1965.
[ii] Funk, Wilfred, “Word Origins: An Exploration and History of Words and Language,” Wings Books, NY, 1950, p. 391.
[iii] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/exxon-knew-about-climate-change-almost-40-years-ago/
[iv] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAAbcNl4Lb8
[v] https://www.energy.gov/eere/eere-initiatives-and-projects
[vi] https://www.fastcompany.com/3023455/the-cars-in-iceland-will-be-powered-by-volcano#:~:text=The%20energy%20that%20powers%20cars,that%20produces%20a%20liquid%20fuel.
[vii] https://www.fastcompany.com/3023455/the-cars-in-iceland-will-be-powered-by-volcano#:~:text=The%20energy%20that%20powers%20cars,that%20produces%20a%20liquid%20fuel.
[viii] https://www.energy.gov/eere/clean-energy-jobs
[ix] https://www.energy.gov/eere/renewable-energy
[x] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/20/style/breed-children-climate-change.html#:~:text=Nevertheless%2C%20the%20concern%20seems%20to,crisis%20%E2%80%94%20and%20tons%20of%20news.
Excellent information for everyone !