Viridian Note 00246: ExxonMobil: Climate VillainBruce Sterling [bruces@well.com]
Attention Conservation Notice: A lot of doomsaying and vitriol for some oil company. Entries in the Viridian Hot Rod Contest: From: bend@earthlink.net^^^** (Ben Davis) http://www.digitalanything.com/LightRod.html This contest ends July 5, 02001.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS "A Tiger by the Tail By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN "And now for a wild prediction. Within 12 months President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and all their backers in ((("Begging"? No way! They might, however, cover Tom Daschle's South Dakota in windmills. Their best tactic at this point is to go private-sector green, and *greener than Kyoto,* which, given Kyoto's pathetic treaty targets, would not really be that hard. An American wind boom would be faster and cheaper than Cheney's energy policy. Even Enron, the ultimate Bush energy company, has an Enron Wind arm. Most every company that's serious about energy "Why, you ask? Well, look what's happening in England. A group of celebrities there have joined with environmentalists to launch a boycott against Exxon Mobil gas stations, which in Europe go by the name Esso. Bianca Jagger, the pop star Annie Lennox and Anita Rodrick, founder of the Body Shop chain, helped launch the boycott because, as Ms. Jagger said, 'This is a way to tell Esso that it's not right for them to be claiming that there is no connection between CO2 emissions and climate change.'" (((So Europeans have finally had the good sense to beat up
Americans rather than BP and Shell, the Viridian darlings
among oil titans. The problem is that these pop-stars
just want their Kyoto back. That's not good enough.
These clowns at Exxon have blundered massively. No
company that reckless and stupid should be allowed to
survive.)))
"People connected with Exxon reportedly contributed
more than $1 million to the Bush campaign. (((Yep!)))
Exxon is a key supporter of research and advertisements
that try to cast doubt on the seriousness of global
warming and its link to fossil fuel emissions. (((They
bet the farm on denial politics.))) Exxon was a big
backer of President Bush's decision to pull the U.S. out
of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which called for
industrialized nations to steadily reduce their carbon
dioxide emissions. (((That's the smoking gun that has
finally made ExxonMobil the public face of global
warming.))) Exxon is also a major force behind the
Global Climate Coalition, a business lobby that opposed
Kyoto. (((Here is where it gets personal for us
Viridians. That's the GCC, folks, the world's biggest
whirlwind of black climate spin. Everything that
breathes will be much better off when the GCC ceases to
be.)))
"The 'Stop Esso Campaign' is asking British drivers to
shun Esso stations until the company supports Kyoto (see
www.stopesso.com). The campaign recently spread to
France. (((Naturally we should all "shun Esso," but
boycotts are not Viridian. This is because they flunk the
"Viridian Grandfather Principle," in that your dead
grandfather is even better at boycotting Esso than you
are, because he's dead. The Viridian version of this
activity is to boycott Exxon and buy from Shell and BP.
This tactic increases the disparity between Exxon and its
market competition. This is rather likelier to lead to
Exxon's stock tanking and the well-deserved firing of
current Exxon CEO Lee R. Raymond. Whereas the Stop Esso
campaign merely wants Exxon to recant its heresy. Big
deal.)))
"What's funny is that probably none of this would have
happened had Mr. Bush not bowed to the oil companies and
pulled the U.S. out of Kyoto. That may turn out to be
his greatest gift to environmentalism. (((Oh, I'm sure he
can come up with even greater gifts. Another Three Mile
Island, for instance.)))
"You see, as long as everyone was discussing how to implement Kyoto, no one wanted to take any radical steps. (((Exactly.))) Governments could say they were working on the problem, but that negotiations were hard. (((That (((Something serious is going to happen. What
might
this mean for you, if you work for Exxon nowadays? Well,
whenever people are choking on smoke and bailing
seawater, they're gonna pick on you. Show some common
sense and get the hell away from this doomed enterprise.
It doesn't matter that they've got deep pockets and they
own the government this season; they're gonna end up
indicted just like those goons at Elf-Aquitaine. Go work
for Shell.)))
"And environmentalists could feel their cause was
being advanced, even though implementation was far off.
(((The grand Green delusion; it's better to feel good than
to get results.)))
"'As long as Kyoto was there, everyone could avoid
real accountability and pretend that something was
happening,' says Paul Gilding, the former head of
Greenpeace and now chairman of Ecos, one of Australia's
leading environmental consulting firms. 'But now George
Bush, by trashing Kyoto, has blown everyone's cover. If
you care about the environment you can't pretend anymore.
Emissions are increasing, the climate is changing and
people can now see for themselves that the world is
fiddling while Rome burns.' (((Not only can they see Rome
burning, but now they know who to indict as the burning
spreads out of control. National governments can't very
well indict themselves. But a hated, bankrupt company
once called ExxonMobil? How are they gonna hire lawyers?
Where are they gonna hide?)))
"The result: Environmentalists refuse to sit on their hands anymore. Instead, the smart ones are mobilizing consumers to fight multinational polluters on their own from farmers and farmers demanded it from Monsanto.
Goodbye, Monsanto.
"This is real globalization activism. 'The smart activists are now saying, "O.K., You want to play markets concentrate on three, which he knows how to cover as a journalist.))) That takes forever and can easily be counter-lobbied by corporations. (((Once they get the hang of it, oil corporations do a lot more than just companies and the companies to pressure governments.
(((Gee, that tactic might work, Tom! You might, for
instance, walk into an Exxon gas station, and ask the
clerk "Had any serious trouble here yet? Indictments,
lawsuits, people throwing rocks, any of that stuff?" When
she says "No," act all surprised.)))
"After all, consumers do have choices where they buy
their gas, and there are differences now. Shell and BP-
Amoco (which is also the world's biggest solar company)
both withdrew from the oil industry lobby that has been
dismissing climate change. ((("BP-ExxonMobil" has got a
nice ring to it; somebody's gotta buy up all of Exxon's
dead hardware at the global garage sale.)))
"What Mr. Bush did in trashing Kyoto was to leave serious environmental activists with nowhere else to turn but the market. (((And the war-crimes courts, but that's a couple decades on.))) The smart ones get it. You will O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O |
