[flagged]
Before going for the snark, you could have noticed that ‶breathtakingly″ is in quotes, because it is part of a citation of the expert mentioned in the article.
The only choice here has been to put it in the title.
Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s
31–40 of 174 posts
Re: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s
#32I don’t understand what was the expectation. For Big Oil to start campaigning against their own product? We have legislative bodies that we literally elect and pay to do this job. Let’s stop the hypocrisy and look ourselves in the mirror.
> For Big Oil to start campaigning against their own product?
Yes!
Surely we all have a responsibility to our own _species_. If you're making something that you discover harms the species then you should change course. This company would have massive head start and could own the inevitable future of green energy if they took action then
Laws are like the immune system for humanity, this is exactly the scenario it makes sense for laws to prevent
Re: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s
#33Surprise, surprise. And yet, Big Oil continued to launch campaigns designed to deflect responsibility from companies and governments away to individual consumers, like BP's "carbon footprint" [1]. When will those responsible be held accountable for helping to advance the destruction of climate and the immense loss of life and property that climate change has brought? How can we explain to our children and grandchildr…
> When will those responsible be held accountable for helping to advance the destruction of climate and the immense loss of life and property that climate change has brought?
When it is no longer profitable to destroy the climate.
Re: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s
#34I don’t understand what was the expectation. For Big Oil to start campaigning against their own product? We have legislative bodies that we literally elect and pay to do this job. Let’s stop the hypocrisy and look ourselves in the mirror.
>We have legislative bodies that we literally elect and pay to do this job.
>Let’s stop the hypocrisy and look ourselves in the mirror.
[Modern electoral] Democracy doesn't really work that way. About 2/3 of people vote in the general election. Around 1/5 vote in the primaries. Maybe 1% actually sign petitions to put candidates in the primaries.
"We the people" only directly influence the last step of the process, in so doing contributing about one bit of information per candidate in a two-party system. Public perception and conversation is a key mediator between the public and everything else about the candidates who ultimately run for office. This kind of "outrage" is not contrary to the democratic process; it is an essential part of the process.
Re: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s
#35Surprise, surprise. And yet, Big Oil continued to launch campaigns designed to deflect responsibility from companies and governments away to individual consumers, like BP's "carbon footprint" [1]. When will those responsible be held accountable for helping to advance the destruction of climate and the immense loss of life and property that climate change has brought? How can we explain to our children and grandchildr…
>When will those responsible be held accountable You have sown the revolving door and now you reap its harvest. Nobody will be held to account so long as the institutions that would be doing the holding have a massive overlap in relevant skills, subject matter and therefore, personnel (especially at the management levels where these sorts of decisions get made).
"You"? I was born in 1991, my generation certainly didn't invent that crap, that was all during the reign of the Boomers - who, to add insult to injury, keep occupying positions of power instead of resigning and retiring to let those rise who will actually have to live on this wreck of a planet the next fifty to seventy years (assuming no major war gets us all killed).
Re: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Problem is that Big Oil pays those politicians more.
that's not even remotely the issue. Money may buy you access but it doesn't magically buy you votes. People could easily kick every oil lobbyist out. The genuine reason is that citizens are not willing to internalize the costs of their pollution and change their habits. Cheap gas, big cars, big houses, cheap Big Macs, cheap plane tickets is what the people vote for. Big Oil just supplies the juice.
> People could easily kick every oil lobbyist out.
Please explain.
Re: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s
#37In any just world the company would be dissolved and all of its resources taken and put towards fixing the problems it intentionally created, and the people that knew about this be held personally liable.
> the company would be dissolved and all of its resources taken and put towards fixing the problems it intentionally created, and the people that knew about this be held personally liable I get the second part. But what's the utility of the first over a fine? Are you suggesting nationalizing Exxon? Or liquidating it?
I think actually liquidating isn't so bad. Now and again nature strikes down a giant and a lot of other creatures benefit from it.
It's actually a bit odd that when we invented corporations we didn't have some sort of catastrophe mechanism in there just to shake hands up now and again.
I think society would find ways to become more resilient if we lived with possible corporate sudden death.
Re: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s
#38In (public) high school, I had a physics teacher who showed his conservative politics pretty prominently. He was a great instructor, but had conspicuously placed religious books around the class room. "Teaching your students about God" was one title that I remember.
Another feature of this class was being shown The Greening of Planet Earth: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Greening_of_Planet_Earth
Re: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
>When will those responsible be held accountable You have sown the revolving door and now you reap its harvest. Nobody will be held to account so long as the institutions that would be doing the holding have a massive overlap in relevant skills, subject matter and therefore, personnel (especially at the management levels where these sorts of decisions get made).
"You"? I was born in 1991, my generation certainly didn't invent that crap, that was all during the reign of the Boomers - who, to add insult to injury, keep occupying positions of power instead of resigning and retiring to let those rise who will actually have to live on this wreck of a planet the next fifty to seventy years (assuming no major war gets us all killed).
> I was born in 1991, my generation certainly didn’t invent that crap, that was all during the reign of the Boomers
The described problem is much older than the Boomers period of political dominance. For some reason, Millenials seem to think that “Boomers” are “everyone who existed before the Millenials”.
Re: Exxon made ‘breathtakingly’ accurate climate predictions in 1970s and 80s
#40Surprise, surprise. And yet, Big Oil continued to launch campaigns designed to deflect responsibility from companies and governments away to individual consumers, like BP's "carbon footprint" [1]. When will those responsible be held accountable for helping to advance the destruction of climate and the immense loss of life and property that climate change has brought? How can we explain to our children and grandchildr…
Yet these companies aren't the ones actually burning the oil, are they? They merely sell the product which others then burn. How can you hold only them responsible but excuse the parties further downstream?