Greta Thunberg in Iowa City October 2019

Greta Thunberg: It’s ‘absurd’ that we think the oil companies causing the climate crisis have a solution to it

From Marketwatch:

Swedish climate campaigner Greta Thunberg, age 20 and arguably the face of a generation that wants to roll back decades of reliance on oil and gas by means of alternative energy sources, had a message Thursday as she mingled with the corporate and political bigwigs meeting in Davos, Switzerland: Stop listening to the companies responsible for “fueling the destruction of the planet.”

Backing these interests only gives more power to those who are culpable in the climate crisis, by investing in fossil fuels and prioritizing short-term profits over people and broader economic growth, she said.

Thunberg spoke first, saying it is “absurd” that in Davos, so many are turning to the people who are mainly causing the climate crisis to fix it, rather than to those on the front lines who are suffering from the drought, heat and more frequent extreme weather that costs livelihoods as well as lives.

We seem to rely on these people to resolve our problems, Thunberg says, even though they have shown they are prioritizing short-term “greed.”

Letting the guy who purposely drove the bus into the ditch to make some money then claim they should be the one to drive the bus out of the ditch doesn’tseem like a good choice. Thunberg is right.

Bolstering Thunberg’s decision is a new study that shows that Exxon did their own climate research and came up with many fairly accurate predictions. In short they knew what they were doing when they were doing it, but persisted:

The big picture: Exxon scientists have been at the forefront of climate change research using computer models, the study published in the journal Science shows. According to the study, between 63% and 83% of the climate projections reported by Exxon scientists were accurate in predicting subsequent global warming.

• The Exxon scientists’ projections showed the world would warm at a rate of about 0.20°C per decade, which was in line with independent academic and government studies in the 1970s through the early 2000s.
• According to the study, Exxon’s research also led to an accurate estimate of how much carbon dioxide could be emitted before the world would warm by more than 2°C.
• This implied that some of the company’s oil and gas holdings could become stranded assets, but such risks were not communicated to the company’s investors or the public, the study notes.

Of note: The study assessed the skill scores of projections from Exxon’s in-house climate modeling were more accurate than what then-NASA scientist James Hansen famously provided to Congress in his 1988 testimony warning human-caused global warming had started.

They knew what they were doing when they were doing it! Much more at the link.

At a minimum no one should trust a company like Exxon to lead the charge against climate change. The real question should be what should their liability for putting 8 billion people’s lives in danger.

Thunberg is so right on this. Exxon is not to be trusted.