Climate Action
Dear Big Oil: It’s You, Not Me
July 23, 2024
Guilt towards our treatment of the environment can come up more often than we’d like in the summer, whether it’s keeping air conditioners on high all day or filling up the gas tank for a long distance road trip. However, we cannot blame ourselves as individual consumers for the climate crisis.
We must resist the guilt that corporations have been pushing on consumers for decades as it is abundantly clear that it is the oil and gas behemoths that are culpable for the climate crisis.
The Climate Crisis Is Not Your Fault
Only 57 oil and gas companies are responsible for a staggering 80% of all carbon emissions since 2016. The stark difference between the carbon emissions of fossil fuel companies and individuals was further illustrated by emissions data from 2020, the peak of Covid lockdown. Scientists predicted that carbon emissions would go down significantly since most people worked from home and avoided unnecessary travel. In reality, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported only a 10% decrease in carbon emissions among “advanced countries.”
Why was the figure so low? Because changes in individual behaviors are futile when Big Oil is allowed to develop new pipelines, drill for new oil wells, and distribute oil around the world, all while donating millions of dollars to politicians who are willing to gut environmental protections for the sake of keeping the oil industry profitable.
Oil and gas companies — the big names include ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, and BP — could be spearheading renewable energy projects, such as solar and wind. Instead, in 2022, they only invested 1% capital expenditure, funds allocated to investments that benefit the business long-term but are not immediately deducted from the business’s taxes, toward unspecified “low-carbon” projects. This 1% only accounts for $5.9 million of their approximately $59 billion in capital expenditures in the United States for the 2022 Fiscal Year.
As long as the fossil fuel industry maintains its overwhelming investment in oil and gas, changes among individuals’ behavior just won’t cut it — emissions will not lower to a level suitable for avoiding climate disaster. So it doesn’t matter how many less journeys we make in our cars, or energy saving practices we utilize in our homes or initiatives we support in our communities. Only Big Oil can truly lower carbon emissions.
How Big Oil Manipulates Consumers
But over the years, Big Oil has found several clever ways to keep convincing consumers that, despite fossil fuel development contributing to the majority of carbon emissions, changing our behavior is critical to stopping climate change.
In 2004, British Petroleum (BP), one of the world’s largest polluters, invented the concept of the carbon footprint. Instead of using this measuring tool to take accountability for their substantial share of global emissions, they advertised the carbon footprint in a way that asked individuals to reflect on their own emissions and think about how they can decrease their carbon footprint. As indicated by the aforementioned IEA report on 2020’s carbon emissions, individual efforts to minimize carbon emissions are simply ineffective when fossil fuel companies exist.
Even if the world shifted away from fossil fuels as an energy source, Big Oil would still have plastics, which are made from petrochemicals. The oil industry defends rising plastic production by making the argument that plastic goods can be recycled, which, in theory, should minimize the need for continued virgin plastic production.
However, less than 10% of all plastics have been recycled, many plastics can’t be recycled, and there’s no major demand for recycled plastics from other industries. Plus, recycled plastics don’t mitigate the health risks associated with microplastics and plastic related additive chemicals — in fact, they exacerbate them.
In response to all of this, Big Oil promotes the argument that consumers are not recycling enough or correctly.
The Law Has Other Ideas
In the eyes of the U.S. judicial system, Big Oil is guilty of misleading consumers for the sake of protecting their own profits. Last year, a Montana District Court ruled that lawmakers owed damages to 16 plaintiffs — all children — for prioritizing fossil fuels over the wellbeing of Montana residents.
This case established the precedent that governments are responsible for protecting citizens from climate change, demonstrating how the primary fault for the climate crisis belongs to Big Oil.
A California law enacted earlier this year also determined that the attorney general could sue companies who obtained their profits through false advertising. Citing this law, the California attorney general filed a suit against Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, and the American Petroleum Institute (API), referring to the fact that these companies were not forthcoming with the public or shareholders about the severe environmental damages that accompany continued fossil fuel development. The case is still ongoing, but the API has already condemned the case, stating that the state’s claims are false.
It cannot be clearer: it is the actions of large corporations that are killing the planet.
Out of Touch Big Oil
Big Oil has a seemingly endless supply of money, making it easy for them to pay media strategy groups and lobbyists to find ever new and clever ways to keep blaming the public for climate change.
With this tremendous wealth also comes substantial political power, as seen most recently when a former president promised Big Oil that he would eliminate climate rules if he was voted back into office if they donated $1 billion to his campaign.
When are people going to be willing to pay for carbon reduction?
Darren Woods, ExxonMobil CEO
While all evidence points to Big Oil being the biggest promoter of the climate crisis, they do not want to be held accountable for it, as evidenced by Darren Woods, ExxonMobil CEO’s out of touch idea that consumers need to be willing to pay for lowering carbon emissions. Given that ExxonMobil made $36 billion in profit last year, it is reasonable to ask Mr. Woods the same question: When is ExxonMobil going to be willing to pay for carbon reduction?
