I believe that fossil producers and consumers are locked into a kind of codependency. Thus unlike most people who either primarily blame the producers as Berman does or the consumers as you do I see the need to focus on both supply and demand.
We should demonize the fossil fuel producers and we can still recognize that ultimately as you point out it is the incredible all but miraculous energy density of fossil fuels that makes their use so addictive and irresistible.
That’s why the clean energy transition will inevitably take decades and during these decades the world will increasingly suffer or unimaginable climate extremes.
Humanity was truly both incredibly blessed and cursed when fossil fuels were first discovered.
Can you agree and disagree simultaneously? It seems that I do. These entities are to blame, and we are to blame. We buy what they are selling, and they are using propaganda to sell more. "We have met the enemy and 'he' is us". The us in this case is everyone that uses fossil fuels, which includes the companies extracting them. The fossil footprint of extraction is a component of the problem. So are the militaries in a variety of countries, especially the US, used to protect our "right" to extract fossil fuels from other countries. Subdividing the blame is silly. It is a system, and most of us are trapped in that system and very few are making a legitimate effort to change that system. Governments, corporations, and consumers are all too blame. My main complaint about your approach is that it does not admit clearly there are players in this system actively working to prevent any systemic change and most of these are corporate who are buying their politicians.
I have been repeating like a mantra to anyone who will listen that the real people driving the planet over a cliff can be found staring back at us from our mirrors. As far as I can tell it is not doing much good even within my own circle never mind on a planetary scale. We are all remarkably adept at coming up with excuses for why we need another SUV or why we can’t possibly get by using public transit, or why we need 3000 or 5000 sqft of heated and cooled living space for two people or another vacation in Mexico or tropical fruit in Northern Europe in January or to leave the lights on all night or to water our lawn or … We are also remarkably good at convincing ourselves that reducing or eliminating our tiny (on a global scale) contribution to the problem will not change anything so we shouldn’t have to absorb the brunt of the cost of changing until and unless everyone else does too.
I have been trying for sometime now to run my life in such a way as to leave the parts of the planet I touch directly or indirectly in at least as good shape as I found them when I got here. I am growing more and more of my own food in a sustainable way and share my surplus, I try to source what I need from as close to home as possible, I travel less, I plant native trees and other plants on my property, I ask myself before I grab my keys to go anywhere whether I really need to go and, if yes, if driving is the best option, I try to avoid buying disposable/single use/new items and I do host of other small things to try to make a difference but if I am honest with myself I have to acknowledge that the debt to the planet and its future inhabitants that I have already accumulated (and am still piling on despite my efforts) will be difficult to pay off before I die. The conflict between our current desires (desires that we are also great at convincing ourselves are really needs or things the world somehow owes us) and the true needs of the future of others yet to be born is a battle that the future is losing badly. I fight the idea every time it pops in my head but, sad as it is, it becomes harder with each passing day to deny that human societies tend to act as truly blind and ignorant beasts living only for the immediate moment and oblivious/wilfully blind to the damage they are doing to their own future until they face a scenario so horrid and so immediate that it causes a critical mass of their individual members to finally break free of their hypnotic cultish hold on our will and change course, at least for a time until complacency sets in and the cycle begins to repeat. As a group we seem to be driven to repeatedly squander the gift of reason that provides us the opportunity to peer into the future and should surely allow us to do better than we have so far.
My life goal has become to help break that pattern and to try to change the trajectory of the curve representing my individual contribution to the problem to such a degree that it ultimately slopes downward at a rate that allows it to cross the starting line where I began borrowing from the future at my birth. I will need to live a long life to make it happen and the jury is still out on whether I can possibly succeed but I vow to all the life on the planet to keep trying to my last breath (or at least my last lucid moment).
Conclusion: It's proving that the emphasis has to be ON SOLUTIONS.
It dosn't help to blame anybody else.
It's the CO2 (the reaction product) released into the atmosphere.
Yes, we can: Reduce that. Significanytly. And we (almost all of us) can contribute - releasing less CO2, communicating real solutions, (BTW: insulating a home does improve the quality of life.)
Fantastic much-needed focus on the demand side. Only by building momentum of the following messaging will we avoid overwhelming future global warming catastrophes. Year after year it's not happening - not even by many climate activists as is evidenced by the comments to.this thread. Climate activists leading the message, rather than denigrating and violating it, are essential to humankind promptly minimizing its greenhouse gas emissions. Join us in spreading the message and walking the talk.
"Consumers (individuals, organizations, businesses, governments) must promptly minimize their greenhouse gas emissions to bridge the gap while we work on long-term green technology and infrastructure. Less heating and less cooling (none between 13C-30C/55F-85F, https://greenbetween.home.blog). Less driving. Less flying. Less meat-eating. Less population growth (2 children max). Do it yourself. Tenaciously encourage others to do it."
Embrace the message and tenaciously introduce the message "business card" to all you encounter. (You can print the business card 12 per 8.5x11 using a file from the Promote page of the website.)
Be a climate superhero - take it to the next level. Promote the message at local events. Files for posters are available on the Promote page of the website.
The companies are being made a scapegoat by the press because the Guardian can't possibly blaming its online readers and print subscriber base for this, can't they?
I couldn't disagree with you more. I really feel like you're going backwards on this one. Backwards into victim blaming. Fossil fuel companies spend billions and billions of dollars every year lobbying governments, advertising their wares, and tilting all the tables in their direction. I've long been frustrated by the whole "If everyone did this" approach. You are never going to get a supermajority of people to get on board with anything so that is not the path to follow. The fight against the fossil fuel mega corporations needs to intensify. Please don't be part of the crew that is watering it down!
Since I started my career in ESG and sustainability I have never read something so spot on, factual and elaborative. After the previous cop declarations were made I was like"did you say you're getting rid of fossils while in the middle east"
Following your logic, Lloyd, it appears that we made a big mistake when we came down hard a few years ago on the tobaco companies. We should have gone after the smokers!
"The transition is failing because of the incredible wealth generated by the burning of fossil fuels, not just for the producers but for everyone."
And you blame "we". Sorry Lloyd, but most people WANT modernity - I haven't heard of a "Great Hairshirt Society" made up of people who they themselves refuse a modern society (The Amish don't count for that as their reasons are religion-based). However, there is one made up of people who are constantly kvetching and using Government to force us all into Hairshirts. As you quoted "...have created a great deal of real affluence, raised the average quality of life for most of the world’s population."
What is that miniscule percentage of people that DESIRE to be poor and destitute compared to those that desire a better and more comfortable life for themselves and their families? And as you point out, and as VB has pointed out for years, only cheap energy (and I would add good govt that is responsive to citizens (as opposed to seeing itself in charge)) allows that to happen.
Look, everyone has a niche in life into which they have been thrust or have taken on - this is yours. But that chart ALSO showed a philosophical / rational "hole" that you've been avoiding for all these years while you've railed against the little things but avoided the BIG problems.
I AM glad that you published that chart showing "the emitters". Two of them - positions 1 & 4 - swamp all others with Russian entities adding to it for a total of 40% of the total. Not one Western nation is in that list. Western based companies were only 3.8%
So no matter how much the Developed (Western) World flagellates itself for it perceived "sins", it doesn't matter. And after years of pursuing such goals, all it is doing is showing that the your curves showing Energy=Wealth=Comfortable Lifestyles, the inverse is also true: Less Energy=Less Wealth=Poorer Citizens.
Germany, after trillions of Euros spent, has gone from Powerhouse to the Poor House. Other countries are now announcing that they are putting their transitions on hold as THEY AREN'T WORKING. Look at just the auto biz - all the majors, after meeting the Early Adopters and Initials demand, are cutting back EV production and headcounts (e.g. Ford and Tesla being two most noticeable). All of this because too many individuals, NGOs, people seeing "opportunity" to make chaos, and those in Govt desiring Control, didn't realize that FORCING something too quickly and too expensively to show their "virtue" in using other peoples' money and lives, DOESN'T WORK.
Back to China, India, and Russia - THE main problems in this. If your mission is to truly "fix this problem" (and polls show that few are willing to spend their own money to do so), tell me what the plan is to get China and India to stop putting up multiple coal-burning generating plants a week.
Otherwise, it's just spitting into a Category 2 hurricane (or even an F-1 tornado).
Thank you. I am trying but it is probably more accurate to say that I am stumbling, constantly having to regain my balance, toward a vision of a place and time where I might truly walk my talk. I preach from a place of immense privilege and as the beneficiary of much unearned good fortune for which I am deeply grateful but, despite the best intentions to share more widely those gifts, I am constantly tripped up on my journey by the same selfish and tribal drivers that afflict us all. Knowing what should be done and actually doing it are very different things. I will keep trying.
Mr. Alter, I greatly appreciate that you are putting the emphasis here on the demand side, which is where the actual transformation will take place. Short of a societal collapse, we are never going to stop fossil fuel supply. But what we can do is to shift demand for the energy services that fossils provide to non-emitting resources: renewables and nuclear power, EVs, heat pumps, etc.
As you rightly say, "we have to stop buying what they are selling." And the only way to do that is to build and deploy the non-emitting electricity sources, heat pumps, EVs and infrastructure to get around without a car (as well as scaling building practices to reduce energy demand in buildings, etc.)
This is something different than "who is to blame." There is plenty of blame to go around; but unlike many of your commenters I personally am not very interested in who is to blame. I am more interested in how we fix the problem - and you and I are on the same page there.
So how can we opt out of the big corporations that pipe gas and electricity into our homes - while I am happy to shop elsewhere how is this practical? How to create new alternative solutions ?
relevant here is the Oil Sustainability Programme by Saudi Aramco, a project to artificially increase fossil fuel demand in Africa in particular - oil producers worldwide are really doing everything they can to increase demand, and they should be fought every step of the way.
It does someone's feel like you're not really appreciating how much oil companies are doing to raise demand for their products.
I believe that fossil producers and consumers are locked into a kind of codependency. Thus unlike most people who either primarily blame the producers as Berman does or the consumers as you do I see the need to focus on both supply and demand.
We should demonize the fossil fuel producers and we can still recognize that ultimately as you point out it is the incredible all but miraculous energy density of fossil fuels that makes their use so addictive and irresistible.
That’s why the clean energy transition will inevitably take decades and during these decades the world will increasingly suffer or unimaginable climate extremes.
Humanity was truly both incredibly blessed and cursed when fossil fuels were first discovered.
Can you agree and disagree simultaneously? It seems that I do. These entities are to blame, and we are to blame. We buy what they are selling, and they are using propaganda to sell more. "We have met the enemy and 'he' is us". The us in this case is everyone that uses fossil fuels, which includes the companies extracting them. The fossil footprint of extraction is a component of the problem. So are the militaries in a variety of countries, especially the US, used to protect our "right" to extract fossil fuels from other countries. Subdividing the blame is silly. It is a system, and most of us are trapped in that system and very few are making a legitimate effort to change that system. Governments, corporations, and consumers are all too blame. My main complaint about your approach is that it does not admit clearly there are players in this system actively working to prevent any systemic change and most of these are corporate who are buying their politicians.
I have been repeating like a mantra to anyone who will listen that the real people driving the planet over a cliff can be found staring back at us from our mirrors. As far as I can tell it is not doing much good even within my own circle never mind on a planetary scale. We are all remarkably adept at coming up with excuses for why we need another SUV or why we can’t possibly get by using public transit, or why we need 3000 or 5000 sqft of heated and cooled living space for two people or another vacation in Mexico or tropical fruit in Northern Europe in January or to leave the lights on all night or to water our lawn or … We are also remarkably good at convincing ourselves that reducing or eliminating our tiny (on a global scale) contribution to the problem will not change anything so we shouldn’t have to absorb the brunt of the cost of changing until and unless everyone else does too.
I have been trying for sometime now to run my life in such a way as to leave the parts of the planet I touch directly or indirectly in at least as good shape as I found them when I got here. I am growing more and more of my own food in a sustainable way and share my surplus, I try to source what I need from as close to home as possible, I travel less, I plant native trees and other plants on my property, I ask myself before I grab my keys to go anywhere whether I really need to go and, if yes, if driving is the best option, I try to avoid buying disposable/single use/new items and I do host of other small things to try to make a difference but if I am honest with myself I have to acknowledge that the debt to the planet and its future inhabitants that I have already accumulated (and am still piling on despite my efforts) will be difficult to pay off before I die. The conflict between our current desires (desires that we are also great at convincing ourselves are really needs or things the world somehow owes us) and the true needs of the future of others yet to be born is a battle that the future is losing badly. I fight the idea every time it pops in my head but, sad as it is, it becomes harder with each passing day to deny that human societies tend to act as truly blind and ignorant beasts living only for the immediate moment and oblivious/wilfully blind to the damage they are doing to their own future until they face a scenario so horrid and so immediate that it causes a critical mass of their individual members to finally break free of their hypnotic cultish hold on our will and change course, at least for a time until complacency sets in and the cycle begins to repeat. As a group we seem to be driven to repeatedly squander the gift of reason that provides us the opportunity to peer into the future and should surely allow us to do better than we have so far.
My life goal has become to help break that pattern and to try to change the trajectory of the curve representing my individual contribution to the problem to such a degree that it ultimately slopes downward at a rate that allows it to cross the starting line where I began borrowing from the future at my birth. I will need to live a long life to make it happen and the jury is still out on whether I can possibly succeed but I vow to all the life on the planet to keep trying to my last breath (or at least my last lucid moment).
Conclusion: It's proving that the emphasis has to be ON SOLUTIONS.
It dosn't help to blame anybody else.
It's the CO2 (the reaction product) released into the atmosphere.
Yes, we can: Reduce that. Significanytly. And we (almost all of us) can contribute - releasing less CO2, communicating real solutions, (BTW: insulating a home does improve the quality of life.)
Fantastic much-needed focus on the demand side. Only by building momentum of the following messaging will we avoid overwhelming future global warming catastrophes. Year after year it's not happening - not even by many climate activists as is evidenced by the comments to.this thread. Climate activists leading the message, rather than denigrating and violating it, are essential to humankind promptly minimizing its greenhouse gas emissions. Join us in spreading the message and walking the talk.
"Consumers (individuals, organizations, businesses, governments) must promptly minimize their greenhouse gas emissions to bridge the gap while we work on long-term green technology and infrastructure. Less heating and less cooling (none between 13C-30C/55F-85F, https://greenbetween.home.blog). Less driving. Less flying. Less meat-eating. Less population growth (2 children max). Do it yourself. Tenaciously encourage others to do it."
Embrace the message and tenaciously introduce the message "business card" to all you encounter. (You can print the business card 12 per 8.5x11 using a file from the Promote page of the website.)
Be a climate superhero - take it to the next level. Promote the message at local events. Files for posters are available on the Promote page of the website.
The companies are being made a scapegoat by the press because the Guardian can't possibly blaming its online readers and print subscriber base for this, can't they?
Quite right. Who's worse, the pimp or the john?
I couldn't disagree with you more. I really feel like you're going backwards on this one. Backwards into victim blaming. Fossil fuel companies spend billions and billions of dollars every year lobbying governments, advertising their wares, and tilting all the tables in their direction. I've long been frustrated by the whole "If everyone did this" approach. You are never going to get a supermajority of people to get on board with anything so that is not the path to follow. The fight against the fossil fuel mega corporations needs to intensify. Please don't be part of the crew that is watering it down!
Since I started my career in ESG and sustainability I have never read something so spot on, factual and elaborative. After the previous cop declarations were made I was like"did you say you're getting rid of fossils while in the middle east"
No wonder floods are teaching us a lesson
Following your logic, Lloyd, it appears that we made a big mistake when we came down hard a few years ago on the tobaco companies. We should have gone after the smokers!
"The transition is failing because of the incredible wealth generated by the burning of fossil fuels, not just for the producers but for everyone."
And you blame "we". Sorry Lloyd, but most people WANT modernity - I haven't heard of a "Great Hairshirt Society" made up of people who they themselves refuse a modern society (The Amish don't count for that as their reasons are religion-based). However, there is one made up of people who are constantly kvetching and using Government to force us all into Hairshirts. As you quoted "...have created a great deal of real affluence, raised the average quality of life for most of the world’s population."
What is that miniscule percentage of people that DESIRE to be poor and destitute compared to those that desire a better and more comfortable life for themselves and their families? And as you point out, and as VB has pointed out for years, only cheap energy (and I would add good govt that is responsive to citizens (as opposed to seeing itself in charge)) allows that to happen.
Look, everyone has a niche in life into which they have been thrust or have taken on - this is yours. But that chart ALSO showed a philosophical / rational "hole" that you've been avoiding for all these years while you've railed against the little things but avoided the BIG problems.
I AM glad that you published that chart showing "the emitters". Two of them - positions 1 & 4 - swamp all others with Russian entities adding to it for a total of 40% of the total. Not one Western nation is in that list. Western based companies were only 3.8%
So no matter how much the Developed (Western) World flagellates itself for it perceived "sins", it doesn't matter. And after years of pursuing such goals, all it is doing is showing that the your curves showing Energy=Wealth=Comfortable Lifestyles, the inverse is also true: Less Energy=Less Wealth=Poorer Citizens.
Germany, after trillions of Euros spent, has gone from Powerhouse to the Poor House. Other countries are now announcing that they are putting their transitions on hold as THEY AREN'T WORKING. Look at just the auto biz - all the majors, after meeting the Early Adopters and Initials demand, are cutting back EV production and headcounts (e.g. Ford and Tesla being two most noticeable). All of this because too many individuals, NGOs, people seeing "opportunity" to make chaos, and those in Govt desiring Control, didn't realize that FORCING something too quickly and too expensively to show their "virtue" in using other peoples' money and lives, DOESN'T WORK.
Back to China, India, and Russia - THE main problems in this. If your mission is to truly "fix this problem" (and polls show that few are willing to spend their own money to do so), tell me what the plan is to get China and India to stop putting up multiple coal-burning generating plants a week.
Otherwise, it's just spitting into a Category 2 hurricane (or even an F-1 tornado).
Thank you. I am trying but it is probably more accurate to say that I am stumbling, constantly having to regain my balance, toward a vision of a place and time where I might truly walk my talk. I preach from a place of immense privilege and as the beneficiary of much unearned good fortune for which I am deeply grateful but, despite the best intentions to share more widely those gifts, I am constantly tripped up on my journey by the same selfish and tribal drivers that afflict us all. Knowing what should be done and actually doing it are very different things. I will keep trying.
Mr. Alter, I greatly appreciate that you are putting the emphasis here on the demand side, which is where the actual transformation will take place. Short of a societal collapse, we are never going to stop fossil fuel supply. But what we can do is to shift demand for the energy services that fossils provide to non-emitting resources: renewables and nuclear power, EVs, heat pumps, etc.
As you rightly say, "we have to stop buying what they are selling." And the only way to do that is to build and deploy the non-emitting electricity sources, heat pumps, EVs and infrastructure to get around without a car (as well as scaling building practices to reduce energy demand in buildings, etc.)
This is something different than "who is to blame." There is plenty of blame to go around; but unlike many of your commenters I personally am not very interested in who is to blame. I am more interested in how we fix the problem - and you and I are on the same page there.
So how can we opt out of the big corporations that pipe gas and electricity into our homes - while I am happy to shop elsewhere how is this practical? How to create new alternative solutions ?
It is impossible to even do a simple thing like buying food in America without coming home with plastics.
So, what are we peons on the demand side supposed to do? Grow all of our own food?
relevant here is the Oil Sustainability Programme by Saudi Aramco, a project to artificially increase fossil fuel demand in Africa in particular - oil producers worldwide are really doing everything they can to increase demand, and they should be fought every step of the way.
It does someone's feel like you're not really appreciating how much oil companies are doing to raise demand for their products.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/27/revealed-saudi-arabia-plan-poor-countries-oil