{"id":637,"date":"2012-01-24T13:20:00","date_gmt":"2012-01-24T01:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/new-zealand\/press-release\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T15:36:34","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T03:36:34","slug":"enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Enthusiasm for oil requires cognitive shut-down"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recently some commentators have revealed something about the way their brain functions in singing the praises of new fossil fuels.<\/p>\n\n

We shouldn\u2019t be surprised that oil companies are excited about oil, though the Sunday Star Times seems to think it warrants front page coverage<\/a>.  I wonder if “tennis players say tennis is great!\u201d would make similar headlines? <\/p>\n\n

Lately the head of the Government\u2019s \u201cgreen taskforce\u201d Phil O\u2019Reilly managed to write an article<\/a> all about how fab oil, gas, coal and Norway are and not mention even once a little problem called climate change.  Labour\u2019s Shane Jones seems to be singing from a similarly oily song-sheet as the National Government when he says his iwi cousins on the East Cape are na\u00efve for opposing deep sea oil drilling in their ancestral waters. Ngati Porou and Te Whanau a Apanui chiefs gave him what-for but my point is, are these cases of genuine cognitive dissonance?  Are the brains of these captains of industry and state fully functioning? Are these men (and women such as other Norwayophile Fran O’Sullivan<\/a>) living in a dangerous state of denial?<\/p>\n\n

If one accepts the scientific orthodoxy that human-induced climate change is happening<\/a>, that its consequences are universally negative, and that it is caused by the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere, and that fossil fuels are one of the major drivers, then how can one get excited about oil gas and coal?<\/p>\n\n

The trick perhaps is this. That part of the brain that knows climate change is real and bad for everyone and everything needs to shut-up for a minute while I think about the nice economic benefits that fossil fuels will bring to a few people for a short time before climate chaos reorders existence in a cruel and unpleasant manner.<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s not unlike getting excited about new developments in nuclear weapons technology by forgetting what nuclear weapons do to people.<\/p>\n\n

So next time you hear someone waxing lyrical about how wonderful fossil fuels are just remember half their brain isn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently some commentators have revealed something about the way their brain functions in singing the praises of new fossil fuels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"not set","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[26],"p4-page-type":[6],"class_list":["post-637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-greenpeace","tag-oil-and-gas","p4-page-type-story"],"yoast_head":"\nEnthusiasm for oil requires cognitive shut-down<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Enthusiasm for oil requires cognitive shut-down\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Recently some commentators have revealed something about the way their brain functions in singing the praises of new fossil fuels.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Greenpeace Aotearoa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/greenpeace.nz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-01-24T01:20:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-07-12T03:36:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Abel\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@GreenpeaceNZ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@GreenpeaceNZ\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Abel\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steve Abel\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/cf59518fab08f1f4b5027e75b37b66d1\"},\"headline\":\"Enthusiasm for oil requires cognitive shut-down\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-24T01:20:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-12T03:36:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/\"},\"wordCount\":355,\"commentCount\":0,\"keywords\":[\"Oil&Gas\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Greenpeace\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/\",\"name\":\"Enthusiasm for oil requires cognitive shut-down\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-01-24T01:20:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-07-12T03:36:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/cf59518fab08f1f4b5027e75b37b66d1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Enthusiasm for oil requires cognitive shut-down\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/\",\"name\":\"Greenpeace Aotearoa\",\"description\":\"Our mission is to ensure Earth\u2019s ability to nurture life in all its diversity.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/cf59518fab08f1f4b5027e75b37b66d1\",\"name\":\"Steve Abel\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc6fed7bab1b33d42a38f7ac5c140cb3f9e580f75927d2baecb26b7625991018?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc6fed7bab1b33d42a38f7ac5c140cb3f9e580f75927d2baecb26b7625991018?s=96&d=blank&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Steve Abel\"},\"description\":\"Steve Abel is a long-time environmental and climate activist who was part of the successful campaign to end native logging on crown land in the late 1990s; the GE Free environment campaign in the early 2000s; the Greenpeace campaign to stop Marsden B coalfired power station in 2005; and the alliance with Te Wh\u0101nau-\u0101-Apanui against Petrobras which led to a seven-year campaign that culminated in the end to offshore oil and gas exploration in Aotearoa in 2018. Abel is part of the urban tree protection group \u2013 Mana R\u0101kau \u2013 which emerged from the 240+ day occupation of the Canal Road native tree stand in Avondale that began in 2020. From 2021, as Senior Campaigner for Greenpeace Aotearoa, Steve led the project to provide free nitrate water testing for rural people on bore supplies impacted by dairy contamination. Having first volunteered for Greenpeace in 1997, Abel resigned from the organisation in early 2023 to stand for parliament.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/sabel\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Enthusiasm for oil requires cognitive shut-down","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Enthusiasm for oil requires cognitive shut-down","og_description":"Recently some commentators have revealed something about the way their brain functions in singing the praises of new fossil fuels.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/","og_site_name":"Greenpeace Aotearoa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/greenpeace.nz","article_published_time":"2012-01-24T01:20:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-07-12T03:36:34+00:00","author":"Steve Abel","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@GreenpeaceNZ","twitter_site":"@GreenpeaceNZ","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Steve Abel","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/"},"author":{"name":"Steve Abel","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/cf59518fab08f1f4b5027e75b37b66d1"},"headline":"Enthusiasm for oil requires cognitive shut-down","datePublished":"2012-01-24T01:20:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-12T03:36:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/"},"wordCount":355,"commentCount":0,"keywords":["Oil&Gas"],"articleSection":["Greenpeace"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/","name":"Enthusiasm for oil requires cognitive shut-down","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-01-24T01:20:00+00:00","dateModified":"2024-07-12T03:36:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/cf59518fab08f1f4b5027e75b37b66d1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/story\/enthusiasm-for-oil-requires-cognitive-shut-down\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Enthusiasm for oil requires cognitive shut-down"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/","name":"Greenpeace Aotearoa","description":"Our mission is to ensure Earth\u2019s ability to nurture life in all its diversity.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/cf59518fab08f1f4b5027e75b37b66d1","name":"Steve Abel","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc6fed7bab1b33d42a38f7ac5c140cb3f9e580f75927d2baecb26b7625991018?s=96&d=blank&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc6fed7bab1b33d42a38f7ac5c140cb3f9e580f75927d2baecb26b7625991018?s=96&d=blank&r=g","caption":"Steve Abel"},"description":"Steve Abel is a long-time environmental and climate activist who was part of the successful campaign to end native logging on crown land in the late 1990s; the GE Free environment campaign in the early 2000s; the Greenpeace campaign to stop Marsden B coalfired power station in 2005; and the alliance with Te Wh\u0101nau-\u0101-Apanui against Petrobras which led to a seven-year campaign that culminated in the end to offshore oil and gas exploration in Aotearoa in 2018. Abel is part of the urban tree protection group \u2013 Mana R\u0101kau \u2013 which emerged from the 240+ day occupation of the Canal Road native tree stand in Avondale that began in 2020. From 2021, as Senior Campaigner for Greenpeace Aotearoa, Steve led the project to provide free nitrate water testing for rural people on bore supplies impacted by dairy contamination. Having first volunteered for Greenpeace in 1997, Abel resigned from the organisation in early 2023 to stand for parliament.","url":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/author\/sabel\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49872,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions\/49872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/aotearoa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}