Exxon profits while the world warms.
While Exxon sees the billions rolling in faster and faster,
evidencethat global warming is gathering pace is rapidly piling up.
While mostoil companies are making huge profits, what Exxon does --
and doesn'tdo -- with those profits is what marks them out as the
world's numberone climate criminal.
It's pretty easy to see why Exxon isrich. Higher oil and gas
prices, a friendly US administration whichsubsidises big oil and
goes
easy on taxes and fees, and the kind of fiscal conservatism
that holds
back compensationfor environmental disasters like the Exxon
Valdez. That $US 32billion is the largest profit ever recorded by
an American corporation.
Butdespite the worldwide consensus to the contrary, Exxon
continues tofund the view that we just can't figure out what oil
has to do withglobal warming.
Last year, an industry lobby group called the Scientific
Alliance was
working the halls of government in Britain to soften Tony
Blair's position of global warming. They publisheda joint report
with the George C Marshall Institute in Washington thatthey claimed
"undermined" studies that attribute global warming tohuman
activity, and in particular the burning of fossil fuels like
coaland oil. The Marshall institute has received more than a half a
milliondollars from ExxonMobil since 1998 including US$95,000 for
its "globalclimate change programme."
And in September 2003
we uncovered a smoking-gun memothat revealed an Exxon-funded
lobby group had been asked byconservative elements in the Bush
Administration to sue their owncolleagues at the Environmental
Protection Agency. An EPA studyhad dared to suggest there might be
a link between oil and climatechange.
Now the director of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies
has openly said the Bush
administration is trying to censor the science of climate
change.
James Hansen, who broke the news that 2005 was the hottest year on record,is facing
an official review of all his written publications and
beingrequired to vet requests for interviews from reporters. His
crime wastelling the truth.
Thereis broad and overwhelming scientific consensus that climate
change isoccurring, is caused in large part by human activities
(such as burningfossil fuels), and if left unchecked will likely
have disastrousconsequences.
Eight of the 10 warmest years since 1860 have occurred within
the last decade.
Inaction could cost the Earth
Thereis solid scientific evidence that we should act now on
climate change.So says the scientific community that is not paid by
Exxon. Thatincludes declarations such as the Joint Statement last
year by thenational science academies of the US, UK, France,
Russia, Germany,Japan, Italy, Canada, Brazil, China and India.
"[Climate change is]the only thing that I
believe has the power to fundamentally end themarch of civilization
as we know it, and make a lot of the otherefforts that we're making
irrelevant and impossible." --Former USPresident Bill Clinton,
Davos, January 2006
Exxonmobil isstreets ahead as the world's number one climate
criminal. It has donemore than any other company to stop the world
from tackling climatechange. Exxonmobil admits that it has a
'vested interest' in stoppinggovernments from taking action on
climate change. For over a decade, ithas attempted to sabotage
international negotiations on the issue andblock agreements that
would reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
It'stime the company took some of that massive profit and
invested it inclean, safe, renewable energy. Write the new CEO of
ExxonMobil anddemand that the world's richest oil company stop
funding inaction, andstart working on solutions.
Have a word with the new Exxon boss
There's a brand new CEO over at ExxonMobil -- Rex Tillerson. Let him know your views on energy and the environment as a consumer and a global citizen now.
Support us
Exxon won't fund our work -- how about you? Greenpeace accepts no money from governments or corporations. This allows us to name and shame without fear or favour -- an increasingly rare ability in today's corporate-dominated world. We need people like you to keep us going. Please give whatever you can.