ExxonMobil and Chevron both increased their stake in fossil fuels this month as they plan to continue their destruction of the environment.
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As Reuters reports, two weeks ago ExxonMobil agreed to acquire Pioneer Natural Resources for nearly $60 billion. This week, Chevron, the second largest oil company in the world, agreed to pay $53 billion for Hess. The Exxon acquisition is the largest in the company’s history since it acquired Mobil Oil nearly 20 years ago. The driving force behind the Chevron deal is that it gives it access to a new fossil fuels reserves being developed in Guyana, a country in northeast South America between Venezuela and Brazil.
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… This week in Germany, the Munich Regional Court sentenced four climate scientists turned activists to fines totaling €1680 each. If they do not pay the fines, they will be required to serve 105 days of prison. The four were convicted of criminal damage and trespassing during their peaceful protest against Germany’s policy failure regarding the climate crisis last year in Munich.
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archive link: https://ghostarchive.org/archive/GyX1o
Humanity as a whole is massively short-sighted, so I doubt we’re ever going to get any of the sweeping policy changes we’d need in time without some massive external pressure.
Peaceful protests simply won’t succeed, because they’re nowhere near obnoxious enough to those in power compared to the money they’d lose out on by implementing these changes.
Wondering what is obnoxious enough to effectively budge them, without alienating climate activists. I mean, eliminating their bloodlines could get their attention, but would also probably be considered too violent.
The truth is that blowing up pipelines or even directly threatening the lives of the elite is perfectly morally justified. The problem is that the media, which is in large part controlled by the people in power, really really fights against this. I mean, look how demonized peaceful protests are! But the companies which are effectively selling our future barely get a slap on the wrist.
It’s so frustrating too, because history is inevitably going to be on the side of protestors. Just to take examples from older movements, does anyone really fault slaves in the past for killing their masters (or abolitionists protesting violently)? Or even consider that a negative? No, we consider slavery to be incredibly inhumane and probably would say the masters got what they deserved. But at the time? You would bet it was extremely demonized by the media at large.
But indeed, we do not live in history, we live in the now, where such actions absolutely would be demonized, even if they are morally sound.
But also, there’s nothing we can do that won’t be demonized… so, maybe we should just go nuts after all?
“These men are all talk. What we need is action – action!”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Brown_(abolitionist)