‘We are not in the business of ice cream’: Big Oil CEOs defend themselves against climate criticism

Chief executives of some of the world’s largest energy companies on Monday sought to defend themselves from criticism, saying it is not possible to keep everyone happy amid the planned energy transition.

Speaking at the ADIPEC oil and gas conference, which opened in Abu Dhabi on Monday, executives representing energy majors in the U.S., Europe and Asia sought to strike a positive tone on the current state of play for the fossil fuel industry.

It comes shortly after climate protesters took to the streets in hundreds of cities across the globe to demand that world leaders phase out the burning of fossil fuels, the chief driver of the climate crisis.

_haha_oh_wow_,
@_haha_oh_wow_@sh.itjust.works avatar

How about the business of having a fucking habitable planet?

Burn_The_Right,

We’ve burned enough fossil fuels. It’s time to burn the fossil fuel industry leadership now. And the politicians they’ve purchased.

TheGoldenGod,
@TheGoldenGod@lemmy.world avatar

https://i.imgur.com/Cbk7usp.jpg

Elderos,

https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/404e3cc6-8e22-4dd1-a12e-7ea577b8adea.webp

TheGoldenGod,
@TheGoldenGod@lemmy.world avatar

Ughhhh… I’ve actually heard a few of these comments said aloud. 🥴

bobman,

I’m not too concerned.

I’ll just move where it’s cold when it starts to get warm.

ZapBeebz_,

I mean, they’re right that it is not possible to keep everyone happy while transitioning to renewable/green energy. If everything goes right, they will be very unhappy

Moobythegoldensock,

“So, the debate has always been posed here, I’m reminded of an old saying: ‘If you want to keep everyone happy, sell ice cream.’ We are not in the business of ice cream — and I’m reminded, there are people who are lactose intolerant,”

… what? The longer you stretch an analogy, the higher the chance it’s going to sound stupid and weird.

Jokes aside, it’s really not the responsibility of the oil barons to sunset their own injury. The responsibility is on the lawmakers who sold us all out to lobbyists for campaign money. We could have regulated this industry 30 years ago and had it all but obsoleted by now, but instead we did fuck all.

captainlezbian,

At the same time as human beings they did have a responsibility to look at the devastation of their industry and not hide that or buy off regulators. Additionally you can argue they had a responsibility to begin the transition to less destructive energy in earnest. And they sure as shit had a responsibility to not buy out school curricula to indoctrinate children away from green energy like seriously what the fuck

anderfrank, (edited )

Agreed, oil companies knew climate change was real forever ago and bought off politicians to keep them from doing anything about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOi05zDO4yw

BTW Climate Town is an amazing YouTube channel for climate-related content, hilarious and educational.

bobman,

Stop voting for politicians that can be bought?

I know they’re out there, we just need to give them support.

Kichae,

The system required personally ambitious people to the right thing for everyone instead of the thing that would get them further ahead as an individual. In the face of the wealth and power of the oil industry, corruption was almost inevitable, sadly.

Lemmylaugh,

“After three or four years, I understood that maybe I was naïve, we will not please the activists. We will never make enough to please the ones which are against oil and gas, but my mission is not to please them,” Pouyanne said.

Yikes there’s another problem. Maybe someone over there should make it the mission to listen to the scientists.

captainlezbian,

I’m not saying that Kaczynski was right, but maybe people like this need to fear bombs from the citizens of the planet they’re murdering.

And they’re right they can’t cut emissions enough to please us until they hit zero. That’s the amount we need to get to

GBU_28,

Cynically, why?

There’s a global demand for oil and gas.

Why shouldn’t they want to meet that demand?

Like, he and others like him across the world don’t want to save the planet, they want to make money.

It is the role of government, and tangentially, tech innovators to decide that oil and gas shouldn’t be used. Then government and innovation build the tools, products and frameworks to make that a reality.

I’m not defending oil and gas, I’m simply pointing out that it isn’t illegal to meet a global demand, someone other than him is supposed to replace that demand.

afraid_of_zombies,

Both can be true. You can hate the player and hate the game.

GBU_28,

Fine, hate everyone, but why should this guy listen to scientists? He’s making money hand over fist and seemingly has no reservations about it.

afraid_of_zombies,

Don’t mind if I do.

Nudding,

That’s why selling out the planet for profit should be made illegal.

GBU_28,

Not by him. By a government. I said this above. Didn’t you read it?

Sodis,

He got 4 kids in their 30s. Leaving them a world worth living in could be something worthwhile to pursue.

GBU_28,

He’s made it clear he doesn’t care, making oil is his motivation.

Besides that’s not the point. I commented on the motivation of an oil and gas exec “listening” to scientists

GBU_28,

Some people have sensitive teeth!

bobman,

The responsibility is on the lawmakers who sold us all out to lobbyists for campaign money.

Slight correction.

The responsibility is on the consistency to vote for lawmakers that don’t succumb to bribery.

Blaming politicians for the world’s problems instead of voters is like blaming companies for climate change but not customers.

dan1101,

We pretty much know their position by now, they will live in wealth and luxury while the world burns.

Chainweasel,

I wonder how long it’ll take them to realize that they have to live on the planet they’re destroying too. Hurricanes, droughts, forest fires, etc don’t give a shit about property value and destroy everything in their path. Sure, the boomers will check out before things get unbearable but there’s a lot of very rich people in their 40s and 50s that will live long enough to suffer with the rest of us.

dan1101,

I assume they think they will be fine during their lifetime, and don’t care about their kids/grandkids/great grandkids.

snooggums,
snooggums avatar

It will take them a lot longer, since they are completely disconnected from the average person's experience. Even those currently in their 40s aren't going to suffer during their lifetime.

Chainweasel,

The thing is tough, their lifestyle depends on the average person’s experience. The rich people aren’t the ones laboring to make fast cars, high definition TVs, building houses, refining fuel, working at power plants, farming, ranching, and all the other things that their lifestyle depends on.
They just sit on top and collect the cash. When life gets bad for the people on the bottom those on top will have nothing, because despite what they try to say they’ve never really worked a day in their life and they sure as hell aren’t going to roll up their sleeves and do the dirty work themselves. It’s a pyramid of playing cards and when the bottom falls out the whole thing will collapse.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

Maybe you should be. Ice cream fucks up the planet a whole lot less than oil.

Nachorella,

Animal agriculture is actually pretty high up there.

SquishyPandaDev,
@SquishyPandaDev@yiffit.net avatar

Ya, sadly if your ice cream has milk in it, then it’s a big contributor to climate change. Methane is a potent green house gas.

blindbunny,

theguardian.com/…/meat-greenhouses-gases-food-pro… 60%

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