'Brought to you by big oil': US billboards call out companies for record heatwaves

[orthoclad]

(cross-posted)


'Brought to you by big oil': US billboards call out companies for record heatwaves
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/29/billboards-oil-climate-crisis-phoenix-austin

(the article has a photo of one of the billboards, but the link didn't work here. It's worth a look.)

The non-profit media organization Fossil Free Media has unveiled a series of billboards calling out oil and gas companies for their role in fueling climate disasters. Installed in cities hit hard by recent heatwaves, the ads feature a map of temperature records broken across the country this summer, and read: “Brought to you by Big Oil.”
The campaign comes as millions of people across the country continue to face heat advisories, and as climate scientists warn July was Earth’s hottest since record keeping began in 1880. The searing heatwaves seen across the US and Europe this summer would have been “virtually impossible” were it not for the climate crisis, driven primarily by the burning of fossil fuels, a July analysis found.
“I think the most important thing that we can do right now is to try and connect the dots between the extreme weather that people are seeing and the fossil fuel industry that’s driving it,” said Jamie Henn of Fossil Free Media.
Heat is the deadliest form of extreme weather in the US and this summer, record-breaking temperatures could fuel unprecedented numbers of heat-related deaths nationwide, experts caution.

This dovetails well with another recent article in The Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/22/big-oil-companies-homicide-harvard-environmental-law-review

New climate paper calls for charging big US oil firms with homicide

Authors of paper accepted for publication in Harvard Environmental Law Review argue firms are ‘killing members of the public at an accelerating rate’
Oil companies have come under increasing legal scrutiny and face allegations of defrauding investors, racketeering, and a wave of other lawsuits. But a new paper argues there’s another way to hold big oil accountable for climate damage: trying companies for homicide.

The original Harvard Environmental Law Review paper can be found here:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4335779

Climate Homicide: Prosecuting Big Oil For Climate Deaths
Harvard Environmental Law Review, Vol. 48, No. 1, 2024

Heatwaves are the number one weather killer. So far.

[Effete Snob]

1. How can we get the oil companies to burn less oil?

[Blues Heron]

2. partially true. They may not burn it, but they are not passive actors in this either

[Effete Snob]

3. If only we could find the people who keep buying and burning it

....then we could organize a boycott.

[Blues Heron]

4. Its a lot like the Tobacco companies - they didnt smoke it but they were pushing it

and denying the deadly results. I take your point though, it is ultimately up to all of us to make change.

Wasnt it the oil companies that dismantled trolley systems in city after city in favor of oil guzzling city buses? Just one example.

[Effete Snob]

5. Fixing history is really tough

The future tends to be a bit easier to influence than the past.

But, yes, other people are responsible for solving the problems created by other people, none of whom are me.

[Blues Heron]

6. The oil companies are not blameless, they dont just reflect our demand

they are influencing our present and future. Thats why they funded so much climate FUD. Do you think they are going to go down without a fight?

[Caribbeans]

7. One way might be to...

STOP GIVING THEM MONEY???

Gee this doesn't seem very popular

IMF: Globally, fossil fuel subsidies were $7 trillion in 2022 or 7.1 percent of GDP

IMF Fossil Fuel Subsidies Data: 2023 Update

IMF | Simon Black; Antung A. Liu; Ian W.H. Parry; Nate Vernon | August 24, 2023

This paper provides a comprehensive global, regional, and country-level update of: (i) efficient fossil fuel prices to reflect supply and environmental costs; and (ii) subsidies implied by charging below efficient fuel prices. Globally, fossil fuel subsidies were $7 trillion in 2022 or 7.1 percent of GDP. Explicit subsidies (undercharging for supply costs) have more than doubled since 2020 but are still only 18 percent of the total subsidy, while nearly 60 percent is due to undercharging for global warming and local air pollution.

Differences between efficient prices and retail fuel prices are large and pervasive, for example, 80 percent of global coal consumption was priced at below half of its efficient level in 2022. Full fossil fuel price reform would reduce global carbon dioxide emissions to an estimated 43 percent below baseline levels in 2030 (in line with keeping global warming to 1.5-2oC), while raising revenues worth 3.6 percent of global GDP and preventing 1.6 million local air pollution deaths per year. Accompanying spreadsheets provide detailed results for 170 countries...more
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WP/Issues/2023/08/22/IMF-Fossil-Fuel-Subsidies-Data-2023-Update-537281?c

It's actually kind of surreal

Lots and lots of people wondering how to stop use of fossil fuels

While their government subsidizes billion dollar companies (with trillions of dollars) that are built on fossil fuels

Then there's this history

[Duppers]

8. K & R ...

[hunter]

9. Billboards are for drivers, not pedestrians.

A pedestrian can read a 2" X 2" sticky on a lamp post or a wall.

We need to rebuild our cities, turning them into attractive, affordable, pedestrian friendly places where car ownership is unnecessary.

It's too easy to blame the oil companies and keep driving on, business as usual.

Actually quitting oil will take some work.

We have all the tools and technology we need, we just have to quit living in denial and do it.