It’s so difficult to stay anchored to science and reality when the lies about fossil fuels flood our screens. Emily Atkin, thank you for reminding us we’re not crazy!
You accomplish veracity among the mire of blurb that surrounds media today; a beacon in the fog of lies & graft that fuels the abomination of our world. I seek your words to keep my footing…
Truly A+ propaganda. The fossil fuel industry is definitely getting its money's worth with all these ad buys and astroturfing campaigns. Would it be too much to ask the renewable energy industry to invest in this kind of narrative building? Or are we just going to keep publishing scientific papers?
The inevitability argument of fossil fuels is strangely (or not) reminiscent of the inevitability of AI and the justification for a million data centers, which of course demand an “all of the above” energy strategy. It’s hard not to notice the simultaneous explosion of data centers and the resurgence of fossil fuels in the public narrative.
Brilliant, thanks, Emily. I was stunned at that API ad tacked on to Solnit’s marvelous interview. It’s like a troll at NYT put it there on purpose. And API used an AI voiceover; they couldn’t even be bothered to pay a voice artist.
This seems like a pivot more so than "evolution," but semantics aside, Big Oil's assertions are demonstrably false. It seems like more so than making a strong argument, they are relying on flooding the zone and the absence of more conscious consumption.
Also, I love the analogy of the supposed "science" of the gender binary. Their reasoning is a house of cards depending on a public willing to accept their dogma as fact.
These folks piss me off more and more every day. I'm not a purist; I'm not much into stopping supply of O&G, just replacing their uses quickly with decarbonization, and I can see that "quickly" is not "immediately." I'll even allow for "bridge fuel" as long as it quickly becomes a minor "backup fuel." But just when some seemingly reasonable and negotiated and even bipartisan policy or program starts to work, bang, the FF biz recruits all the forces of reaction to say... "Whoa that change is bad, along with those 100 other Demoncrat changes, things were better in the ol' days." (When, yeah, they were more "in charge.")
Mostly I deal with the narrative that wind and solar are vile in 100 ways and destroying and poisoning the wonderful rural agricultural way of life. Young enviros & progressives seem to know all of these by heart and find themselves in a state of cognitive dissonance (exaggerated IMHO) about much of "energy transition." And the EVs and HPs can't really do the things you want them to, are too expensive, and of course use all manner of awful extraction, importation, etc. etc. And bad jobs and ... even conservation and efficiency get the hatchet job.
So then, yeah, indispensable and I guess "inevitable."
Fossil fuels are a finite resource. But the huge corporations don't want anyone to think about that as it cuts into their profits. And that is what it's all about. Profits in the short term and little concern for the future beyond the wealthy elites lifetimes.
They don't care that there might not be a livable ecosystem available by the end of this century as they will all be dead and buried by then and beyond caring.
As I was talking about with someone else this morning, few are going to pay attention unless there is a large enough mass die off event that they can't ignore, like the Covid pandemic of 2020, only worse, much, much worse.
I will do what I can to help raise awareness but so much is going on deaf ears as a larger segment of the people narrow their life focus on putting gas in their cars to get to work everyday so they can have roof to live under and food on the table. Little else matters to them anymore. Life for the 90% of the people on this planet comes down to what they to make it until tomorrow. They don't care about pollution, until they get sick. They don't care about renewable energy as long as the electricity keeps coming. They don't care where their food comes from as long as it's there when they get hungry. Nothing else matters anymore and it's going to get worse very soon as long as Trump and Israel keep starting wars they can't win.
Maybe a global collapse is needed to reset the thinking of people away from daily survival but those resets usually come at great human cost.
It has been fascinating to watch this fossil fuel industry messaging shift play out on social media, even on localized forums, such as Nextdoor and Facebook groups. This is why keep my accounts active, so I can watch the trickle down influence in action, and branch off and create a counter narrative (inoculation) when possible.
It’s so difficult to stay anchored to science and reality when the lies about fossil fuels flood our screens. Emily Atkin, thank you for reminding us we’re not crazy!
You accomplish veracity among the mire of blurb that surrounds media today; a beacon in the fog of lies & graft that fuels the abomination of our world. I seek your words to keep my footing…
"Now, they are focused on convincing us that the world is only safe and stable if they are in charge."
Jeez - how on earth did they come up with such a bizarre assertion? I mean, come on - who in their right mind would fall for such obvious BS?
Truly A+ propaganda. The fossil fuel industry is definitely getting its money's worth with all these ad buys and astroturfing campaigns. Would it be too much to ask the renewable energy industry to invest in this kind of narrative building? Or are we just going to keep publishing scientific papers?
The inevitability argument of fossil fuels is strangely (or not) reminiscent of the inevitability of AI and the justification for a million data centers, which of course demand an “all of the above” energy strategy. It’s hard not to notice the simultaneous explosion of data centers and the resurgence of fossil fuels in the public narrative.
Thanks Emily, loved the last section, “Reminder: Oil is not inevitable”. Belief and control of it, is the sole purpose of propaganda.
Brilliant, thanks, Emily. I was stunned at that API ad tacked on to Solnit’s marvelous interview. It’s like a troll at NYT put it there on purpose. And API used an AI voiceover; they couldn’t even be bothered to pay a voice artist.
This seems like a pivot more so than "evolution," but semantics aside, Big Oil's assertions are demonstrably false. It seems like more so than making a strong argument, they are relying on flooding the zone and the absence of more conscious consumption.
Also, I love the analogy of the supposed "science" of the gender binary. Their reasoning is a house of cards depending on a public willing to accept their dogma as fact.
These folks piss me off more and more every day. I'm not a purist; I'm not much into stopping supply of O&G, just replacing their uses quickly with decarbonization, and I can see that "quickly" is not "immediately." I'll even allow for "bridge fuel" as long as it quickly becomes a minor "backup fuel." But just when some seemingly reasonable and negotiated and even bipartisan policy or program starts to work, bang, the FF biz recruits all the forces of reaction to say... "Whoa that change is bad, along with those 100 other Demoncrat changes, things were better in the ol' days." (When, yeah, they were more "in charge.")
Mostly I deal with the narrative that wind and solar are vile in 100 ways and destroying and poisoning the wonderful rural agricultural way of life. Young enviros & progressives seem to know all of these by heart and find themselves in a state of cognitive dissonance (exaggerated IMHO) about much of "energy transition." And the EVs and HPs can't really do the things you want them to, are too expensive, and of course use all manner of awful extraction, importation, etc. etc. And bad jobs and ... even conservation and efficiency get the hatchet job.
So then, yeah, indispensable and I guess "inevitable."
Fossil fuels are a finite resource. But the huge corporations don't want anyone to think about that as it cuts into their profits. And that is what it's all about. Profits in the short term and little concern for the future beyond the wealthy elites lifetimes.
They don't care that there might not be a livable ecosystem available by the end of this century as they will all be dead and buried by then and beyond caring.
As I was talking about with someone else this morning, few are going to pay attention unless there is a large enough mass die off event that they can't ignore, like the Covid pandemic of 2020, only worse, much, much worse.
I will do what I can to help raise awareness but so much is going on deaf ears as a larger segment of the people narrow their life focus on putting gas in their cars to get to work everyday so they can have roof to live under and food on the table. Little else matters to them anymore. Life for the 90% of the people on this planet comes down to what they to make it until tomorrow. They don't care about pollution, until they get sick. They don't care about renewable energy as long as the electricity keeps coming. They don't care where their food comes from as long as it's there when they get hungry. Nothing else matters anymore and it's going to get worse very soon as long as Trump and Israel keep starting wars they can't win.
Maybe a global collapse is needed to reset the thinking of people away from daily survival but those resets usually come at great human cost.
It has been fascinating to watch this fossil fuel industry messaging shift play out on social media, even on localized forums, such as Nextdoor and Facebook groups. This is why keep my accounts active, so I can watch the trickle down influence in action, and branch off and create a counter narrative (inoculation) when possible.