You've been trying very hard this week, haven't you? You've been taking care of the Earth. Not using electricity for twenty-four hours. Making a meatless meal for your family. Making posts on social media on how we need to do better as a society.
In the grand scheme of things, you do your part. You walk. Carpool. Bike. You recycle. You don't litter. You consume less. You turn off your lights before you leave the house. You give back to the earth. You do your part.
Bad news. Your part isn't enough.
What? Of course it's enough. I am doing more than enough. I'm doing more than most people. I don't need to do more, that's ridiculous.
Your current mentality around climate change is hurting the world more than helping it. You need to change it. You're sitting, reading this, angry or uncomfortable. You love the earth. You try to help it. This site has no right to tell you that you don't.
You can always exit out. The door is there. You don't have to learn about these things. You can go on thinking that you're doing enough by virtue of throwing the coffee that you got from the Shell gas station this morning into the recycling instead of the trash.
Go ahead.
Thought so.
More Damage
Oil companies have, believe it or not, caught onto advocation for climate change. They have environmental scientists who are often payed to spin data in a way that makes them look good. The way that we think about climate change, at the moment, as something that is equally attributable to everyone, leads them to one important thing.
Customers will not buy from them if they are visibly hurting the environment. And, from that, they get to: if they are helping the environment instead, they will have more customers. More investors, more support. They do not care about actually changing - they just care about looking good to us. A lack of information about the companies we support has led to even more damage being done to the environment.
Take the 2010 BP spill, in the Gulf of Mexico. BP used dispersants to dilute the oil which spilled. This caused it to sink below the surface, causing even more destruction to the environment below. To most people, though, that was it. The oil was gone off of the top of the water; it was gone for good. They went back to supporting BP - or at least buying from them.
Did you forget about that spill? Did you know about the dispersants? Did you know about all those fish and crabs and coral, all the ocean's tiny, living things, choking in the dark, on the dark? Did you think of them when the oil was 'gone'? Or were you just happy for the seagulls being washed with Dawn soap?
It Lets Companies Get Away With More
You're just as much at fault for climate change as your neighbor Michael. You know this, and he does too. Michael tells you, with a smile, that he's arranged to carpool to work. You tell him that's great. On Monday, you ride your bike to work. He gets into his carpool, and goes to his job at Chevron oil company.
We don't hold companies accountable enough for their damages. You don't hold them accountable enough. In fact, I bet that 'fossil fuels' is just an abstract idea in your mind. You know they're bad, that they contribute to that thing called a Greenhouse Effect, that they're oil and coal and from the dinosaurs. But that's all you know. There's a reason for that. There is a reason that oil and coal companies keep to themselves, that they don't pull any publicity stunts, that they don't have Twitters, Facebooks, Instagrams. They don't want you to think about them. They don't want a direct association. You would never, ever, support them if you consciously connected those dots.
So, they slip under the radar. You look down on your neighbor because she forgets to turn off the lights when she leaves for work. You complain about the litter in the park. And, far away from your notice, oil runs through pipelines, through sharp pieces of steel that the earth has grown around like bullets.
Nothing You Do Seems To Matters.
You feel small.
It feels hopeless.
You do your part because it's the right thing, but nothing changes. If anything, it just gets worse and worse. The summers get hotter. The winters get colder, and last longer. There are more tornadoes than before. There's a contient on fire. So much happens that it's hard to keep up with. You're overwhelmed by how little effect you have on the world. You're saddened by what's happening. There's always a new disaster, waiting around the corner. Shouldn't this be over by now? Isn't everyone doing their part?
It feels worthless, too.
What's the point, if nothing changes? Enough people are doing their part, but not enough people to change anything. Does it really matter if you spend all that extra time and energy walking down the street to the convenience store? Realistically, who's going to notice or care that you drive there every day? Does it impact anything other than your wallet and your gas tank?
In the parking lot, a woman gets into her car and drives back to her home. It's five minutes away. She just didn't have the time to walk today. Or any day after this, really, that she needs to go. It doesn't matter. Other people do enough, and nothing changes anyway.
Everyone cheats. There is so little at the bottom of the bucket. There are not enough drops. The earth is thirsty. The earth is so, so thirsty.
You fill up your gas tank for the third time this month. When you had less money, you'd save drives for walks that you really couldn't do. You close the flap on your car. You go inside the Shell station to pay for it. As you get back into your car, it begins to snow.
It's almost May.
Michael carpools home.
So, fine. You see my point. The companies are hurting the environment more than the average person - the average hundred people will in their entire lives. What companies? Why haven't they stopped? Why haven't they implemented better practices?
Since 1965, 35% of all energy related carbon emissions are traceable to twenty companies. Since 1965, those twenty companies have released 480 billion tonnes of carbon into the air.
Four of those companies account for 10% of those emissions. We know their names and their faces, and yet, we allow them to continue as they do. We tout that we haven't instated renewable energy because of how expensive it is, but these companies make hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue.
They're in it for the money, my friend. We could fix this. Corporate greed has shattered a lot of our chances. And if you really love the earth as much as you say you do, this should make you angry. Or sad. It makes me both. It makes me very tired. Whatever's in your gut, though, hold on to it. Let me make it stronger. You'll understand why in a moment.
MICHAEL WIRTH
accountable for
43.35
BILLION
TONNES
of carbon emissions
since 1965
2.8% - 🌎
$158.9 BILLION IN REVENUE
DARREN WOODS
accountable for
41.90
BILLION
TONNES
of carbon emissions
since 1965
2.7% - 🌎
$290.2 BILLION IN REVENUE
MICHAEL WIRTH
accountable for
34.02
BILLION
TONNES
of carbon emissions
since 1965
2.2% - 🌎
$303.73 BILLION IN REVENUE
BEN VAN BEURDEN
accountable for
31.95
BILLION
TONNES
of carbon emissions
since 1965
2.1% - 🌎
$396.5 BILLION IN REVENUE
Four faces. A lot of big numbers. Incomprehensibly big numbers. It wasn't worth it. These companies haven't done much for the world. They've covered the seas with a darkness that knows no stars. They've blotted out the sun with a smog that knows no warmth. They've made us all feel very terrible for not doing enough.
There's all that money, and yet, renewable energy is 'too expensive'. Fueling the Earth is an auction and renewable energy is always, always outbid. For how long are we going to gamble? How long until the damages are no longer worth the money? With even half of those four companies total revenue, we could radically change the world.
If we changed to renewable energy, there could be so many more jobs. There could be so much healing for the earth. At some point in the future, winters could end in March instead of snowflakes falling in July.
You still have that feeling, right? It should make you want to change things. To see things change in front of you, to feel like it matters. Okay. Let's change things.
✉️ Write to your government officials, lobbying for more carbon taxes and more direct investigation on the impacts of these companies.
🔎 Inform yourself and others. Develop an understanding of how the actions of people around you impact our climate and the world. Information is power, and with it, you can make smart decisions and better rally.
🗳️ Vote with your dollar. Research the impacts that the companies you support have on the environment. Seek companies that are more environmentally friendly, and encourage others to do the same - explaining why. Don't stop at just yourself, ever.
✊ Hold companies and corporations accountable, publically. Organize your own boycotts, explain why they're bad on social media. Spread movements. Start climate rallies. Work hard to make people listen to the information you have gathered.
💸 Support organizations and movements who are seeking to make big changes. Donate to causes which seek to develop sustainable energy in your city.
Think on a bigger scale than just yourself. Those companies and those CEOs want us to blame ourselves for their sins. By selling the idea that we all have had an equal part in the destruction of our planet, they absolve themselves from blame.
Don't stop doing what you're doing now - keep recycling and carpooling. Just move to bigger things. Seek to initiate real change. Don't just accept that things are equally your fault. Make it about caring for the Earth; not personally atonement.