Big oil quietly walks back on climate pledges as global heat records tumble
It was probably the Earth’s hottest week in history earlier this month, following the warmest June on record, and top scientists agree that the planet will get even hotter unless we phase out fossil fuels.
Yet leading energy companies are intent on pushing the world in the opposite direction, expanding fossil fuel production and insisting that there is no alternative. It is evidence that they are motivated not by record warming, but by record profits, experts say.
“The fossil fuel industry has massively profited from selling a dangerous product and now innocent people and governments across the globe are paying the price for their recklessness,” Naomi Oreskes, a history of science professor at Harvard University who studies the oil industry, said.
What is happening across the planet is a death shroud of heat, a burning furnace that is but a glimmer of things to come.
You understand, it just gets worse from here on in.
60 000 died in Europe last year from heat, expect those numbers to start jumping dramatically from here on in.
Climate change was a theoretical issue that might impact us at the end of the century, the last 12months has shown how wrong we were.
Extreme catastrophic climate events will hit faster than our ability to rebuild, this will interrupt the agricultural cycle and cause enormous climate refugee issues.
National and ACT have promised to roll back any environmental policies that constrict Business making money and will keep their Farmer mates out from having to do anything.
Both Parties will trash public transport, both parties intend to remove healthy home requirements.
If they win, it will mean the Agricultural industry have managed to avoid any restrictions for quarter of a century.
Labour and the Greens have done bugger all but the pittance they have done will all be stamped out and a National and ACT Government.
We are living in denial, National and ACT are the Parties of climate denial, they are the Parties who have done all they can to pretend global warming caused by man made pollution isn’t happening and if they win in October, just as the planet plunges into a climate change doom spiral, they will be adding fuel to that fire rather than trying to stop it.
We deserve everything that is coming.
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Yes National and ACT will most likely increase not decrease our emissions.
However, outside of the utopian dream of developed nations fighting climate change to save the planet is the brutal reality that highly populated developing nations like India, China, Bangladesh ect dont give a shit about climate change or recycling.
They rightly want prosperity and an increase in their standard of living just as we in the west do.
Anything New Zealand does to fight climate change is as meaningless as shutting the door to keep the cold out while all the windows are open and your roof is gone.
Jack you are not just cynical defeatist, everything you wrote is wrong and even racist.
“….developing nations like India, China, Bangladesh ect dont give a shit about climate change or recycling.” JACK
When it comes to recycling our waste, something the developed world could easily afford, instead we have chosen to treat the developing nations as a toilet and our cheap dumping ground for our toxic waste.
Press release Resist
New Zealand exporting plastic waste to developing nations at an alarming rate
Following the release of new data on the quantity of New Zealand’s plastic waste exports to many developing nations, Greenpeace Aotearoa is renewing its call for a ban on plastic waste exports.
It has been revealed today that New Zealand has exported over 98,000 tonnes of plastic waste offshore between 1 Jan 2018 and 31 March 2021. More than 46,000 tonnes of this has been shipped to Malaysia and Thailand where a 2018 Greenpeace investigation revealed much was being illegally dumped and burned, with disastrous impacts on the environment and the health of local communities…..
https://www.greenpeace.org/aotearoa/press-release/new-zealand-exporting-plastic-waste-to-developing-nations-at-an-alarming-rate/
New Zealand has acted as a junior partner in the colonialist and imperialist domination and exploitation around the globe. New Zealand is in the ranks of the worst of the developed nations to take advantage and exploit this global inequality that we help perpetuate.
Did not take long for the “racist: blame game to rear its head. Jeez is anything not “racist”?
Ugly truth is that China and India consume, by burning, more tonnage of coal (4 Billion tons per annum by China alone) then the rest of the world combined. So why is it “racist” to call them out on coal consumption?
Oh well you have the “colonisation” argument to fall back on. What part of “colonisation” forces China and India to burn that massive amount of coal to generate electricity?
If New Zealand government was smart they would have every university, refrain from constant wokeness, and concentrate on how to convert plastic back to its primary constituent (fossil fuel oil) so that we get true recycling.
But no; lets not do that, let the universities be wokeness generators, not environmental science generators.
Of course it’s racist …. All those white supremacists buying stuff from India and China alllowing them to survive. Much better that we stop all trade and starve them to death, that’ll show em!
https://www.act.org.nz/environment
Acts climate change policy. Would be interested to hear your thoughts on their waste disposal suggestion.
You sum up the situation in real terms .The World needs to adapt because to genie is out of the bootle and change is not possible on any large scale . Covid gave us a look at what happens when the human engine stops running for just a short time. and despite all the claims of building back better nothing has changed as tourist flock back and many pages of our local paper are full of advert for trips to exotic places ..
“Climate/weather” is a worldwide event so I was going to commend National and ACT for being so powerful that their actions will impact the entire world.
Two ticks blue guys and change the world!!!!!
Jack – Agreed. This is the inconvenient truth.
So Jack, in other words you accept that our children’s future and very possibly your own future is going to be fucked…so business as usual is the way to go. Best to just keep passing the buck
Well done mate
I do agree that were fucked yes.
But the emissions being generated in populous developing and developed countries are and will affect us far more than the emissions we generate. We have no control as yet of this.
New Zealand global contribution of emissions 0.17% China 27% US 14% India 7%
New Zealand could sink into the ocean tomorrow and it would make no difference to global emissions. glueing yourself to the motorway or recycling your baked bean cans may very well make you feel good but that aint gunna save your arse.
We don’t deserve everything that is coming the game is rigged.
Would you please explain how this game is “rigged”?
Lancet study between 2000 and 2019.
13 deaths per 100,000 attributed to heat exposure!! That says it all, does it not.
Same study attribute 129 deaths per 100,000 attributed to exposure to cold!!
Our number one cause of increased emissions is immigration. Not only does it increase NZs overall emissions but incoming people are moving from Indian and Chinese per capita levels to much higher NZ levels.
Unfortunately it has been proven that NZ workers will not pick fruit and veg go on our fishing boats ,look after our elderly and sick or lack the desire to educate themselves to run our IT .
… for the wages & conditions on offer. That bit always gets left off that statement.
Utter rubbish. A mate, in his late 60’s, went harvesting down Nelson way then grape pruning in Marlborough and made wages above what he earns as a welder.
He felt like a change and wanted outdoor work and has done the circuits for a couple of years now. Admittedly he is single but if the single young men and women did this they’d have more money due to decent wages and subsidised living costs but hey, why not just stay on the counch and stick it to the man!
Years of systematic erosion of wages and conditions has seen kiwi workers driven from these industries only to be replaced by low skill cheap compliant migrants.
A win win for employers.
They get desperate indentured labour and the same employers get rid of pesky uppity kiwis.
And the massive drop in productivity has nothing to do with it either does it????
We provide free access to education yet currently almost 50% of those most in need of it are too lazy to even turn up.
And you wonder why we are a low wage economy. Try to find motivated educated staff out there drug free with a work ethic. Probably easier to win lotto without a ticket.
Thank you for your warm and sincere welcome.
So was what I said factually incorrect?
Russia couldn’t give two fucks about Climate change in fact they encourage it!! The melting of the arctic will give the russian easier access to the large deposit of oil and gas also it will open up a new shipping trade route that russia will control.
There are those who will benefit from global warming and those who will suffer as a result of climate change.
Years of systematic erosion of wages and conditions has seen kiwi workers driven from these industries only to be replaced by low skill cheap compliant migrants.
A win win for employers.
They get desperate indentured labour and the same employers get rid of pesky uppity kiwis.
As if our current virtue signalling is better. Batteries for every Tesla3 or similar EV come with about 8t CO2 emmission during manufacturing. But that happened overseas, almost all in China. We subsidise buyers of those EVs but refuse to allow micro EVs on our roads.
Another example is glossing over cruiseship tourism. We choose not to notice extreme and multimodal environmental damage it causes.
We are not able to electrify our main (only?) rail line while others (in developing countries,too) build ultrafast trains.
I tried to get the Cleancar thing to apply to some EV motorbikes I wanted to bring in but Govt say No!
The bikes are awesome and can do a proven 270km on a battery load and they take 2 minutes to recharge as they run hot swap batteries i.e they come with 2 so pull the empty out, push the other full one in, off you go again. So they have genuine proven EV credentials not the marketing ones most EV cars have.
When the average occupancy of cars in Auckland is 1.1 persons why aren’t we encouraging 2 wheels instead, every 2 wheeler leaves home at a minimum of 50% occupancy. They also don’t need a Huntley to charge them as the batteries are small.
The down side is they are EV’s and like all so far, they are very expensive.
Sounds like a smart idea to me. Buyers can make up their minds whether they will support your business.
Why would government not support this initiative? Maybe, ACC opposes this?
Yep and how about this Labour government allowing the Dept of Ed,.importing fossil fuel-based nylon carpets for 800 schools recently instead of using our own natural NZ carbon neutral wool. How is that for virtue signaling? This is the very same Dept that want climate change front and centre of the science syllabus!!!! They lecture us plebs and our kids and then turn around do precisely the opposite when their budget (our money) is involved.
You are so right.
“They” must believe that we can bullshit the climate into rewarding us for our virtuous behaviour.
ha ha ha funny
Weather patterns do change over time. Check out the last 100 years and take into account population growth.
The Ukraine War is probably helping depopulate Europe with one of the largest land masses and highest density population-wise. The US is trying to start up another proxy war with China to draw in Asia to do the very same thing.
I don’t like cold winters anymore so a bit more global warming for me thanks.
Also pretty sure the sun has a little more impact the National and ACT but they do seem to occupy space in the host’s head rent free.
Space invaders?
Here is the horrible but irrefutable truth: climate change won’t shoot you with an illegal gun while wearing an ankle bracelet.
Be careful who you vote for.
What happens when your beloved cops run out of brown people to shoot. Because people like you seem to want then to just gun down people willy nilly.
Wow!
The national party and its mutant wart the ACT party are a national enemy. They’re an enemy to the people at large and they’re the enemy of those whom they most exploit, our farmer primary industry.
In true psychopathic character they’ve encouraged those whom they most exploit to be thankful for that exploitation to sate their greed, which is, by the very definition of greed, insatiable.
The national party, enabled by their shameless covert fortunes held within secret securities and in offshore tax havens use that wealth to deceive the very people whom they steal it from. Their criminal cunning would be impressive if it were not so damaging and dangerous to not only our population at large but specifically our agrarian economy.
We have a situation whereby the enemy is so embedded within our very hearts and souls that it’s all but invisible and yet there it is to this day in the form of a small, bald shiny assassin propped up by a useless little fellow with a grin like a lizard would grin if the lizard had just discovered a carcass it could crawl within to devour what little’s left of what ever organ’s not already stolen.
If the National party and *roger douglas’s ACT party ‘get in’ we’ll lose dominion of our AO/NZ. [It’ll] become a republic, there will be a sudden influx of the equally well monied and entirely soulless and we’ll, to use a salty slang term, be fucked.
Here’s the latest from rnz. See? It’s already happening. What we must also remember is that there are past crimes to bury, that’s another reason to flog us off for a song. To bury their crimes against us. To hide their stolen wealth. To hide the hardship, suicides and loss.
rnz. The publica worshiping the unworthy riche.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/programmes/undercurrent
*rnz
Election 2023: ACT founder Roger Douglas not voting for ACT over welfare, wealth, tax concerns
https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/election-2023/494017/election-2023-act-founder-roger-douglas-not-voting-for-act-over-welfare-wealth-tax-concerns
I think we are screwed either way. Climate Change v austerity.
For once I agree with you Millsy although I wouldn’t necessarily conclude we are screwed. Neither option is good.
I don’t believe the world/policians/the people are up for austerity. And that would bring with it mass unemployment poverty and hungar
Well, maybe we are not screwed.
However, there is no doubt that we are being screwed.
It’s such a crisis now (so too late) even the Right will have to address it. Congrats to us for our relatively rational Right. V. ridiculous America and Murdochian Australia.
It’s such a crisis now (so too late) even the Right will have to address it. Congrats to us for our relatively rational Right. V. ridiculous America and Murdochian Australia.
We have a “relatively rational Right” in NZ? Really? Our parliamentary Right consists largely of globalist progressive neoliberals. Thanks to our “relatively rational Right” our universities are unicorps focused on quantity rather than quality of education, we’re signed up to UNDRIP, and education and health have been run down by decades of underfunding and misguided policies. Oh, and the last National government sold off 49% of our hydro assets and slashed DOC’s funding (“They’ll have to do partnerships” said Mr. Key).
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