Dear Rex Tillerson, CEO, Exxon/Mobil:
I'm the one who asked you about global warming at the Council on Foreign Relations last week. Your answer was light years ahead of Mitt Romney and half our Congress in admitting that "increasing CO2 emissions in the atmosphere is going to have... a warming impact." At least you accept the basic physics that CO2 traps heat. That's progress. (Watch video and a transcript of our exchange.)
You acknowledged human emissions are raising sea levels and will force us to "move crop production areas around." Moving them around is the least of it -- the Midwest is likely to become a dust bowl in our lifetime, and the price of food will rise a great deal.
But where you lost me and the rest of the audience -- and where you risk our economy and our kids -- is in saying "we'll adapt" to climate change which is "an engineering problem, and it has engineering solutions." That answer, and the attitude behind it, threatens us all and is a giant business mistake, probably the worst in history.
Everyone knows the weather is changing. As I write, the worst wildfires in western history are burning and 1.5 million people are without power in Washington, D.C. Record high temperatures are being smashed weekly. Obviously, this is only the beginning of this. As emissions keep rising, the earth will continue to warm, the ice will melt, the coasts will be swamped, storms will become ever more ferocious. Given the long lifetime of carbon in the atmosphere, this will go on for generations to come.
You must know that we don't understand enough about ecosystems to "engineer" them. The path we are on will lead to the extinction of almost half the species on earth. We may be one of them. It's a totally imprudent risk.
Here is how the public will view your statement that "we will adapt to this": Exxon will make record profits destroying our economy and a livable climate and the public will then pay to clean up your mess. If you think oil companies get a bad rap now, think about what this will mean for your reputation as the weather inevitably worsens and our wealth is diverted to the massive costs of your "adaptation."
Here is your mistake: Exxon should get ahead of this issue. Instead of emphasizing the uncertainty of climate models, you should stress the need to mobilize our engineering ingenuity to move rapidly to a low carbon economy. Exxon should lead the way. If you don't, as the weather worsens your current business will be inevitably restricted and reduced by public insistence and you will be left out of the clean energy industries of the 21st century.
You are on record supporting a carbon tax. It's true -- only by pricing carbon to level the energy playing field can the market lead the way out of this mess. If we don't, the government intervention in the economy conservatives fear will be far worse than you can imagine -- the economy will be mobilized as if for war.
So lead the way -- join with business and environmentalists in a campaign to put a fee on carbon. But not a tax. It should be a slowly rising fee that is 100% rebatable to the public per capita. The government should get none of the money. Instead, every citizen would get an electronic rebate or a check every month, as they do from oil revenues in the state of Alaska. Over time, it will be a lot of money for families, and largely reverse the impact of higher energy prices. It's a market-based solution the public will support and conservatives can too.
And you need to act soon before you go down in history -- and to your grandchildren -- as the man who destroyed the future for enormous profits now. There is little time left to stabilize and reduce emissions before we risk terrible climate tipping points releasing potent methane from the Arctic and under the warming seas. If we burn all the unconventional fossil fuel reserves you are so excited about atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide will double or even triple from pre-industrial levels. Mr. Tillerson, the last time that happened in earth's history sea level was 250 feet higher. Fossil fuel CEOs like you now control the thermostat of the earth. You are dialing it way up way fast. Once the glaciers start to move, they can't be stopped. Do you really want the blame for that?
Very sincerely,
David Fenton
Aiko Stevenson: The Arctic: 'The Wild Places Are Where We Began'
I think they learn that in denial and greed 101 at management school.
Generations of dogs maybe. CO2 has a time constant of between 7 and 9 years in the atmosphere. This is the main effect since it has the largest rate. Some (uber warmist Solomon, for example) argue there are other processes with longer TC's, but as anyone can tell you, the process with the largest rate dominates. The others are orders of magnitude smaller and are meaningless to the process.
I'm amazed at the comments here. I see nothing more than parroting the Climate Industrial Complex arguments for helping GE win government subsidies for wasteful products that make no difference to anything but their bottom line. Have ANY of you actually studied the science? I would bet no more than 20 minutes each.
ok. i'll take it someplace else, like, say, my fb timeline.
1) Build millions of miles of bike and horse paths
2) Replant diversified forests, grasslands and hedgerows
3) Tear down derelict buildings and parking lots and plant urban farms
4) Retrofit all buildings
5) Build light rail and trollies
6) Clean up every creek, stream, river, lake, beach
7) Put solar hot water and micro wind on all buildings
8) Develop clean energy
9) Put water catchment on all buildings
10) Modernize water, sewage systems
11) Put all power lines under ground
We need a 'growth' economy but one based on repair, regenerate, regrow, replant, redesign, restore, revitalize our natural environment.
How do we pay for all these jobs? The same way we paid for the paved road to our homes, the indoor plumbing, outgoing sewage, the electricity and phone wires, our neighborhood school, post office, library, police and fire dept.
Very interesting essay about the link between higher temperatures and photosynthesis failure: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/02/1105470/-Farenheit-104-40-degrees-C-is-a-number-everyone-should-know
Some interesting links in this story, too- especially the temperature projections from the American Geophysical Union.
Even if Global Warming was for real your approach is wrong if you SHUT DOWN industry and go with unreliable windmills and solar panels.
What's an elderly woman supposed to do in the winter when it's foggy outside and no wind?
Not only would she die from the cat food she has to eat because her power bill is so high, but, there still wouldn't be enough reliable power to heat up her home.
So explain to me how windmills and solar panels suppose to support industry when the wind doesn't blow and it's foggy outside?
Or do you have lazy lazy thinking and straw man arguments?
Mr. Tillerson is the world's biggest pusher of the world's most harmful product.
We CAN slow down the rise of carbon in the atmosphere if 100s of millions of people decide together to live without petroleum products. It's the only healthy response to this situation. Like going into a treatment center.
It actually is possible. There are enough concerned people, information flows fast enough, and there is enough money to handle the lost productivity.
Many who read this will laugh and I don't blame them. But I think there are enough caring people in the world that such a shift is possible.
You'd have to stop being afraid of bill collectors. You'd have to stop having insurance of any kind. You'd have to be willing to sweat for a living. There are all kinds of things that hold each of us back from that sort of change.
But the truth is that companies like Exon and people like Mr. Tillerson have a lot more to lose from that kind of change than most of us.
What would you be willing to give up, to save the human race? What would you get in return?
And then you need to look at the acidification of the oceans.
As for the "its plant food" stuff, see Leibig's Law.
I have been disappointed that this admission from Tillerson has hardly been acknowledged by the denialists and the GOP. I think the public is ready for this to become a campaign issue. I hope Obama is watching.
How long should we allow these large corporations to obfuscate the science and misinform the public just so they can rake in a few more decades of profit? When it comes time for us to "adapt", will Exxon generously donate that profit to pay for the adaptation?
I am cynical every time I see PSA like ads from Exxon. They are honoring teachers now. I wonder what that is about? Anyone know why Exxon has suddenly become "teacher aware"?
The cynic in me associates every such move by Exxon to think that they are doing or planing to do something horrible (that has not yet come out).