Fossil Fuel Companies and the Authorities Who Protect Them Are Unworthy of Our Support

We take the offensive. We will no longer bother answering their rancid dishonest accusations. Oil is death.

Photo by Zbynek Burival on Unsplash

We all know that oil and coal and gas are destroying the ecosphere and turning the Earth into a hellhole for humans and for zillions of other species. WE KNOW THIS.

Every sane and caring person on the planet wants the fossil fuel companies and their enablers to STOP THE DESTRUCTION. Everyone knows this, including fossil fuel profiteers and the politicians who protect them.

That’s why the fossil fuel companies and politicians spread lies, attack climate scientists for telling the truth, and engage in all kinds of dishonest plots from astroturfing (making up fake “citizens groups” to protect fossil fuel profits) to issuing dishonest reports from fake “think tanks” written by phony or purchased “experts.”

Frankly, it’s disgusting — and really, really stupid. Because every fossil fuel company executive, every politicians who makes deals with them — all of them are dooming their own grandchildren, possibly their own children. They seem to be incapable of thinking clearly.

Along with saving our own loved ones, we will need to save these fools from themselves.

We have one question:

Why should we allow an industry that is literally endangering every living thing on Earth continue to operate? They should be shut down immediately.

Oh, I can hear how THAT would be a disaster, that we can’t do that. I can hear that this would be impractical. It simply cannot be done.

To which I say: bullshit. We are always fed lies. Always. We need to stop eating what they are serving. In fact, shutting down fossil fuels is absolutely necessary. This would FORCE the quick expansion and complete adoption of clean energy. We’ve been told that we need to ramp up clean energy BEFORE we get rid of fossil fuels.

We are told to wait for markets, but for the 35 years since scientist James Hansen publicly warned Congress and the world about the climate crisis, the markets continued to kill us.

Markets are no more worthy of our trust than fossil fuel profiteers or oil-stained politicians. They all lie and they all have long, unbroken records of catastrophic failure.

No, we don’t need to have all the answers to all their fake objections right now. We don’t need to know where we are getting the lithium for batteries, or what we will do about the supposedly short lifespans of solar panels. We have some challenges, but those focusing on those (addressable) challenges are simply attempting to draw attention away for THE MOST IMPORTANT FACT…

And that is, WE MUST SHUT DOWN FOSSIL FUELS ASAP STARTING THIS MINUTE. Continued use, every minute of it, spells ever greater and longer lasting suffering for our loved ones. Continuing oil and coal and gas is unconscionable. To destroy our children’s planet to allow a few thousand greedy fools to pile up money is beyond unconscionable.

So, Here’s the Plan

I’m working very, very hard on details, but broadly speaking…THIS is the plan. We look at the situation and what we must do about it…

1. Existing political and economic systems are demonstrably incapable of dealing with this existential global crisis in a meaningful way. That’s why they have a long unbroken record of failure, and of making the problem worse.
2. We must put the most capable and qualified people in charge of an immediate global emergency program to do everything necessary to end the crisis. The right people are climate scientists — who have expertise in the science — and young climate activists — people who understand what’s at stake and have the most to lose. Only these people have the capabilities and moral standing to lead this effort. But all of us should support them.
3. Except for systems and leaders who seem incapable of addressing the crisis, nearly every sane and caring person on Earth wants to stop climate collapse and would support the emergency program. Any suffering and sacrifice required to prevent climate collapse is far less than the death of our ecosphere. The unavoidable suffering is unavoidable because we followed and went along with truly useless systems and leaders for so many years.
4. We can hand the needed power and authority to the people who will run this emergency program by non-cooperation with the fossil fuel industry. We can make the industry cease to operate. Because people in every part of the fossil fuel supply line can stop working for that industry. Miners can stop mining. Refiners can stop refining. We can cripple the transport of those fuels — with freight trains stopped, with trucks not moving those products. Retailers can close. And the rest of us can help and protect those heroes — we can take care of these newly unemployed workers, people who sacrificed for all of us. We can create a big fund to take care of them. We can demand protections for them by our government. If the government doesn’t come through, we can stop paying taxes, can stop cooperating with governments. We aren’t afraid of police or military — because they are our spouses, our friends, our neighbors. They don’t want a dead Earth either. Our plan requires a whole series of actions, building from tiny to huge ones. But we can do this.
5. We don’t need 100% participation in our labor walkouts. We just need enough to cripple the industry, and to make it impractical for the fossil fuel industry to continue.
6. Due to the obvious seriousness of the crisis, the obvious failure of existing authorities and systems, the reality of the situation and the fact that WE OFFER THE ONLY CREDIBLE SOLUTION, we will have the wind at our backs once we get moving.

So, no more defensiveness. We keep answering the same questions, and so many of the “questions” are based on lies. When questioned, the only required response is:

How can the systems and leaders who have failed to stop climate collapse and have, in fact, accelerated it be allowed to exercise any power or authority whatsoever? Why do you expect us to continue to do your work when you are literally killing us? We won’t. We are done with you. You need to retire. You are not leaders or authorities, something that will become increasingly clear as more and more of us abandon you and put our support where it belongs — behind climate scientists and the children and the planet we love.

Thanks for reading.

Please follow me on Medium. See the website WeAreSaners.org and join the movement at WeAreSaners.org/join.