If I was a top boss at Shell or BP etc, I would look at a world map, and look at the coastline that I was in the business of changing, and the rivers that I was in the business of changing, and the ice caps I was paid to get rid of, and seas it was my job to acidify, and the storms and fires I could bring, and I would think… “I am a God changing the very Earth. Not since the times of Genesis has a being wielded such control. I have inherited Yahweh’s mantle. I have the power to affect the lives of everyone on planet Earth, for better or worse.”
Miami vs Pittsburgh - case in point. With a wave of the hand Miami disappears under the waves in an act of divine caprice. “I am a god, see the little mortals flee the waters in terror, shrieking for Yahweh’s mercy. I’m sorry mortals, Yahweh is an old god, you have new gods now…hahahahah.”
Big oil CEOs are thinking about money. They’re looking at how expensive operations are in various parts of the world, and how they might be able to reduce expenses, and what their stock price is and how to raise it, maybe about the value of potential acquisitions or sales of businesses, and of course the price of oil.
If they’re thinking about environmental impacts, they’re thinking about them in terms of how they will affect operations, and what the public relations impact will be.
Of course, for some people having large amounts of money can lead to a big ego (see Trump, D.), but the omnipotent feeling comes from the financial side, not the environmental one.
If that’s what they’re really thinking, then it must be a real downer to them that they can’t speak it aloud. I mean, a real god could hold a press conference to say “Behold, I am melting the poles and drowning Miami! All fear my power!” if he wanted to.
I think you have an exceptionally jaded and false concept of what company executives do on a day to day basis. You’re watching too many Hollywood movies and thinking they are displaying reality.
Mind you, we had a previous discussion and it was found that while the Oil companies officially do acknowledge that there is a problem with emissions, they are letting many of their executives finance denier efforts, politicians and think thanks.
I do think many oil companies are agreeing with the science to avoid liability in the future, while in practice their members are still active in denial efforts or the companies are getting rid of the alternative energy efforts that they fronted to also look “green”.
Seeing that the CEO of Shell is demanding action and that Shell still keeps their alternative energy efforts going it should be IMHO one good reason to prefer them (even with other issues that they have) the next time one goes to fill up his/her gas tank.
Very few CEO’s are billionaires and massive stockholders. Most CEOs have to report to the board of directors and to shareholders meetings. They cannot do whatever they want, if they don’t get results they get removed very quickly.
The question you should be asking is if owner / CEO billionaires feel like gods. Most of those are in the tech industry not in oil. I would bet Larry Page and Elon Musk have occasional moments when they feel like gods seeing how much new technology they are shaping.
Unless you don’t use fuel you are the person paying the salary of the Big Oil CEO’s. Unless of course you only buy fuel from Small Oil. That would be a different story.
Isn’t this a strange thing ? I think maybe he knows he has the luxury of saying things like this, and the safety of knowing that his peers won’t take much notice and he won’t have to really do anything. Almost like he has a hobbled will, if he really wanted to break with it he could just do something else with his life, just like millions of other people do.
Not really, once one remembers what did happened to the tobacco industry, in the end the settlement they had to do with many governments included items like stopping them from not only doing propaganda for their harmful product, but also to end their support for denier “science” and think tanks. He is doing mostly a preemptive move to reduce liability for the future of the company. One would wish that many of our political leaders had such foresight.
I think though that the CEO will not do too much as the efforts from many before him already added the denial of human induced climate change to the items a “good” republican should believe.
Let’s pretend for a second that the CEO of Shell is totally, 100% on board with AGW. He totally believes it’s what’s happening, and is completely on board that CO2 is the key. What do you suppose would be different? Would this magically create the infrastructure and technology that could and would take us immediately from the use of oil? Would it have done so 10 years ago if only the Shell CEO was on board and didn’t think he was a god? Would it do it in 10 years from now if he didn’t think he was a god? Do you supposed that Shell would suddenly just stop producing oil if the CEO decided, OMG! The use of oil causes GLOBAL WARMING!! And would that mean that the oil Shell would have refined would now not be for some reason? Would all the other oil companies follow suit if their CEOs also had the same epiphany? :dubious:
Like if on many occasions I did not reported that the change will not be instant.
Not my point but the OP, and I did sigh at his OP, it really was too much.
This is also confuses me as many times I said that the issue is emissions, IMHO once all the fossil fuel companies comply and press their congress critters to allow regulations, the regulations then will come and we will find that a lot of the technology that was not economical before as there was no incentive to use them will be, as there will be a price for emissions then.
As mentioned I do think so, just like a Rockefeller Jr. changed course and after his company used to massacre workers he followed advice from William Lyon Mackenzie King and gave more freedoms to them.
Not at that level, but I do think that many of the fossil fuel companies need a “going to meet with the miner’s” moment and tell their congress critters to change course and support emissions controls and taxes.
hugs