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May 13, 2008
CORE and ExxonMobil
Posted by Dan Stafford at 04:04 PM
There has already been a ton of coverage on McCain's global warming plan, so I'll just trust that you're reading the Grist coverage of it.
I'd like to chat about something completely different. Or maybe not so much. The Congress Of Racial Equality (CORE), founded in the 40's to combat racial injustice, was long considered a leader in the grassroots movement. Whether it's lunch counter sit-ins or the Freedom Rides, CORE was there.
But, this week, CORE chair Roy Innis said that if the polar bear is listed under the Endangered Species Act, CORE will sue the Bush Administration because, "such a listing will drive up energy prices and hurt America's working poor more than any other element of society."
I'll set aside the mounds of research that shows how terribly the working poor will be impacted by the effects of global warming - the food shortages, the increase in communicable disease, and the literally millions of global warming refugees we'll see - all of which will more negatively impact the poor than anyone else.
Let's for a second ask why CORE is making such a big deal out of the polar bear. Could it be the hundred of thousands of dollars ExxonMobil has contributed to CORE's work (and in particular their global warming work) over the years?
In fact, between 2003 and 2005, ExxonMobil donated $250,000 to CORE. Since CORE's operating budget is $2 million a year, this represents over 4% of their total operating costs - a pretty significant amount.
In his release, Innis states, ""Onshore and offshore public lands could hold enough oil to produce gasoline for 60 million cars and fuel oil for 25 million homes for 60 years, and enough natural gas to heat 60 million homes for 160 years."
And I'll accept those numbers as true, but I'd like to point out that there are currently 113,146,000 homes in the United States, and we have 247,421,120 cars on the road. This means Innis is suggesting we heat 22% of the homes for 60 years and let the rest lie cold - and oh yeah, any new homes built for 60 years also get no heat.
Similarly, his estimate means that we'll put gas in the tanks of 24% of our cars for six decades, and let the rest rust - and again, no new cars.
So really, what he's saying is we can power our cars and heat our homes for fifteen years using domestic fuel sources. My question is, what do we do in 2023 when we've tapped every last drop of fuel?
Also, he's not really offering any actual solutions to the spectre of global warming. So, yet again, we see ExxonMobil pushing money to an organization to act as their mouthpiece, who then acts as if nothing is wrong, and somehow a solution will magically appear in a decade in a half.
It saddens me that a group known for standing up for the rights of the poor and the downtrodden is so easily co opted by those who seek to benefit financially from trashing those they work to protect.
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May 12, 2008
Americans Are Confusing
Posted by Dan Stafford at 10:45 AM
The Pew Research Center just released results of a new poll about global warming, and I have to confess, I'm thoroughly confused.
The chief finding is that, sadly, beliefs about and concern over global warming is becoming a deeply partisan issue. For instance, 27% of the Republicans polled believe GW is caused by human activity, as opposed to 58% of Democrats. Similarly, 22% of Republicans view GW as a 'serious problem' as opposed to 57% of Democrats.
I could understand the partisan divide, given that it's a presidential election year, and the chief spokesperson of the global warming issue is former Democratic candidate Al Gore - except that Mr. Gore has been doing no campaigning for either Democratic contender, and has largely opted to stay out of the race so as to focus on the issue at hand - namely, global warming, and has consistently spoken of global warming as a cross-party problem that we need to solve.
That being said, one of the truly shocking parts of the research comes at the end when you view where people rank global warming in terms of policy priorities :
For Democrats, it ranks 15th, for independents 18th, and for Republicans 21st. This despite that fact that of all people polled, 71% believe global warming exists, and 49% believe it is human-made.
The problem, of course, is that global warming is going to have negative impacts on the economy, energy policies, the environment, health care costs, and the problems of the poor, all issues people are even more concerned about.
It would appear that we really need to do a better job of explaining the problem, and it's many long term ramifications, to other people - including the media.
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May 08, 2008
Shell Oil Supports Drilling, Kirk Still Hates Klingons
Posted by Dan Stafford at 01:40 PM
In Idaho John Hofmeister, the president of Shell Oil, called for more drilling wherever he can get it. "The U.S. prohibits access to its own natural resources..we need more oil and gas, whether it's onshore Alaska, or offshore Alaska."
He then went on to sing the praises of going after Alberta's oil sands and oil shale in Colorado, never mind the fact that oil recovery from shale is highly questionable.
How many times do I have to say this? With less than 2% of the world's remaining supply of oil, the United States will never be able to drill its way to energy independence. It simply cannot happen.
Hofmeister then went on to claim that Shell supports carbon caps federally, and not some 'patchwork' of regulations put into place by the states.
Hey John, here's an idea - why not impose carbon caps yourself? Why wait for some pesky federal legislation that isn't going to come for at least a year, and, I don't know, take the lead yourself?
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