Researchers say data strengthens case for holding firms to account for their contribution to climate crisis
    • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      171·
      4 days ago

      I think this headline makes it sound overly simple. Just shutter those 36 companies and we save the world, right? Well, the fossil fuels they vend go on to become the fuel and household products made and sold by thousands of other companies and those are relied upon by all of us all day every day. There’s no single-point fix here. We can’t depend on these monsters AND point the finger at them. A great deal needs to change before we can live without them.

  • gmtom@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    3 days ago

    I’ve really started to hate this narrative around this.

    These are primarily power companies. So it’s not like if we got rid of these CEOs anything will change. It’s not like those companies can just decide to stop generating power. If they did, that would just leave space a for a different company to come along and do the exact same thing.

    The change needs to come from government regulation and investment in green energy. And to a much lesser extent change in individual and smaller corporate behaviours. Reduce amounts of energy we use where we can, stop consuming useless disposable shit we don’t need that uses energy to be manufactured and also needs to be shipped, etc.

    And the government won’t change anything unless people organise and protest and vote for Green parties.

  • zephorah@lemm.eeEnglish
    82·
    4 days ago

    It’s really disheartening. I can reduce my footprint to almost zero on my land but the overall impact, beyond a feel good moment for myself, is negligible until corporate plays the game in earnest.

    • scarabic@lemmy.worldEnglish
      82·
      4 days ago

      I think your actions are meaningful and I’ll explain why. It’s not like these 36 companies are just over there producing all this pollution while we sit here helplessly weeping. The fossil fuels they produce and sell go on to become the household products and fuel used and depended on by all of us. Thousands of corporations use them, not just 36. Maybe we can break up Aramco and close it down, but we can’t currently do without DuPont and Proctor and Gamble.

      So until consumer are independent of the products these fossil fuels make, the companies themselves are a false villain. Therefore, your actions to become independent are EXACTLY what’s needed, and are in fact the ONLY thing that will actually help.

      The bullshit comments here about shooting 36 CEOs are not going to change anything. You are.

  • iii@mander.xyzEnglish
    73·
    4 days ago

    If Saudi Aramco was a country, it would be the fourth biggest polluter in the world after China, the US and India, while ExxonMobil is responsible for about the same emissions as Germany, the world’s ninth biggest polluter, according to the data.

    Wouldn’t that be counting the same emissions twice? As the fuel they produce is likely to be used in countries like China, India, Germany. In other words: a calculation as usefull as taking the sum of assets and liabilities in a balance sheet.

    It’s not like they make the fuel, and then burn it, for the fun of it. It’s supply matching demand. Take away a supplier, another will substitute.

  • uraniumcovid@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    4 days ago

    i can’t be a coincidence that the picture looks a lot like the scene in dune where they blow the spice storage, right?

  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    44·
    3 days ago

    Maybe we should make a deck of cards with names and faces of who owns/runs these companies. My friend Luigi loves that kind of thing.

    edit lol sorry if I made any CEOs of massive murderous corporations uncomfortable