Big Oil Capitalizes on COVID-19

Here’s a deeply moving article by legendary environmentalist Bill McKibben, covering the greed and criminality of the oil companies and the banks that support them, explaining how they’re capitalizing on the pandemonium caused by the coronavirus to push through their planet-killing tar sands pipelines. By way of reference, it is these very pipelines that are designed to carry away the material, which when consumed, will represent “game over for the planet,” according to climate scientist James Hansen.

From the piece:

But let’s be clear: the villains here are the oil industry and the big banks. And let’s further be clear: their villainy is not new. The oil industry knew about and lied about climate change for 30 years: they’ve prevented us from flattening the carbon curve, and set up a tragedy far greater even than coronavirus and one which will play out for decades to come. And the banks are their invaluable allies: Chase Bank has lent $268bn to the industry since the Paris climate accords – what’s another billion to build a useless pipeline and perhaps spread a fatal disease? 

The problem here is that we’re dealing with people with a singular interest: money.  They know that quality of life on this planet will be horribly degraded by the time their grandchildren are seniors, but remarkably, they simply don’t care.

McKibben closes: I am a Methodist, sometimes a Sunday School teacher. I don’t actually believe in hell – I think God is capable of forgiving people for the worst things. But I don’t think I am…..