OPEC head: Climate activists are the 'greatest threat' to oil industry

[bronxiteforever]

Grist.org
By Miyo McGinn on Jul 5, 2019 at 5:29 pm

What’s one of the world’s most powerful cartel’s afraid of? A bunch of meddling kids.

Climate activists and their “unscientific” claims are “perhaps the greatest threat to our industry going forward,” said Mohammed Barkindo, the secretary general of OPEC (the cartel representing 14 countries with 80 percent of the world’s oil reserves) earlier this week.

He might have been talking about protesters more broadly, but the rest of his statement suggests that young people are being particularly irksome. Barkindo said some of his colleague’s children are asking them about the future because “they see their peers on the streets campaigning against this industry.”...This is, of course, heartening news for climate activists. Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old Swede famous for starting a movement of youth strikes calling for climate action, thanked OPEC for the compliment.

...Barkindo is right that climate advocates are winning over the hearts and minds of the people. Surveys show that 57 percent of Americans now think fossil fuel companies are at least partially responsible for climate change. Meanwhile, support for policies that would cut into fossil fuel companies’ bottom lines, like transitioning to renewable energy infrastructure, is increasing as approval for expanding fossil fuel infrastructure and offshore drilling declines.

More here
https://grist.org/article/opec-head-climate-activists-are-the-greatest-threat-to-oil-industry/

[bitterross]

1. I bet Philip Morris said something similar about anti-smoking activists

And, hopefully, he is correct!

[bronxiteforever]

4. I hope so too!

[gtar100]

2. The guy lives in upside-down world.

As if the oil industry were more important than the environment. Personally, I hope all OPEC leaders (and followers) end up living on the streets in the squalor and filth they helped create...a world filled with toxic chemicals in the air, in the ground, and in the waters. A world that fights wars over oil.

If they were decent human beings, they'd be using the profits on current oil consumption for cleaning up the messes they've made, paying hospital bills for people who got sick using products they knew were carcinogenic but denied it publicly, and investing in clean alternatives. If they think activists are their enemy, it's not hard to see that they are willing to fight to continue polluting our one and only planet. What a cause to put your life behind.

[bronxiteforever]

3. +1

[Kurt V.]

5. +2

[Eugene]

6. 'Biggest compliment yet': Greta Thunberg welcomes oil chief's 'greatest threat' label

Source: The Guardian

'Biggest compliment yet': Greta Thunberg welcomes oil chief's 'greatest threat' label

Activists say comments by Opec head prove world opinion is turning against fossil fuels

Jonathan Watts
Fri 5 Jul 2019 16.13 BST Last modified on Fri 5 Jul 2019 17.55 BST

Greta Thunberg and other climate activists have said it is a badge of honour that the head of the world’s most powerful oil cartel believes their campaign may be the “greatest threat” to the fossil fuel industry.

The criticism of striking students by the trillion-dollar Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) highlights the growing reputational concerns of oil companies as public protests intensify along with extreme weather.

Mohammed Barkindo, the secretary general of Opec, said there was a growing mass mobilisation of world opinion against oil, which was “beginning to … dictate policies and corporate decisions, including investment in the industry”.

He said the pressure was also being felt within the families of Opec officials because their own children “are asking us about their future because … they see their peers on the streets campaigning against this industry”.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/05/biggest-compliment-yet-greta-thunberg-welcomes-oil-chiefs-greatest-threat-label

[bronxiteforever]

7. +100 thanks for posting!