Dealing with the “Gravitational Pull” of Fossil Fuels

Here’s an article by an author with keen insight into the issues that will shape the future of humankind on this planet: Michael T. Klare, the Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. The title of his newest book, The Race for What’s Left: The Global Scramble for the World’s Last Resources, articulates the basic issue: the oil companies and the governments that they largely control have little interest in backing off from their passion of maximizing their profits, even at the expense of the health and safety of everyone living on Earth. 

Once in a great while, one of the more candid among these captains of industry will make a fairly overt statement here. In particular, check out the new CEO of BP, Bob Dudley, who took over when his predecessor, Tony Hayward, needed to go following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.  Remarkably, Dudley made a statement related to carbon and climate change, something most of his peers wouldn’t get anywhere near.  Apparently, he said, “The world is still a long way from delivering the peak in greenhouse gas emissions many scientists advise has to be achieved within the next decade to minimize the risk of dangerous climate change.”

Readers will note that Klare refers several times to the “gravitational pull” of fossil fuels, exerting their force, as gravity does, 24/7.  Klare concludes:

The gravitational pull of carbon is immensely powerful.  It cannot be overcome by symbolic gestures or half measures.  The pressures to keep burning fossil fuels are too great to be overcome in piecemeal fashion.  Rather, these forces must be met head-on, with the institutionalization of equally powerful counter-forces that make fossil fuels economically unattractive.  We humans have a choice: we can succumb to carbon’s gravitational pull and so suffer from increasingly harsh planetary conditions, or resist and avoid the most deadly consequences of climate change.