Left-wing Guardian columnist George Monbiot is often unhinged on climate issues. Now he’s blasted Royal Dutch Shell for extracting oil and gas that “will destroy our lives” and calling it a “planetary death machine.”
Of course, his oil is evil attitude ignored all that the form of energy did to enable modern civilization’s existence and improve human life.
Despite Shell’s choice to use $300 million “investing in natural ecosystems,” Monbiot was not pleased and accused it of committing “ecocide.”
On June 26, Monbiot bemoaned Shell’s 2018 net income of $24 billion and complained the natural ecosystem fund was “almost invisible” in its annual report. He was also angry that some environmentalists viewed the company as changing and “on their side.”
Shell’s decision in 2018 to “pour $25 billion” in investing in oil and gas likewise drew scorn. The Guardian complained that the company’s’ “cash engines” were oil and gas, and how it had no plans “to turn the engines off.”
What was infuriating to Monbiot was patently obvious from a business perspective. Shell has to make profits to reinvest or go out of business.
Since oil and gas are still making lots of money for Shell because it supplies the vast majority of the world’s energy needs, of course, the company would be mostly investing in the areas he so despises.
Monbiot accused Shell of committing to “ecocide” with continued chemical and oil production, and investments in “fracking and liquefied fossil gas technologies.”
He chastised it for daring to dissent from the Paris Climate Agreement’s goals which allowed “no room for new fossil fuel development.”
He didn’t bring up the possible benefits of fracking including lower energy prices, greater energy security, reduced air pollution, and fewer carbon emissions, according to Forbes.
The Guardian columnist cited the left’s favorite climate expert — the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — to fuel fears over the “climate breakdown.”
He warned that the IPCC pleaded for “immediate and drastic cuts in fossil fuel production” and asked all countries to “leave fossil fuels in the ground.” “The age of offsets is over,” Monbiot declared.
The Guardian column attacked Shell’s renewables effort as part of a deceptive “strategy” to fool environmentalists about “blatant greenwash.”
It called Shell’s partnerships with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the Nature Conservancy, Wetlands International, and Earthwatch “wrong,” based on “naivety,” and compared that to the “national embarrassment” of British Petroleum’s (BP) association with the British Museum.
Monbiot’s left-wing extremism regarding climate and energy prevented him from admitting all the good oil and gas did the world for many years.
After all, this is the same columnist who ranted that capitalism was “incompatible with the survival of life on Earth,” and wanted to declare capitalism “dead” for the planet’s sake.
Wired magazine isn’t exactly keen on oil and gas either, but was honest enough to admit that oil was “uniquely convenient” thanks to its stability and energy density.
Before oil the world “had only a tiny fraction of the amount of heat, light, and power” as today, Wired admitted in 2009.
Read more at NewsBusters
The public is aware that their prosperity and their children’s opportunities are threatened by the radical eco – anarchists .
Even though left leaning politicians who advocate green energy are losing power, the party line remains the same. It would work, if 6 year-olds could vote.
A lot of this is quite personal (to me). I am a Shell retiree, a 36 plus year veteran of the upstream U.S onshore oil & gas industry with 25 years in regulatory & compliance. To refer to RDS as a “death machine” is completely ridiculous. The dedicated employees I had the privilege to work with do not deserve ANY of that. I have been critical of the oil & gas industry for not “fighting back” over the past 10-15 years as this environmental “activism” and the misinformation campaign has continued to escalate to a level (now) that is completely “off the hook.” I’m with Frank. Time to take the “gloves off”…
Shell needs to stop playing footsies with the modern environmental movement. I believe we need clean air and water in order to survive but the movement has become inflexible and hard in its ways. These lunatics would have burning our furniture to heat our homes.
Right you are Randy . They have nothing but they don’t need anything when they are self righteous . They continue to fly all over the world to their conferences ,
etc etc . It’s part politics and part ripping off tax payers mainly .
Their ain’t no Gandhi’s in this clown show of rent seekers .
Most of them know it’s complete crap and are enabling the fraud so they won’t be coming up with anything but fear campaigns to keep the cash flowing as long as they can . Politicians that promote the scam are now playing a political price . In other words it’s done despite chirping till the global cooling campaign is launched .
Let’s face it. The entire conversation about fossil fuels and the energy transition is completely misguided. If fossil fuels are to be EXTINGUISHED as the activists decree, then THEY only have to address one fundamental question: “What CLEAN, SCALABLE, SUSTAINABLE alternative do you propose to REPLACE 95% of the U.S transportation fuel & industrial heat and 65% of our electric generating capability?” Vilifying energy PROVIDERS does NOTHING to meet the energy transition challenge and attendant environmental protections. It takes no talent or vision to be a critic. It takes REAL talent to come up with sensible SOLUTIONS…
Randy…. The Alarmists do not want a solution. They want to take down The USA and Capitalism. They want a NWO [ie World Communism].
So how dose this Monbiot idiot heat is home with Magic Stones how dose he travel Flying Carpet perhaps dose he read at night with candles? Reminds me of a picture of a bunch of Eco-Wackos protesting against Shell Oil Rig in Plastic Kayaks the Hypocricy is so thick here you can cut it with a knife
The Guardian wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for fossil fuels .
Garbage tree killing news paper that could really show it’s concern about saving the planet by shutting down .
Typical hypocrites.