In the prior two posts, Mr. President-Elect, I summarized the facts pertaining to the cause of climate change, as well as its environmental destruction ingredients: excessive carbon dioxide, methane and plastic.

Now to explain why we shouldn’t have to be talking so much about severe weather in the first place…

I realize you don’t want to be reminded of this, and please don’t be upset with me as I go forward, but big oil and gas has formally acknowledged that as early as the mid 1950s to the 1960s, in-house scientists then warned its executive boards around the world about the environmental consequences brought on by burning oil, gas and coal. Long ago there was written documentation to prove the polluting damage caused by BOG’s products, not to mention plastic, was well known to those on the inside of its corporate hierarchy. And much like the tobacco industry, BOG unanimously agreed to remain silent about the unknown price a never ending consumer base would pay,both directly at the gas pump and climatewise. 

Beginning about 60-70 years ago, profit, not people, was all that mattered. BOG’s influential words (and your “climate hoax”) rang loud and clear until a few years ago when it became visibly obvious those two words no longer fooled enough people, thus forcing the energy sector to change its behavior regarding emissions coverup. No, its admission to the decades of hush-up pollution never made headlines. Rather, its climate denial simply came to an end. 

If The Right Thing To Do was ever discussed among BOG’s corporate leadership, the topic was soon extinguished in the black columns of smoke pouring out of the refineries.

Rather, BOG allowed its expanding customer base to relish getting from one place to another in the quickest most efficient manner possible, with no hint of what the chemicals were doing to the environment. Life was good and rich for BOG! No different than the other industries that spewed their pollutants to contaminate the world’s air, water and land. Thank God for the EPA which stood up to spank the polluters, and extinguished some of their greed. 

Otherwise, Sir, can you imagine the dirty chemical fix we’d all be in?

When The Right Thing To Do was intentionally omitted, humankind lost out to a  greenhouse gas by-product that caused an ecocide to the planet’s kingdom. 

Could this history of extreme polluting emissions never have happened?

Absolutely. Maybe some introductory emissions, but humans would have it under control by now. 

The damage caused by fossil fuel could have been made public early on, and then regulated in an orderly fashion as clean energy methods evolved. An example of what should have transpired long ago is given below.

Imagine if the following announcement actually occurred. It is 1964, and these words have just grabbed headlines around the globe:

A WARNING TO ALL FROM THE GLOBAL OIL, GAS AND COAL INDUSTRY

      

While our production has created an unprecedented volume of energy to power up civilization and economies around our beloved planet, there will be consequences for the environment and therefore, all of humanity.

Unfortunately, our oil, gas and coal resources generate excessive carbon and methane emissions that form a level of pollution that will one day overwhelm the atmosphere and everything below it. The result will cause an increasing portion of the sun’s heat to remain trapped on Earth’s surface, thus warming the ice sheets, oceans, land and air forcing people to deal with far more frequent bouts of severe weather, aridity, and rising temperatures than we face today.

At the same time, we cannot stop production because world industrialization, transportation, homes and businesses would suffer without an energy source. Yet, it is up to us to lead the way out of a future livability predicament. There is still time for an irreversible change to our climate to be avoided.

Therefore, please know we are committed to the beginning of a new era devoting ourselves to research and development for the purpose of finding alternate sources of power involving the sun, wind, water and other renewable options. This mission will take decades, but one day our current sources of fossil based energy will be replaced by cleaner choices.

Our goal is for the beginning of the 21st century to experience alternative energy sources for the world’s expanding population to depend on, and thus achieve an eternity of healthy and safe living.

Be patient and allow us to begin the energy transfer - before it’s too late for all species that currently enjoy what Earth’s environment has to offer.

Sincerely,

Joint Chairman of the Boards

World Energy Corporations

How simple would that have that been, Mr. President-Elect?

Sadly, anything close to the above never materialized.

And it never will…unless you lead the way.

Any form of admission of guilt will ruin BOG’s defense against the dozens, soon to be hundreds and then thousands of lawsuits, underway, filed by every type of plaintiff you can think of. As the destructive weather patterns and wildfires gain traction, more and more groups of people will have had enough. Global warming will in one way or another cause much of humanity, and what it stands for, to suffer. The myriad of legal actions will be financially catastrophic for both sides, and will be appealed to kingdom come, thus delaying the solution for the climate crisis. No one wins except the lawyers. The fossil fuel industrialists literally have us over an oil barrel! 

Also, clean energy sources are real and have proven to be reliable in the early stages of research, development and in commercial practice. We all can look forward to the 2000s when the demand for dirty energy will be waning leaving more and more of the planet’s refineries and wells abandoned. 

But where do the funds come from to defend all the lawsuits? In the end, only bankruptcy and misery rules. 

As I have stated before, the oil, gas and coal producers cannot cease and desist overnight - far from it.

Sir you are spot on: “Burn Baby Burn’ is a necessity for the time being!

Humankind is addicted to dirty energy because it is a vital pollutant required to take care of us in so many ways. However, a firm but gradual energy transition is finally in place at an entry level…and you can take it much further.

Rest assured, some decade from now, Earth’s inhabitants will unite in a single effort to thrive in a chemical free environment. Sadly, before that time, life will be not-so-fun due to that warming electric carbon blanket in the sky.

What I’m next going to play out may seem like an impossible dream - but please take a listen:

At the largest soccer field in the world, the plaintiffs and their army of attorneys against dirty energy are seated on one side of the stadium, and BOG’s arsenal of corporate leaders and lawyers riddled with class action claims are assembled on the opposite side. Both arrived after agreeing to abide by whatever the international arbitration panel decides. 

Standing at a podium in the center of the field and backed by the UN Climate Change Panel, I, Noah, if I’m still around, will serve as the arbitrator’s spokesperson. 

After an introduction, and a reminder to the watching world of why the enormous gathering is taking place, my words are:                                           

“You are collectively spending billions trying to get the best of one another knowing full well neither side will prevail. Quickly, vast sums of money are being thrown away that could otherwise be spent on what ails every form of life on Earth. Meanwhile, our planet continues to simmer.

Plaintiffs, since societies flourished for a very long time thanks to dirty energy, you have no other choice than to forgive the past. BOG, you must right your industrial ship. I, we, the world insists that the plaintiffs and the defendants shake hands in a mutual effort to expedite renewable energy development that you, BOG, will manage and operate for the good of all people. BOG will allow what’s left of its fossil fuel production to continue at a descending rate until the demand for it is nearly nonexistent. Then, big oil and gas will be done with bogging our skies with pollutants, and instead will be known as BEST, Bonafide Environmental Sustainable Technology.

Renewable energy will be the ONLY energy because all fossil fuel remnants will be decommissioned and scraped off Earth’s surface. BEST will commit to removing the electric carbon blanket in the sky by vacuuming the excess trillions of tons of CO2 and methane out of the atmosphere using your, and other’s, latest direct air capture technologies.

In return, the newly formed BEST is forgiven for its prior Profit Over People insanity, every lawsuit will be dropped, and all of us will live freely amongst the return of the divine natural carbon cycle. Everybody wins.” As we part company, Mr. President-Elect, please ask yourself whether or not something resembling that dream can actually occur? Hoping one day you’ll invite me back to observe you taking the climate bull by the horns.