Exxon CEO on climate change

[redandguilty]

Climate change is political enough to discuss here right? Well, here's a different take than I expected. Exxon's CEO publicly acknowledged that CO2 emissions "have a warming impact". Rather than deny climate change, he argues that it's a manageable problem.

...I'm not disputing that increasing CO2 emissions in the atmosphere is going to have an impact. It'll have a warming impact. The -- how large it is is what is very hard for anyone to predict. And depending on how large it is, then projects how dire the consequences are.

As we have looked at the most recent studies coming -- and the IPCC reports, which we -- I've seen the drafts; I can't say too much because they're not out yet. But when you predict things like sea level rise, you get numbers all over the map. If you take a -- what I would call a reasonable scientific approach to that, we believe those consequences are manageable. They do require us to begin to exert -- or spend more policy effort on adaptation. What do you want to do if we think the future has sea level rising four inches, six inches? Where are the impacted areas, and what do you want to do to adapt to that?

And as human beings as a -- as a -- as a species, that's why we're all still here. We have spent our entire existence adapting, OK? So we will adapt to this. Changes to weather patterns that move crop production areas around -- we'll adapt to that. It's an engineering problem, and it has engineering solutions. And so I don't -- the fear factor that people want to throw out there to say we just have to stop this, I do not accept.

http://www.cfr.org/united-states/new-north-american-energy-paradigm-reshaping-future/p28630

 

[Michchamp]

if even that asshole is starting to concede, shows you how overwhelming the actual evidence is/was. but dumbasses will believe anything if its spoonfed to them by the right news sources (Fox, Glenn Beck; in turn spoonfed to the news sources by the right lobbyists for the right industries).

 

[cheeno]

Why deny when you can make more money off the solution?

 

[redandguilty]

Why deny when you can make more money off the solution?

Moving crop production areas around? Sounds like a job for Monsanto!

 

[cheeno]

Exxon's $26 billion acquisition of XTO Energy in 2010 made the company the largest producer of natural gas in the U.S.; among U.S. integrated oil companies, it is the one that has bet the most on the value of unconventional natural-gas production.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303561504577492501026260464.html

 

[Michchamp]

Exxon's $26 billion acquisition of XTO Energy in 2010 made the company the largest producer of natural gas in the U.S.; among U.S. integrated oil companies, it is the one that has bet the most on the value of unconventional natural-gas production.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303561504577492501026260464.html

I've read other articles where Rex Tillerson flat out refuses to even acknowledge the possibility that fracking can pollute groundwater.

yet the industry gets laws passed like this.

 

[Thumb]

I've read other articles where Rex Tillerson flat out refuses to even acknowledge the possibility that fracking can pollute groundwater.

yet the industry gets laws passed like this.

Am I supposed to shed tear for Exxon over their natural gas losses after when gasoline and diesel prices started to skyrocket they said they had no control of that, but still raked in record setting profit percentages?

 

[redandguilty]

I've read other articles where Rex Tillerson flat out refuses to even acknowledge the possibility that fracking can pollute groundwater.

yet the industry gets laws passed like this.

He mentioned that too

There are important questions about the things that people worry about, and we have an obligation to address them, and we devote a tremendous amount of effort in addressing those. But I think if you look at the technologies that are front and center today around the shale resources -- hydraulic fracturing, horizontal drilling, the integration of those technologies, how we drill these wells, how we protect fresh water zone, how we protect emissions -- we have all of that engineered. And as long as we as an industry follow good engineering practices and standards, these risks are entirely manageable. And the consequences of a misstep by any member of our industry -- and I'm speaking again about the shale revolution -- the consequences of a misstep in a well, while large to the immediate people that live around that well, in the great scheme of things are pretty small, and even to the immediate people around the well, they could be mitigated.

Seems to boil down to a belief (or story) that they are doing more good than harm in both cases.

 

[tsmith7559]

if even that asshole is starting to concede, shows you how overwhelming the actual evidence is/was. but dumbasses will believe anything if its spoonfed to them by the right news sources (Fox, Glenn Beck; in turn spoonfed to the news sources by the right lobbyists for the right industries).

I have a solution...all libs ride bikes and use electricity similar to the amish......problem solved

 

[Michchamp]

I have a solution...all libs ride bikes and use electricity similar to the amish......problem solved

the amish are noted users of electricity and bicycle riders.

 

[cheeno]

I have a solution...all libs ride bikes and use electricity similar to the amish......problem solved

I would have went with...

I have a solution...all libs keep their traps shut limiting the amount of hot air escaping into the atmosphere similar to carbon capture...problem solved

Oh and I would have thrown a few commas in there for good measure.

 

[cheeno]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19047501

Research funded by the Koch Bros. conclude warming is anthropogenic.

 

[Michchamp]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19047501

Research funded by the Koch Bros. conclude warming is anthropogenic.

I think this is better coverage of the event, because in true "liberal" American media fashion, they decided to be "fair and balanced" by giving a chance for a non-scientist lobbyist to chime in on the official corporate interest position:

Muller?s conclusions, however, failed to sway the most ardent climate contrarians, like Marc Morano, a former top producer for Rush Limbaugh and communications director for the Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee who now runs the website climatedepot.com. ?Muller will be remembered as a befuddled professor who has yet to figure out how to separate climate science from his media antics. His latest claims provide no new insight into the climate science debate,? Morano said in an email.
​

good thing this guy was able to add his 0.02... because you know if there's one point of view never gets enough press coverage, it's the pro-business corporate PR department...

after I read the article this weekend, they added another quote, just you know, in case anyone got a CRAZY idea that research funded by Koch bros - or any other lobbyists with a vested financial interest in seeing certain results - might not be completely objective, they went and got a statement from them...

[Updated, 4:17 p.m., July 29: Tonya Mullins, a spokeswoman for the Koch Foundation, said the support her foundation provided, along with others, had no bearing on the results of the research. "Our grants are designed to promote independent research; as such, recipients hold full control over their findings," Mullins said in an email. "In this support, we strive to benefit society by promoting discovery and informing public policy."]​