Did a Houthi Strike on Saudi Oil Production Give Us the Excuse to Begin Weaning Ourselves Off Oil?

September 18, 2019 – In the last week, the Yemen war expanded its geography to the Saudi Arabian heartland with a drone attack that took out a fair amount of the oil production capacity of the Kingdom. No doubt repairs will soon have the Saudis pumping out their product to world markets. But it has been interesting to see how people have reacted around the world.

In Canada, an editorial in one of our newspapers today stated it was time that Alberta oil was seen as a safe alternative to Saudi product, an opportunity to support the wholesomeness of the oil sands. Then there was the “locked and loaded” response of Donald Trump who apparently takes orders from the Saudi government when it comes to defending their interests. But no one, not even environmentalists stood up and said,

“Maybe we shouldn’t fix the damaged facilities. Maybe it’s time for a time out when it comes to oil for the sake of Earth’s climate future.”

The climate news over the last few months has not been good. From heatwaves in the Arctic to record Greenland melting, to droughts and crop failures in Africa, to Hurricane Dorian grinding to a halt in its path over two Bahamian islands and pummeling them with rain, storm surges, and Category-5 winds for two full days, the evidence of a changing world because of human carbon emissions is all around us.

Isn’t it time to stop the debate on whether anthropogenic climate change is real or not because there is no other side to the climate change story upon which to find any merit?

Even high-profile anti-climate scientist, Princeton physics professor, William Happer, Trump’s expert on climate who has stated, “carbon dioxide is good” theory, and who has equated climate scientists who disagreed with him to be equal to the Nazis who persecuted the Jews (substitute CO2 for Jew), has recently upped and vanished from the halls of the Executive Mansion taking his whacky ideas and pronouncements with him.

Some of the leaders of the largest oil and energy companies on the planet are meeting in New York on the sidelines to a United Nations climate summit this week, an attempt to once more commit to the Paris Climate Agreement. The by-invitation-only meeting convened by BP, Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell, Total and others, under the auspices of the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI) industry steering committee, will attempt to “greenwash” its position on climate and its future role in mitigation and adaptation. If you are not familiar with the term greenwash it’s a way to cover up bad behaviour by projecting misleading information and “facts” to obfuscate the truth and present an alternative that puts you in a better position.

The oil and energy companies around the planet continue to greenwash aplenty aided and abetted by the governments that were signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement. That includes the United States, Canada, France, Norway, China, India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and others. Governments including Canadian provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan, continue to act as if it is business as usual. The Alberta government has even launched a witch hunt against climate change advocacy groups in the province. This is in lieu of any concerted effort to deal with the carbon emissions that continue to grow from oil sands fields. Meanwhile, Alberta-based oil sands companies continue to talk about carbon intensity reductions per barrel of oil produced rather than the total emissions they are producing as they continue to ramp up production. And with the United States planning to withdraw from the Paris Agreement in 2020 even though the country is responsible for approximately 15% of global emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, it would seem we are leaving a legacy to future generations of a badly damaged planet.

The oil company executives will be in attendance at the United Nations climate summit. This has been described as having the arsonists in the room while attempting to put out the fire. The industry has shown little regard for the future of humanity other than shareholders, and yet we give them the courtesy of having conversations while they greenwash the facts.

So I say again, maybe those bombed Saudi oil facilities shouldn’t be brought back online. After all, there are already billions of dollars in the Kingdom and its stashed wealth funds, enough money to go round for decades to come to keep all of its people reasonably well accommodated.

And maybe while we are not restoring Saudi capacity to further pollute the planet and alter the climate, that we stop Arctic oil exploration once and for all, and that we turn the intellectual capital and money muscle of the oil and energy industry into bending the carbon emissions curve downward through the creation of marketable solution to solve the climate crisis.

Thus ends my rant.