Corporations Causing Climate Catastrophe
by Joshua Karliner

What if Hurricane Mitch had taken the name not of a person but of one of the largest oil corporations in the world? Imagine the headlines: "Exxon Devastates Central America: 9,000 Dead, More Than 10,000 Missing. Hundreds of Thousands Homeless. Crops, Highways, Entire Villages Destroyed."

This may sound far-fetched, but at a recent meeting of the European Parliament, Green Party delegates proposed that the World Meteorological Organization name hurricanes after members of the Global Climate Coalition - an industry association made up of giant oil, coal, electric utility and auto corporations that are resisting efforts to curb global warming.

The proposal, which was rejected by the majority of European parliamentarians, would have offered a powerful symbol to help the world understand the dynamics of the greenhouse effect.

Climate change is not an "act of God." It is caused by humans. And at the center of the storm, are some of the world's largest, most powerful transnational corporations. Known collectively as the fossil fuel industry, and nicknamed the Carbon Club, this grouping of oil, coal and gas corporations is responsible for most of the world's emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

The burning of fuel produced by Shell Oil accounts for roughly the same amount of CO₂ as produced by all 48 nations of sub-Saharan Africa. With its nearly unimaginable wealth and power threatened by the 1997 Kyoto Protocol - aimed at saving the planet from global warming - the Carbon Club continues to try to scuttle this agreement.

Last November, it was out in force in Buenos Aires, Argentina, at the most recent round of UN negotiations on global warming, convened to implement the Kyoto Protocol. In the US and abroad, the club is throwing millions into deceptive advertising campaigns to discredit the mounting evidence of global warming.

But while the Carbon Club is busy blowing smoke, corporations such as British Petroleum (BP) and Shell - two of the world's top three oil corporations, with combined revenues topping $200 billion - have publicly recognized that global warming might be for real. As a "response," they are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in renewable energy such as solar power. They are busy preparing plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from their refineries, pipelines and oil-drilling operations by 10 percent.

While all of this sounds good, both Shell and BP continue to invest the vast majority of their resources in aggressively exploring for, producing, marketing and lobbying on behalf of petroleum.

Reversing the greenhouse effect depends not on such voluntary "action," but rather on reining-in unfettered corporate power both in the US and in the global arena. There are four key steps to alleviate global warming:

• End all new oil exploration. The world already has nearly 50 years of proven reserves - a sufficient cushion for planning a transition to renewable energy resources. Halting exploration and development also responds to demands for human rights and environmental health from communities around the world that are fighting the ill-effects of oil drilling and refining.
  
  
• End subsidies to fossil fuels and mandate technological transformation. The US oil industry alone reaps more than $5 billion in taxpayer-financed corporate welfare. The Carbon Club also receives subsidies and guarantees from institutions like the World Bank. All of these supports should be eliminated, replaced by incentives for the development of clean, non-nuclear energy, such as solar, wind and hydrogen power.
  
  
• Institute progressive pollution taxes. Taxing fossil fuels to reduce use is a politically unpopular step, in part because it places an unfair burden on the poor. But coupled with progressive tax reforms, such as relief for low- and moderate-income taxpayers, it will force those who can most afford it to pay for carbon reductions.
  
  
• Income from such taxes and other sources should be used to offset the economic impacts on workers, communities and poor nations that would otherwise bear the burden of the transition to clean energy. Of course, the world will be hard-pressed to bring about these changes as long as transnational corporations continue to wield the power they do. Yet the global storm is gathering; it is becoming increasingly urgent that we deal with the potentially catastrophic problem of climate change before it mercilessly deals with us.

Joshua Karliner is editorial coordinator for Corporate Watch [www.corpwatch.org] and the author of The Corporate Planet: Ecology and Politics in the Age of Globalization (Sierra Club Books, 1997).

© 1998 Joshua Karliner. All rights reserved. Progressive Media Project [409 E. Main St. Madison, WI 53703 (608) 257-4626, fax: -3373].