If you consider that the global economic turnover of coal-, oil- and gas products amounts to over hundred billion dollars per day it is understandable that the handful of people making their profits from this turnover are reluctant to see it go. They also have considerable power to keep the fossil fuel paradigm going some more years, even if this is not in the interest of the people of the world in general. This handful of superrich people finances lobby groups, spin-doctors, so-called skeptics and other “errand-boys”, think-tanks, PR-enterprises and media empires to manipulate public opinions, politicians, financial institutions and research institutions to delay or stop development of alternative, environmentally friendly energy sources. They try to convey the impression that they represent status quo, while their opponents represent irresponsible economic experiments. The reality is that the fossil fuel industry runs the biggest experiments in human history. All living organisms are “guinea pigs”:

Experiment 1
What happens when we transfer enormous amounts of fossilized carbon (coal, oil and gas) stored in the ground for the last 500 million years into the atmosphere and the oceans? Will we manage to recreate the Jurassic climate 150 million years ago? What happens to our present environment and climate in that case? Are there any non-linear, irreversible tipping points? If so, where? What happens if frozen methane gas hydrates at sea bottom and the methane and CO2 stored i permafrost melt and escape to the atmosphere?

Experiment 2:
See how long it is possible to manipulate the peoples of the world to NOT invest massively in non-fossil energy sources before the peak oil crisis really hits. What happens when oil prices triple within a year when there are no realistic conventional alternatives? How much more can the oil and coal companies make in extra profits before human societies either collapse or actually manage to replace the fossil fuels with other energy sources?

Experiment 3:
What happens if the fossil fuel industry and their allies: the coal and oil dictators more or less control global finance? The enormous flow of petro-money to dictatorships in the Middle East and Africa is an amazing social experiment, ensuring the already megarich to become megasuperrich. A small elite of five or six thousand persons seeks control over 80% of the world’s assets, while the majority of people risk living in destitution. There are already obvious signs of growing discontent on especially food prices in several areas. What repressive measures will the dictators use and to what extent? To what extent can the small but extremely powerful elite of fossil fuel CEOs dictate the rest of the world?
Is it likely that in a peak oil situation most petro-dictators will find that they have sucked enough money out of their people and leave with their booty before everybody takes to the streets? How quickly will this happen? What will the people do when they find that their elected new politicians will have virtually no power, since that has vanished into closed board rooms in multinational giant corporations?

• The story of citizens united vs FEC: Why democracy only works when people are in charge
• 5 Reasons to Be Hopeful We Haven’t Totally Screwed Ourselves and the Planet … Yet
• Why is it so hard to stop climate change? (The Guardian 2011)
• World Bank: Ditch subsidies on fossil fuels to address climate change (Guardian, 2011)
• IMF Rejects Fossil Fuel Subsidies, Calls for Reform

Irreversible in our time
Unfortunately, humanity only gets one chance of doing these experiments. In a human time perspective, the changes are irreversible. Not only do the activities of these supergreedy people jeopardize our environment. They also place our societies in a very perilous situation when the peak oil crisis of conventional oil sources hits our infrastructures and economies ever stronger. The only reason for continuing these very hazardous experiments is that the supergreedy and superrich want to get even more powerful.

This is not sustainable in any way; ecologically, politically nor economically. The fossil fuel paradigm will thus come to an end – probably sooner than later. The alternatives are plentiful and growing.

Or do you really think it is likely that burning all these fossil fuels and placing all this carbon in the atmosphere and in the seas has no negative impact?
– The atmosphere is no thicker than a coat of varnish on a globus.
– Is it realistic to think it is likely that this thin layer of gases and our limited oceans can absorb limitless amounts of waste, or is this just wishful dreaming?

Again – do you really think it is likely that the UN – the organisation which has as the expressed task to protect the interests of the people of the world – is more likely to manipulate science than the CEOs of the coal and oil companies – clearly associated with the most undemocratic regimes in the world?

If you really think so, you should have the burden of proof.

Flooding in Arendal, Norway

Literature:

[1] NCDC/NOAA: Global climate change indicators http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/indicators/