Everyone is still developing fossil fuels

As my recent blackboard talk emphasized, climate stability means fossil fuel abolition. Arguments to the contrary are cynical mechanisms to keep the petro profits coming, regardless of the consequences for the climate.

Unfortunately, despite endless talk about ‘net zero’ and ‘ensuring’ climate stability, essentially everybody is still chasing fossil fuels:

• It’s easy to blame petrostates – but self-proclaimed ‘climate leaders’ like the US and UK are driving the crisis
• Revealed: wealthy western countries lead in global oil and gas expansion
• Guyana banks on future as a ‘new Qatar’ in high-stakes gamble over oil production
• ‘Will you stop exploring yours?’: Latin America forges ahead on new oil frontier
• Pristine forests and grinding poverty: why shouldn’t Brazil’s Amapá state embrace oil wealth?

Remember: it takes decades for the full effects of our greenhouse gas pollution to be fully manifest. That means much worse is still to come, even if we start making the right choices, and a nightmare looms if we persist with our current approaches.

Author: Milan

In the spring of 2005, I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a degree in International Relations and a general focus in the area of environmental politics. In the fall of 2005, I began reading for an M.Phil in IR at Wadham College, Oxford. Outside school, I am very interested in photography, writing, and the outdoors. I am writing this blog to keep in touch with friends and family around the world, provide a more personal view of graduate student life in Oxford, and pass on some lessons I've learned here. View all posts by Milan