Wednesday, December 2, 2020

"UN Secretary General: Without the US in the Paris Agreement, Humanity Faces Climate ‘Suicide’" by Mark Hertsgaard in The Nation, Dec. 2, 2020

Quotes from Hertsgaard's article in the Dec. 2, 2020 issue of The Nation include: "In an extraordinary, if largely unheralded, diplomatic achievement, most of the world’s leading emitters have already joined the UN’s 'net zero by 2050' coalition, including the European Union, Japan, the United Kingdom, and China (which is the world’s largest source of annual emissions and has committed to achieving carbon neutrality 'before 2060'). India, meanwhile, the world’s third largest annual emitter, is the only Group of 20 country on track to limit temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius by 2100, despite needing to lift many of its people out of poverty, an achievement Guterres called 'remarkable.'"

"[Global average temperature above year 1850 baseline . . . ] could be limited to 2.1 C, the group said—higher than the agreement’s target of 1.5 to 2 C, but a major improvement from the 3 to 5 C future that business as usual would deliver."

"[T]he 26th Conference of the Parties, or COP 26, was supposed to take place this week but was postponed because of the pandemic."

"A total of 110 countries have joined the 'net zero by 2050' coalition [ . . . . ]"

"I’m totally convinced that a lot of the oil and gas that is today in the soil,” [UN Secretary General Guterres] said, “will remain in the soil.”  

Guterres' belief is interesting because a Feb. 15, 2020 investopedia.com article "What Percentage of the Global Economy Is the Oil and Gas Drilling Sector?" reported "According to market research by IBISWorld, a leading business intelligence firm, the total revenues for the oil and gas drilling sector came to approximately $3.3 trillion in 2019. This sector is composed of companies that explore for, develop, and operate oil and gas fields. It is also sometimes referred to as the oil and gas exploration and production industry, or simply E&P. With 2019 global GDP estimated to be $86 trillion, the oil and gas drilling sector alone makes up around 3.8% of the global economy."

In contrast, Bill McKibben wrote a Nov. 15, 2019 article at yesmagazine.org, "Big Oil Needs to Pay for the Damage It Caused," noting "Indeed, the high-end estimate for economic damage from the global warming we’re on track to cause is $551 trillion, which is more money than exists on planet Earth. Even that figure is notional: How do you compensate the generations of people yet unborn who will inherit a badly degraded world? Even if Exxon et al were to disgorge every dirty penny they’d ever made, it wouldn’t pay for relocating Miami, much less Mumbai [ . . . . ] But at this point, even the best-case scenarios are relentlessly grim; lots of damage has been done, and far more is in the offing. We’re going to have to remake much of the world to have a chance at survival. And if we’re going to try, then that repair job shouldn’t repeat the imbalances of power and wealth that mark our current planet. Justice demands a real effort to make the last, first this time around."

My question is "What will be the value of the oil and gas drilling sector if humans are extinct?"

No comments:

Post a Comment