McKibben writes: "It shouldn't have to be this
way. In a rational world governments would be working overtime to shut off the
flow of carbon to the atmosphere?-?instead it was Barack Obama who gave Shell
the green light to go north."
Earth and the sun. (photo: NASA)
How to Protect a Planet
By
Bill McKibben, Medium
01 October 15
Once, many years ago, I was sitting on an airplane
chatting with an agreeable man in the next seat. He worked at NASA, and his job
was to make sure that nothing that left earth on a spacecraft would contaminate
the environment on other planets. He gave me his card, and it had the best job
title I’ve ever seen: Planetary Protection Officer.
I thought of him again this morning when two
remarkable stories criss-crossed in the news: the discovery of liquid water on
Mars, and Shell’s decision to back down from drilling in the Arctic.
The first was a great scientific achievement, as
spectrographs on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter were able to show through
the analysis of chemical signatures that intermittent dark streaks that appear
and then fade on Martian canyon walls had to be water.
That’s amazing — it certainly heightens the chance
that there could be microbial life on the red planet.
But almost as amazing was to read the details of the
story and learn that my seat-mate’s successor as NASA’s planetary protection
officer, a woman named Catharine Conley, was not letting the Mars Rover
anywhere near the streaks, though some of them were within driving distance.
The vehicle hadn’t been fully sterilized before it
left earth; therefore at least for now the streaks were off limits. We’re
taking enormous care to make sure they stay pristine
Meanwhile, back on our own planet, Shell announced
that it was pulling the plug on efforts to drill in the Arctic “for the
foreseeable future.” The official reason was that they hadn’t found as much oil
as they’d hoped for. The unofficial reason, as sources in Shell made clear to
reporters, was the brand damage they’d suffered — and rightly so.
This was a company prepared until this morning to take
advantage of the degree to which the planet had already warmed by drilling the
thawed Arctic for yet more oil to run up the temperature some more. Just think
about that for a moment.
Enough activists thought about that to make Shell’s
life impossible. The company can greenwash a lot — they’re currently trying to
rehabilitate their image so they can ‘advise’ European governments on the
upcoming climate talks in Paris — but they couldn’t greenwash this. As The
Guardian reported this morning,
“company sources also accept that Arctic oil polarized debate in a way that
damaged the firm. “We were acutely aware of the reputational element to this
programme,” one said.
Combined with the ongoing halt to the Keystone
pipeline, and the recent end to plans for the world’s largest coal mine in
Australia, it means activists have helped to begin defusing three of the
planet’s dozen or so largest ‘carbon bombs.’ And Shell’s capitulation will make
the next fights easier.
It shouldn’t have to be this way. In a rational world
governments would be working overtime to shut off the flow of carbon to the
atmosphere — instead it was Barack Obama who gave Shell the green light to go
north.
C 2015 Reader Supported News
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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