news
From HEATED
Summary
- Elon Musk believes we should not vilify the oil and gas industry in discussions about climate change.
- The fossil fuel industry has contributed to global industrialization and economic prosperity, but has also caused substantial harm to the environment and human health.
- Major oil companies have engaged in a variety of tactics to delay climate action and downplay the impacts of fossil fuels.
- Exxon, BP, and Shell have reneged on promises to reduce emissions and largely used “carbon capture” to extract more oil.
The richest man in world has a new message about climate change: It’s real, but don’t knock the industry most responsible.
“I don’t think we should vilify the oil and gas industry,” Elon Musk said while speaking about climate change during his two-hour conversation with former president Donald Trump last week. It was a sentiment Musk repeated four times throughout the 10-minute climate discussion. “I don’t think it’s right to sort of vilify the oil and gas industry,” he said, using the same verb—vilify—every time.
“Vilify,” interestingly, has two different meanings. It can be a synonym of “defame,” which means to speak falsely about someone. Or it can be a synonym of “besmirch,” which means to paint as a villain, whether true or false.
It’s tough to know exactly what Musk meant with his verbiage. But if he was arguing that people shouldn’t lie about the oil and gas industry, then I agree. The truth is enough for people to come to their own conclusions.
[...]
