Why Shell Can Go Fuck Itself

You may notice that this headline is the very first in the history of the IrishEVs website that an expletive has been used – we try very hard to avoid any language that might cause offence, or exclude younger readers from engaging with our articles.

However, on this occasion we feel that this is a valid decision, and an important one.

Moreover, it is an entirely justified and human reaction to one of the single most evil corporations to have existed in the history of humanity.

Trust us, read on…

Why The Reaction?

You may be wondering what, specifically, incited us to break our no-swearing rule.

The answer: an interview with Shell CEO Ben van Beurden on the BBC with the headline “Oil giant Shell says it needs oil output to fund green shift”.

You may still wonder why this provoked such a strong reaction – after all, we know that a lot of people are new to the climate action movement and have been inspired by COP26 to try and live more sustainably, while calling for greater action from governments and corporations.

Well, dear reader, let us elaborate….

How do we know that they knew what they were doing?

On top of the work undertaken in the 1960s to demonstrate the connection between fossil fuel emissions and anthropogenic climate change, Shell and other major oil companies also carried out their own internal assessments on carbon dioxide emissions in the 1980s.

In fact, a 1988 internal report from Shell established a clear connection between their products, the climate crisis and ecological calamity.

So, for at least 30 years, Shell has knowingly profited from worsening the Climate Crisis, vast ecological destruction and worsening air quality to the point where 5 million annual deaths are now attributable to the Climate Crisis worldwide.

“It would take 7.2 billion years for the average inhabitant of Earth in 2021 to accumulate the same carbon footprint as Shell”

We’re conscious that numbers as large as these can feel rather abstract out of context.

So to illustrate just how much damage Shell has knowingly caused, it would take 2,402,255,639 years to accumulate the same amount of CO2 emissions for the average Irish person.

Again, however, Ireland is a wealth nation which has considerably higher consumption and emission rates than the majority of the planet. In fact, the average Irish person has a carbon footprint that is 55% higher than the average person in the EU, and nearly three times higher than the average person on Earth.

When we take this into account, we find that Shell has financially profited from a carbon footprint that would take the average inhabitant of this planet in excess of 7.2 billion years to accumulate.

So let us return to the quote above and analyse what Shell is saying.

The corporation which has earned $524bn in profit since 1990, and which is responsible for the seventh largest CO2 emissions in the entirety of human history is, in effect, quibbling over the cost of “a billion dollars”.

This is just 1/524,000,000,000th of their profits since 1990.

Van Beurden then goes on to claim that Shell will transition to net zero – not the same as zero emissions – by 2050. This dramatically undermines the latest IPCC report, which clearly and repeatedly states that cutting emissions by 2050 is simply not enough, and will consign millions of people to death, and displace billions more, while also likely leading to the extinction of one-third of all animal and plant life by 2070.

That is what is at stake.

If your blood isn’t boiling at point, we have one final fact for you.

The ruling gave hope that emissions behemoths could be held accountable for their actions, that we might turn the tide on the Climate Crisis, and that the people living in the Global South – which is already being impacted by the Climate Crisis to the greatest extent, and which has the least funds to mitigate the impact of the Climate Emergency – might have a chance of a liveable future.

How did Shell respond?

Yes, you’ve guessed it; they’re appealing the decision.

How Shell’s CEO and its board members are not seen as the worst, most evil examples of humanity – responsible for the deaths of millions of people already, with millions more hanging in the balance, we cannot fathom. People have been locked up for much less.

We can only say that this reinforces the urgent need for international ecocide laws.

All that remains to be said are two things:

1)      Please boycott Shell. Do not fund them in any way – by buying their fuel, the products at their service stations, using their EV chargers, or by using your pension to pump up their profits. The only way to get them to change is to hit them where it hurts and lower the profits that they hold more dearly than a liveable planet

2)      Fuck Shell!