GLOBAL CONGLOMERATE SHELL OIL (aka Shell Global and Royal Dutch Shell PLC), one of the giants in the fossil-fuel industry, had what was intended as a publicity move turned on them from various sources. This included tweets from two prominent names in the green energy movement.
An article titled “Shell’s climate poll on Twitter backfires spectacularly” on The Guardian website opened with these lines:
“A climate poll on Twitter posted by Shell has backfired spectacularly, with the oil company accused of gaslighting the public. The survey, posted on Tuesday morning, asked: What are you willing to change to help reduce emissions?”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the bane of all things regressive, tweeted, “I’m willing to hold you accountable for lying about climate change for 30 years when you secretly knew the entire time that fossil fuels emissions would destroy our planet.”
Greta Thunberg chimed in with, “I don’t know about you, but I sure am willing to call-out-the-fossil-fuel-companies-for-knowingly-destroying-future-living-conditions -for-countless-generations-for profit-and-then-trying-to-distract-people-and-prevent-real-systemic-change-through-endless greenwash-campaigns.”
(I should have tweeted back at them “Brava!” but I don’t use Twitter unless it’s tied to a petition I signed.)
Both tweets were followed by the usual responses of rabid rightwingers, including such doozies as:
• “And this was a fossil fuel free tweet made from your organically grown iPhone”
• “8% developed nations who achieved the status by burning Fossil fuels have no right to preach the rest that now they should not use fossil fuels as it is harmful to nature.”
Both points are correct.
Neither point has anything to do with the original tweets.
(I should have tweeted back at them something clever but . . .)
To read the article in its entirety, click HERE.
FEATURED IMAGE: The photo at the top of this page is of a Shell refinery in Texas. The company was accused of “endless greenwash” as Twitter users pointed out its contribution to the climate crisis. (The photo was taken by Gregory Bull for the Associated Press.)
Mystically liberal Virgo enjoys long walks alone in the city at night in the rain with an umbrella and a flask of 10-year-old Laphroaig who strives to live by the maxim, “It ain’t what you know that gets you into trouble; it’s what you know that just ain’t so.
I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a college dropout (twice!). Occupationally, I have been a bartender, jewelry engraver, bouncer, landscape artist, and FEMA crew chief following the Great Flood of ’72 (and that was a job that I should never, ever have left).
I am also the final author of the original O’Sullivan Woodside price guides for record collectors and the original author of the Goldmine price guides for record collectors. As such, I was often referred to as the Price Guide Guru, and—as everyone should know—it behooves one to heed the words of a guru. (Unless, of course, you’re the Beatles.)
