Big Tech Loves Big Oil

Consumers love Big Oil. They haven't stopped filling up at gas stations or buying plastic products last time I checked.

You may think you're going green if you're buying a Tesla, but you might want to learn more about the amount of oil that goes into making a Tesla vehicle. Perhaps the electricity you use to recharge it too, unless you're supplied with 100% renewable. And if the latter, how much oil goes into solar panels, wind turbines, etc.

As long as consumers keep buying products from Big Oil, Big Oil will have money to spend on technology and somebody, somewhere, will meet that need.

Attempts to blame somebody else, "Big Tech" in this case, are really just failures to accept our own personal responsibilities.

Brought to you by:

Organization:Extinction Rebellion Organizing Committee Inc.

Don't know why I had to do a WHOIS to find that out.

There's an episode of Screaming in the Cloud[0] that touches on this. They particularly call out Amazon for their comparatively low carbon-neutral benchmarks, but everyone seems to be a culprit in this. Seeing Amazon's record on green energy usage is particularly frustrating given that they just secured the naming rights to a new Seattle stadium and chose the moniker "Climate Pledge Arena". Not a great look, Jeff.

0: https://www.lastweekinaws.com/podcast/screaming-in-the-cloud...

1: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kensilverstein/2020/07/06/amazo...

i remember XR from London. a few hundred people managed to close down intersections that then created even more pollution.

then they blocked the tube/subway and the commuters actually fought back (physically). since then XR london protests are around 5-10 people.

personally, i don't understand why, of all the options, they would go the route of "cancel culure"/"name and shame".

why not get elected and pass laws?

why not create a smart campaign to get the people on your side and then force the government?

and finally why not buy actual shares in those companies and become an activist investor (like so many others)?

that's why to me XR always felt like teenagers in adult clothes. their spirit is pure, but the actual implementation is really poor.