The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Spoof ExxonMobil Ad Nails How Easy It’s Been for Big Oil to Manipulate the Public
Dear Diary. A couple of days ago we announced that Heatwave Exxon had died, being squashed by a cold front moving off the East Coast. The thing was nasty, bringing record heat to Mexico and the Carribean starting in April, then moving northward into Texas on May, then enveloping the rest of the U.S. from June into July. I name heatwaves after oil companies to highlight the fact that they are making heatwaves worse by continuing to drill and make products which release carbon onto the atmosphere, which is a greenhouse gas.
It just so happens that one of the main U.S. heatwaves from this summer was named Exxon, which was next up on my list of oil company names to name heatwaves. Another group has also gone after Exxon this summer with a spoofy advertisement. You can laugh then cry after reading the following article from Common Dreams that describes what’s in the ad, which has been reposted.
Climate activists protest outside the New York State Supreme Court building during the Exxon trial on October 22, 2019 in New York City. (Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
‘All of Our Tricks Worked’: Spoof ExxonMobil Ad Nails Just How Easy It’s Been for Big Oil
“Do you have any idea how easy it is to get you off our backs with a little bullsh*t about your responsibilities to the planet?”
Jul 09, 2024
A new parody ExxonMobil advertisement released Tuesday by a group founded by Adam McKay—the Academy Award-winning writer and director of the blockbuster doomsday climate comedy Don’t Look Up—mocks humanity for letting Big Oil get away with causing one of the biggest existential threats of all time.
“There’s a world we all want to live in again. A world where the air is pure and crisp and clean and fills your lungs with joy. A world where you can drink water from any river or creek and your house will still be there tomorrow if it rains,” the narrator of Yellow Dot Studio’s latest parody video says in the two-minute clip. “Here at Exxon, we believe in that world, and we’re working hard to make sure that our customers believe that we believe in that world.”
“We understand the road has been bumpy, and we haven’t always done the best we could,” he says over footage of the Exxon Valdez disaster, in which more than 10 million gallons of crude oil were spilled in Alaska’s Prince William Sound in 1989.
The voice-over continues:
Sure, our own scientists accurately predicted climate change 60 years ago. But we didn’t want you to know about it. That’s why we spent billions on ads and media manipulation covering it up, then we rigged the government so leaders in both parties would do our bidding, and yes, we did everything in our power to block clean energy tech so we could keep force-feeding you oil via expanding global infrastructure, monstrous vehicles, and disposable plastics and chemicals that don’t go away. Ever.
The video follows the recent conclusion of a bicameral Senate investigation into Big Oil’s decades of spreading climate disinformation and obstructing a green transition—after which lawmakers called on the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate fossil fuel giants. There is also a nascent movement urging state and local prosecutors to go after the oil and gas industry for climate-related deaths.
“And yes, every now and then you squawk about how evil we are, but then we drop gas prices a nickel and you shut right back up,” the narrator says. “Do you have any idea how easy it is to get you off our backs with a little bullshit about your responsibilities to the planet? About your carbon footprint? Pretending plastic recycling actually makes a difference?”
“You’re letting us get away with it, you dumb bitches” he adds mockingly. “All of our tricks worked. The world is a burning, out-of-control charnel house. The last generation to die of old age has already been born, and you still let oil executives freely show their face in public.”
“We’re just one company but you’re 7 billion people,” the video concludes. “Get off your asses and do something, you fucking peasants!”
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Brett Wilkins is a staff writer for Common Dreams.
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports or outlooks:
Here is more new June 2024 climatology:
Here is More Climate News from Sunday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)