Exxon showed more sense three decades ago than now, when it’s back at the same Malaysian oil and gas field it backed off from in 1981 because it would release massive amounts of carbon dioxide that would accelerate climate change. It’s time to end the era of fossil fuels and get on with changing the world to cheaper, faster, and far cleaner sun, wind, and water power.
A decade before Al Gore’s 1992 book Earth in the Balance, years before Bill McKibben’s 1989 book The End of Nature, before the same year as the publication of the first GISS scientific study on Climate impact of increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide in Science,, according to Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian, 8 July 2015, Exxon knew of climate change in 1981, email says — but it funded deniers for 27 more years,
A newly unearthed missive from Lenny Bernstein, a climate expert with the oil firm for 30 years, shows concerns over high presence of carbon dioxide in enormous gas field in south-east Asia factored into decision not to tap it
Exxon didn’t just know about climate change way back when it wasn’t a public issue and scientists were just establishing solid evidence, Exxon acted on that knowledge way back then. And nonetheless funded climate denial propaganda for almost three decades. Just like big tobacco before it.
And now Exxon is back exploring that very same Natuna oil and gas field off Malaysia, according to 2b1st Consulting, 13 November 2012, PTTEP to replace Petronas in Indonesia East Natuna Project: PTTEP to join ExxonMobil, Total and Pertamina,
In 2010, Petronas from Malaysia had signed Heads of Agreement with ExxonMobil, Total and Pertamina, but on beginning 2012, the discussions were stopped before converting the Heads of Agreement into formal contract.
The Indonesia East Natuna block oil and gas field was previously called Natuna-D Alfa and is located in the Riau Islands.
The East Natuna field would hold 500 million barrels of crude oil.
Despite its size this East Natuna gas field present two challenges:
– 71% of carbon dioxide
– Remote location in regards of the nearest infrastructures to export the natural gas
(Emphasis in the original.)
The 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska was in a remote location, too, as was BP’s Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf, but location didn’t stop them from being disasters never cleaned up.
And see that “71% of carbon dioxide”? Same problem that caused Exxon to back off back in 1981. Yet there’s Exxon three decades later looking again to unleash that CO2 plus 500 million barrels of crude oil and 222 trillion cubic feet of gas to burn, contributing to the world-wide disaster of climate change.
The era of fossil fuels is over. Not that Georgia leads the U.S. in solar power jobs and deployment while China beats its own emissions pledge, the sun is rising and dirty oil and gas should all be left in the ground.
No fracking, no new pipelines, and no LNG export. Sun, wind, and water power now.