Are fossil fuels burning our future?

We need to talk about eco-anxiety

Authors: Hrithik Agarwal, Clover Hogan
Editors: Tanya Singh, Sophie Palmer

My Story

I’m Hrithik Agarwal, age 22, and I grew up in Odisha, an eastern state of India. I used to daydream about having my whole life ahead of me, the career choices I’d make - now, all I can think about is how my future will be defined by the climate crisis. We’re told we have less than 9 years to avoid the worst climate tipping points. And we’ve been led to believe that this world we’re inheriting is our fault; my fault, for not turning off the lights when I leave a room, taking public transport, or using AC on the scorching hot days in Odisha. On March 31, 2021, our capital city of Bhubaneswar was the hottest place in the world at 44.6°C.

This is a convenient narrative created by the fossil fuel industry; including the 100 companies responsible for 71% of global emissions. Big oil companies such as BP, Exxon, and Chevron. have amassed unimaginable amounts of wealth, political control, and influence - including over how we think and talk about the climate crisis.  

A Hidden Agenda

The scientists within companies such as Exxon were some of the first to discover climate change, going as far back as the 60s; but instead of raising the alarm, these companies chose to spend decades - and masses of money - to fuel misinformation and prevent climate action. When climate change inevitably hurtled into the public’s consciousness in the 80s, these companies threw everything they had at denying the science and discrediting the scientists. In recent years, they changed their approach. With the relationship between the climate crisis and the fossil fuel industry indisputable, they shifted from denial to delay. They did this through greenwash campaigns, and by placing blame on individuals like me. BP spent hundreds of millions of dollars rebranding themselves from ‘British Petroleum’ to ‘Beyond Petroleum’, naming their new logo the ‘Helios mark’, after the Greek sun god, to simulate a green growth strategy. Then, in 2004, they created the 'carbon footprint calculator' - a smart way to fuel my guilt about how I was responsible for the climate crisis. How long I shower, how I get around, which light bulbs I use... 

The Rise of Greenwashing

Learning from these fossil fuel giants, other industries like the meat industry and the plastic industry have started using similar kinds of marketing tactics: shifting the onus on the general public, detaching themselves of their culpability in the process. My home of India is still a developing country, with a large population whose basic needs have not been met. 86 million people are living in extreme poverty, and  we have 9 of the world's top 10 polluted cities. Energy is needed to lift people out of poverty; to build fair, equitable societies; and at present, this transition is dependent on dirty fossil fuels. Clean alternatives exist, yet countries like the UK - which have already been through their industrial revolution - can’t expect leaders of the Global South to prioritise sustainable technologies and infrastructure when they’re more expensive, and slow the rate of progress. 

As Caroline Hickman highlighted in Episode One, Season Two of the Force of Nature podcast - in the same week the UK government flaunted its net zero target, they entertained plans for a new coal mine. Whilst researching this, I also learnt of a new North Sea oil and gas project, as well as the government’s decision to offer 1 billion dollars in financial support to a major fossil fuel project in Mozambique.

If we look at industry; Shell, one of the fossil dinosaurs, has set out a seemingly ambitious net zero plan. But upon closer inspection, the plan relies on offsetting 120 million tonnes of CO2 a year by 2030: which is more than the *entire global market of offsetting* in 2019. And to promote this, their greenwashed promotion campaign encouraging car users to ‘drive carbon neutral with Shell!’ is just scandalous.  To quote Greenpeace: “offsetting is a way of paying for others to reduce emissions or absorb CO2 to compensate for your own emissions”- like buying up a plot of forest in Borneo, or the Amazon. Offsetting allows companies like BP and Shell, as well as airlines, to continue with their unsustainable behaviour while shifting their responsibility for the climate onto the consumer. 

Rooted in Exploitation

In learning more and more about the fossil fuel industry, I’ve realised that colonialism still exists at its - lack of - heart. Politicians of the Global North are demanding more of countries whose populations are trying to escape poverty; while business leaders are “offsetting their emissions” by buying up our land, instead of ending a system of extraction and commodification. Seconding Aneesa Khan, who also features in the podcast, "the injustice of the climate crises is why I'm here. Wealthy countries, countries in the global north, the fossil fuel industry, and corporations are very much responsible for the climate crises but the people who are bearing its burden are our young people, women, people of colour and indigenous people." To this point, economically developed countries, who have contributed the most to historic emissions, should lead the charge in aggressively phasing out fossil fuels - because they can afford to. Simultaneously, they must invest in helping all the other under-resourced countries do the same. 

You can listen to Episode 1, Season Two of the Force of Nature podcast here.