<
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/07/mining-billionaire-andrew-forrest-in-scathing-attack-on-oil-and-gas-industry>
"The Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest has used the backdrop of the
Cop28 climate summit to pay for ads in more than 10 major newspapers around the
world attacking the oil and gas industry and calling for fossil fuels to be
phased out.
Forrest, who this year ranked as Australia’s second richest person, with a net
worth of A$33.3bn (£17.4bn), placed an ad in the Friday edition of papers
including the
New York Times,
Wall Street Journal,
Washington Post,
Financial Times,
Times of India,
Australian Financial Review and the
Australian.
Under the banner of Forrest’s company Fortescue, the display ad showed an
ostrich with its head in the sand. Above the bird ran the text: “Oil and gas,
here is the science you’ve missed.”
The campaign was timed to run as Forrest, who made his fortune mining iron ore
but who has more recently become an aggressive renewable energy investor and
advocate, called for urgent action at the climate summit in the United Arab
Emirates.
Speaking on a rest day at the Dubai conference, he said Cop28 could have
“enormous historic relevancy” if countries declared fossil fuels should be
phased out, and not just “abated” through what he called the “old lie” of
carbon sequestration, but would be a “flop” if they failed to agree on this
point.
“Look, I would have thought it’s unlikely that a call to phase out fossil fuel
would get a lot of airplay because the petrostate and fossil fuel sector sent
thousands and thousands of lobbyists here,” he told the Guardian. “And that is
interesting. But what is more interesting for me is that the science is now
cutting through and if people are saying they don’t know it, or they ignore it,
then I do think they have blood on their hands.
“We need just a simple understanding that there’s only one question we should
ask, which is: when are you going to stop burning fossil fuel? Any
industrialist, any politician should receive that simple question. Not ‘what’s
your net [zero] 2050 plan’ or ‘what is your going greener plan’, or any of that
whitewash.”
A trained marine scientist, Forrest has this year given lectures focused on the
increasing risk of “lethal humidity” – a level at which the human body
struggles to cool down – and says he has lobbied the governments of big
emitting countries to do something about it."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
