An actual headline in an actual (major) newspaper:


Read the article.

"Confronted with a sharp change of priorities in Washington, international oil executives are expressing an eagerness to work with President Obama to fashion new policies to tackle global warming. ... Almost all of them seemed reconciled to the United States’ adopting some kind of climate policy, and said they were eager to work with the new administration to devise an effective energy strategy."

Uh-huh.

Big Oil HAS BEEN "working on" global warming for years. Of course, their work has been to attempt to discredit the science of climate change. 100% of the misinformation about climate change comes from the oil industry - either directly from the oil companies' Ministries of Propaganda or from so-called "scientists" hired by the industry to do "research" that results in pre-ordained conclusions.


The goal is not too prove or disprove anything. The goal is to raise doubts - to make people think that the science of climate change MIGHT BE wrong (or not... who knows?). So the oil industry resorts to planting the seeds of doubt. They also know the value of "The BIG Lie." They know that if they throw their lies against the wall enough times, that something will stick - that the lies will become truth in some people's minds, that doubts will work to obfuscate public perceptions.

These slippery creatures are putting up a front to make it appear that they are going to be part of the solution to climate change. They have changed propaganda techniques for two reasons:

1. they recognize a public mandate to 'go green'
2. they are going to cozy up to the new reality of of American governance

They want to appear progressive, but don't be fooled: the only want to perpetuate the drill, baby, drill thinking.

The sad part of all of this is that it is in the oil industry's long-term interests to support legitimate research and to promote conservation of their raw materials. Eventually, as oil becomes scarce in real markets, the value of their holdings and products will increase sharply. The problem is that today's execs don't care about tomorrow. The want everything now - this fiscal quarter - to increase their own current salaries and bonuses. They prefer to let someone else worry about tomorrow's company, tomorrow's shareholders, tomorrow's world. It's part of the gimmee, gimmee, gimmee now culture that says that winning means dying with with the most toys - and that winning is everything.

Our children and our children's children will foot the bill for such greed.

Will Big Oil actually try to help instead of hinder progress on climate-related issues? I'll believe it when I see it. Quite frankly, I don't expect to live to see that.