Those Slick Oil Types

Robert Brulle (Brown University) has analysed the last 30 years of advertising spending by the major oil companies (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/sep/09/big-oil-delay-tactics-new-climate-science-denial). The oil companies are aware that they can no longer deny the role of hydrocarbon emissions in climate change (as warned decades ago by their own scientists). They have a cunning new tool in their campaign to delay any effort to curb 'greenhouse gas' emissions. The oil companies now spend 5-10 times more on corporate promotion. Anyone briefly scanning their output, would think they had mutated into social justice warriors, fighting on behalf of the poor, the marginalised and women. Economists and sociologists call the technique 'discount of delay'. Unfortunately, the climate movement still focus on the science denial part of the story. The slickers, however, have moved on. Their delaying tactics, could wreck any chance of preventing a climate catastrophe. They won't care because profits will continue to roll in!