Thread by @pape_lapapp

The fossil fuel industry has infiltrated all steps of democratic will formation & decision making in order to protect business as usual, locking us in on the worst case climate scenario.

Yet, @Shell's CEO believes that "the public" will magically prevent a 3°C world.

https://twitter.com/James_BG/status/1549415109235286016

I've heard this illusion many times that the public as an entity is somewhat isolated from interventions to protect fossil interests. And that it therefore will come around the corner at some point. This is often coupled with misanthropic cliches about humans being essentially

dumb, greedy and ultimately deserving catastrophe as we haven't stopped it up until this point. So it might be helpful to be very clear about all the ways the fossil fuel industry has tried to control "the public" via the political discourse, lawmaking procedures and courts.

1. As the Greens' popularity soared pre-election last year, the fossil funded lobby org @insm intervened with an antisemitic dog-whistling & misinformation campaign portaying @ABaerbock as Moses with "10 prohibitions" in *all* major German newspapers.
zeit.de/kultur/2021-06…

The aim of the campaign was to discredit the green chancellor candidate, framing mocked green policies as state religion. Greens popularity (then at 20%) dropped after the campaign, with an election result of 14,8% in september.
n-tv.de/politik/Gruene…

I'm NOT suggesting this was monocausal. Springer Presse also ramped up their anti-green fear mongering & there was a controverse around Baerbocks book at the time. But it's important to be aware of the few examples of visible fossil fuelled intervention in pre-election discourse.

2. In the broader political discourse, greenwashing serves as a way of gaslighting society into believing that everythings fine when it's not in step one. And step two: If it's not, it's not the companies' fault as they only provide greedy us with the stuff we demand.

3. A more direct impact on the public's attempt to prevent a 3°C world can be seen in the way the fossil fuel industry engages with democratic institutions, now that societies all over the world demand radical climate action.

In 🇩🇪 the former government granted fossil fuel giant #RWE a de facto legislative mandate in the coal phase-out lawmaking. #RWE funded analyses were adopted word-by-word into the law that now includes phrases like: "brown coal will indirectly contribute to the energy transition".

Plus, #RWE's highly controversial Garzweiler II open coal pit in the rhinevalley now enjoys legal protection in Germany as an "energy-economic necessity", and yes, that was enshrined in the so-called "coal phaseout law".

spiegel.de/politik/deutsc…

Needless to say that #RWE's "analysis" is not that much of an analysis afterall, as @DIW_Berlin showed later.
diw.de/documents/publ…

Same govt coalition killed a total of 100.000 jobs in the regenerative energy sector btw. They used a bundle of regulative measures that effectively undermined the expansion of wind and solar in Germany, leading to the fossil dependence that we are in now.
dw.com/de/was-behinde…

4. All the while German fossil companies #RWE and @uniper_energy sue the Netherlands because of their coal phaseout 2030 policy.
dw.com/en/energy-char…

Seems like the Netherlands really take some significant steps to prevent a 3°C world. Besides the phaseout 2030, they successfully ruled that @Shell, the company steered by Ben van Beuren must reduce its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 from 2019 levels...
cnbc.com/2021/05/26/dut…

...leading to shell MOVING THEIR HEADQUARTERS TO ANOTHER COUNTRY to evade these decarbonisation provisions. bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

NOW, maybe it's time to acknowledge the multiple ways in which "the public" has tried to prevent the 3°C world in all this, and how many weapons the FF industry wields to sabotage that.

Yet, there are things we can do:

1. Understand that this is, more than anything, about the structural power the fossil fuel industries hold. We can't overcome their wrongs if we shy away from confronting their power.
theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

2. In November, the #ECT is to be ratified. It's a treaty that basically protects fictitious "rights" fossil fuel companies claim to their investments & future profits.
@krustelkram's incredible comic explains the dangers of this treaty.
celinekeller.com/dawn-of-the-ect

3. More and more people agree that we will have to nationalize the fossil fuel sector in order to put their operations under democratic control and phase out fossils without delay. Read @jasonhickel here:
currentaffairs.org/2021/11/what-w…

and listen to @KateAronoff here:
open.spotify.com/episode/4UMYOf…

So, if we, the public are to stand a chance to prevent 3°C, we must revoke their power to manipulate public opinion, policy making & jurisdiction (as in the #ECT)
You already see this happening when activists interrupt their general meetings.

https://twitter.com/itvlondon/status/1529100544840810500

They have proven that they can't be part of the solution or any discussion about solutions. This is not a matter of diverging opinions, or about bitterness or a need to have an honest & heartfelt conversation with CEOs or second chances.

It's also not about humans being inherently greedy or dumb or deserving. It's about structural power.