An Open Letter to Exxon

Dear Exxon,

Let's take a break from the endless nightmare that is Brett Kavanaugh's white privilege, shall we?

And instead, let's talk about how global warming is going to be so bad in 12 years that it stands to threaten the existence of human life.

Goody!

Earlier this week, the United Nations published a report chock-full of warnings about what is going to happen to Earth if we don't do something about this pesky, little problem that everyone seems to forget about.

Recently, I published An Open Letter about climate change. I wanted to explain the science behind global warming, because last semester, I learned that lots of people (including myself) have a grave misunderstanding of the irreversible effects that just a one-degree temperature difference can make on our planet. I wrote that letter on the tail-end of Hurricane Florence in mid-September.

In just one month, we've seen one tropical depression, three tropical storms, and four more hurricanes, including Hurricane Michael, which just passed through Florida's panhandle this week.

That's pretty problematic.

Now, this U.N. climate change report suggests that everything I talked about in September is only going to get worse. Rising temperatures mean lots of bad things, including higher sea levels, the extinction of hundreds of species, higher rates of disease (such as malaria and dengue fever), the dislocation of millions of people who live in areas close to the water, smaller crop yields, and severer weather.

Just to name a few.

So, Exxon, where do you come in?

Following the publication of the U.N.'s report, ExxonMobil, one of the biggest downplayers of climate change, announced that the company would donate $1 million to Americans for Carbon Dividends, a campaign in Washington geared around the promotion of a carbon tax in the United States.

When I came across this headline while skimming the news this week, I was both elated and totally confused. It's great that a big oil company like ExxonMobil wants to take part in the fight to mitigate the effects of the climate change. The involvement of any large corporation is beneficial, because we need powerful people to enforce the drastic, but necessary, changes.

But such a sizable donation like this one seems too good to be true. Why would an oil company - one of the anti-environment industries in the world - want to get involved in making their jobs harder and less profitable? For ExxonMobil to get involved in the climate change debate is an obvious conflict of interest. Being the suspicious person that I am, I figured that Exxon must have some other motive.

As you could probably guess, Exxon isn't just donating because of peace and love.

Actually, there are multiple incentives that Exxon had for being the first oil corporation to outwardly support environmentalist efforts. For one, by getting their foot in the door early on, Exxon will be able to play a larger role in shaping the supposed carbon tax. This means that Exxon could potentially manipulate the logistics of the tax so that the majority of the payment falls on the consumer rather than the supplier.

A carbon tax would also provide a boost to Exxon's natural gas industry. According to a study by Columbia University, a carbon tax would increase the price and production of natural gas, which could provide Exxon with a handsome profit.

Lastly, by making this donation right after the U.N. published its results could really help Exxon out on the public relations front. Right now, everyone is all hyped up on political action. The donation will probably earn Exxon the most press after it has just been announced we are about to meet our doom. Besides, for a company with a net worth of $350 billion, a $1 million donation is barely the change out of its pocket.

Clean-up efforts from the Exxon oil spill in 1989.

I still think that this donation is a good thing, and I'm sure that Americans for Carbon Dividends will use it wisely. However, I don't want us to assume that because a large corporation is donating money to environmental organizations automatically means that they are playing on Team Earth. In reality, that is probably far from the reality.

The largest of America's corporations can donate all of the money in the world, but you can still make a bigger difference.

How?

Vote on November 6th.

Environmentalism is a bipartisan issue (even though it should not be), and it's clear which side is going to implement real change that will try to prevent what the U.N. has predicted.

Raise your voices, and make sure your vote counts.

The Earth ACTUALLY depends on it.

Yours truly,

P.S. You still think Kanye is a genius?