National Anxiety Center

	ARTICLE INDEX
Eco-Theatre of the Absurd: Behind "Campaign ExxonMobil"

By Alan Caruba
May 2002

On Tuesday and Wednesday, May 28-29, "Campaign ExxonMobil" will debut in Dallas to target the corporation with the claim that it is destroying the environment by exploring by drilling for, producing, and ultimately selling two forms of energy on which every one of us depends, gas and oil. Other allegations will include gay and human rights abuses.

What we will witness is the usual theatre of the absurd staged by the lunatics of the far left led by self-anointed, radical environmentalists. They will be joined by trade unionists, self-described anarchists, gay and animal rights groups, semi-professional agitators, and fellow travelers whose grasp of reality is limited to angry slogans and sound bites.

Designed to have the maximum media value, those kiddies in the streets of Dallas will put on a good show and many of those reporting it are not likely to use the words like "leftists" or "anarchists." Instead, they will be described as "activists" or even "environmental advocates." In this way, many Americans will be kept in the dark about their true agenda. Among the scheduled events is a "mock trial" to convict the company of "crimes against humanity and the environment." Give me a break!

"Campaign ExxonMobil" actually began on May 1st with a bogus "analysis" issued by Claros Consulting of London, England, claiming that ExxonMobil’s "emissions imprint" (whatever that is?) on the environment is such that, surely shareholders will demand they stop selling gas and oil, thus driving the value of the energy giant’s book value into the cellar. This is not going to happen.

For the record, ExxonMobil has been conserving so much energy in their refineries and chemical plants that these facilities are 37% more efficient than 25 years ago. The company has been expanding co-generation facilities and been researching new energy systems that have much lower carbon emissions and increased fuel efficiency. When you employ more than 1,500 PhD’s and depend on scientific and technological excellence to stay competitive, you tend to be on the cutting edge of such things.

Those PhDs, by the way, are part of a company with 98,000 employees in 200 countries and territories around the world. In the US alone, there are some 14,000 EM service stations. More to the point, ExxonMobil has been an excellent investment for its shareholders, consistently outperforming the S&P 500 for more than three decades. As for their shareholders, the target of "Campaign ExxonMobil", they have overwhelmingly voted against various Green proposals in the past. And rightly so.

Does this matter to the dunces in the streets of Dallas? What they think they know is that ExxonMobil’s "emissions imprint" will bring about global warming. What they refuse to acknowledge and what is rarely reported is that the Earth hasn’t warmed so much as one degree Fahrenheit in more than a half century. Climate records indicate, in fact, a slight cooling.

"Campaign ExxonMobil" is sponsored and funded by the usual cabal of eco-gangsters such as Greenpeace, the Green Party, Ralph Nader’s PIRG, and other enemies of corporate America. The real money will come from foundations such as Rockefeller, Hewlett, Packard, and Pew. Based on the riches of their founder, all capitalists to their toes, they have been taken over by directors who have turned their vast wealth against the engines of capitalism. They oppose free enterprise, progress, and the freedoms that Americans have sometimes given their lives to defend.

You can expect to see members of the Ruckus Society on hand. This group, funded in large part by billionaire Ted Turner, has trained thousands to show up in places like Quebec or Seattle to rant, rage, battle with police and trash local businesses in their quest to seek publicity for their extreme left agenda.

According to U.S. News and World Report, one of the leaders of Ruckus is Mike Roselle, an Earth First! radical and self-proclaimed revolutionary who, in 1995, said of his environmentalism, "this is Jihad, pal. There are no innocent bystanders, because in these desperate hours, bystanders are not innocent. We’ll broaden our theater of conflict." One can only hope the public will recognize these morons for the bugs on the backside of progress that they are.

The time is long overdue for people to begin to understand that these malcontents and America-bashers are the problem, not ExxonMobil, a company that funds school and community programs, tiger conservation programs and numerous other civic causes. The leftist loonies of the environmental movement are beginning to wear out their welcome.

Think about that the next time you drive into a service station and say, "Fill’er up!"