[World Now] The Guardian’s ’12 Best Villains for Climate Change’…

Zuckerberg and Murdoch: “Twelve Best Climate Change Villains”

Ahead of the 26th United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26) summit next month, the British daily The Guardian selected ‘the 12 greatest villains in the United States related to climate change’ and reported on the 27th local time.

The Guardian selected a list of 12 people, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Rupert Murdoch, founder of News Corp.

In addition, the heads of energy companies such as Chevron and Exxon, the CEOs of JP Morgan Chase and BlackRock that finance these companies, and American politicians who support these activities in the background were dishonored.

Zuckerberg: “Profits from fraudulent advertising on eco-friendly fuel and climate change”

The Guardian praised Zuckerberg as “showing a willingness to profit by denying climate change on behalf of the fossil fuel industry.”

He also pointed out that although misinformation about climate was said to be a ‘big problem’ at the US Congress in April, there was no actual effort to control it.

Last year, Facebook ads for fuel-friendly fuel were viewed 431 million times, and ads claiming that ‘climate change is a scam’ were viewed at least 8 million times in the United States alone in the first half of last year.

Murdoch: “80% of Fox Climate Reports ‘Climate Change Denies'”

Murdoch, the ‘media king’, has earned more than $23 billion from the spread of climate change-denying news and misinformation for decades.

According to the consumer group ‘Public Citizen’, as of 2019, more than 80% of Fox News’ climate reports deny climate change.

“As long as the planet exists, climate change is going on, and there will always be some,” he said.

[사진 제공: 연합뉴스] Darren Woods, CEO of Exxon

Chevron, ExxonMobil… Oil company CEOs are also ‘villains’

CEOs of leading oil companies, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Coke Industries, were also on the list.

The Guardian named Chevron CEO Mike Worth “the largest source of carbon emissions of any private company in the world.”

As for ExxonMobil, where Darren Woods is CEO, “Although it was known as the first oil company to recognize climate change more than 40 years ago, it has spent millions of dollars spreading climate change denial and is the fourth largest investor-owned company in the world.” “It emits carbon,” he said.

The two are also directors of the American Petroleum Institute (API), who have long spread climate change denial and delayed legislative efforts to curb carbon emissions, the Guardian added.

Investing in ‘fossil fuels’… JP Morgan and BlackRock also

Financial figures were also included.

Since the adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015, Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, the largest US bank, has invested a total of $317 billion in fossil fuels, 33% more than other banks.

JP Morgan Chase invested more than $2 billion in the tar sands project that causes environmental pollution between 2016 and 2019.

Larry Pink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, oversees one of the world’s largest portfolios of fossil fuel investments, with an investment of $87 billion.

[사진 제공: 연합뉴스] ‘Climate Crisis’ hourglass to be installed in front of Tower Bridge in London in May

Opposition to ‘climate change agenda’… US politicians are also on the list

American politicians were behind these activities.

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is preparing to mobilize her party to vote against the Biden administration’s climate change agenda, and has received more than $3 million in funding from the fossil fuel industry.

Senator Joe Manchin, a centrist within the Democratic Party, is an opponent of the Joe Biden administration’s climate change agenda.

He got his fortune from founding a coal company in the 1980s, and Exxon lobbyists refer to him as ‘your man’ and meet several times a week, the Guardian said.

Others include David McLennon, CEO of Cargill, a global feed company with a profit model based on the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, and Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman PR, which runs PR, advertising and lobbying campaigns in cooperation with fossil fuel companies such as Exxon Mobil and API. That’s it.

Ted Butru, a partner attorney at US law firm Gibson Dunn, who has defended oil companies in about 20 climate change liability lawsuits, has also been classified as a climate change villain.

He is the man who argued in court that “everyone has an equal share of responsibility for the climate crisis, and it is ‘unproductive’ to have the fossil fuel industry particularly responsible.”

Guy’s: “The ‘best villains’ should be held accountable”

The Guardian points out that the actions of these ‘supervillains’ affect millions of people, and that their actual carbon emissions have caused significant damage to marginalized groups.

The working class and the middle class must stop blaming themselves for climate change, seek justice and hold them accountable.