Don’t let the oil and gas companies fool you.
By Stan Cox, The Nation
While the Ukrainian people bear the lethal brunt of Russia’s invasion, shock waves from that war threaten to worsen other crises across the planet. The emergency that loomed largest before Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began—the heating of Earth’s climate—is now looming larger still. The reason is simple enough: a war-induced rush to boost oil and gas production has significantly undercut efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

UN Secretary General António Guterres made that clear in an angry March 21st address blasting world leaders scrambling for yet more oil and gas. “Countries could become so consumed by the immediate fossil fuel supply gap that they neglect or knee-cap policies to cut fossil fuel use,” he said, adding, “This is madness.” He linked obsessive fuel burning with the endpoint toward which today’s clash of world powers could be pushing us, using a particularly frightening term from the original Cold War. “Addiction to fossil fuels is,” he warned, “mutually assured destruction.”
He’s right. In this all-too-MAD moment, we’re facing increasingly intertangled threats of the first order and can’t keep looking away. To achieve mutually assured protection against both global broiling and global war, humanity will have to purge oil, natural gas, and coal from our lives as quickly as possible, a future reality the Ukraine disaster seems to be making less probable by the day.
To Cap Climate Risk, Cap The Wells
When Russia’s invasion of Ukraine sent the cost of a barrel of oil into the triple digits, the fossil fuel companies and their friends in government, always on the lookout for profitable opportunities amid market chaos, responded predictably…
Recent Posts
Trump And Musk Are Going To War Against The Welfare State
February 17, 2025
Take Action NowThe new administration is encouraging state experiments in lean and punitive social policy.By Colin Gordon, Dissent It is…
Organizers Ready Nationwide “Not My Presidents’ Day” Protests
February 17, 2025
Take Action Now“We the people will not live under a king,” said one progressive organizer. “We will not allow Trump and…
Trump and DOGE Want To Cut Waste? This Upcoming Test Launch of a Nuclear Missile Is All Waste – and Dangerous Folly
February 16, 2025
Take Action Now If President Trump and Elon Musk want to cut federal waste, they should listen to activists who’ve been targeting the land-based leg…
Leaked Documents Expose U.S. Interference Projects In Iran
February 15, 2025
Take Action Now Newly leaked documents expose Washington’s ongoing, covert push for regime change in Iran. With millions funneled into secretive…