âIf you really think that the environment is less important than the economy, try holding your breath while you count your money.â â Guy McPherson
As we go into our fifth heat wave of the year, with the natural world visibly dieing around us, think about the people and corporations who actively made all of this possible.
If you are Donald Trump, Kemi Badenoch or Nigel Farage then you will be celebrating each successive heat wave as proof that unregulated free market capitalism works.
A landmark attribution study (Nature: 10/09/25) found that just 180 fossil fuel and cement producers are responsible for 57% of all global COâ emissions since 1850. These include companies like ExxonMobil, Chevron, Saudi Aramco, Shell, and major stateâlevel producers.
Global oil and gas producers have made about $52 trillion in pure profit over the last 50 years (1970â2020), averaging $2.5â$2.8 billion per day. While these companies were literally raking in millions upon millions of profit, they were also aware of the calamitous effect their products were having on the worldâs climate.
Major oil companies knew by the early 1970s that their products could cause catastrophic global warming, and by the late 1970sâ1980s their own scientists were producing accurate climate models that matched later realâworld warming. They then spent decades publicly denying, downplaying, or delaying action.
The oil company Total, was warned in 1971 that burning fossil fuels could cause cataclysmic global warming. The personnel at Total, while accepting the findings privately, decided to refute the scientific evidence publicly. This was to become a familiar line of defence for all major polluting oil and gas companies.
It is poignant to note at this stage that although studies looking at the relationship between global warming and the oil and gas industry nearly always refer to the companies involved, the decisions made within these companies originate from individual people: companies do not make policy decisions, people do. It is usually a small group of greedy, selfish career minded men (and it usually is men ) at the top of these companies who determine company policy. It is they who are responsible for global warming.
In 1977 senior scientists warned Exxon executives of severe warming. The company began internal research of its own but kept findings private. Shellâs internal research noted a rise in carbon dioxide and warned of âmajor social, political and economic consequencesâ. Needless to say, no public action was taken and Shell oil and gas exploration and extraction continued. The same was true for BP. Despite internal awareness of climate change brought about by their products, they took no public action and continued to expand production.
Worse than taking no action, the top managers of these companies actively fought against the very idea that their products were harmful to the environment. Total lobbied against emissions limits. Exxon employed aggressive lobbying against the Kyoto Protocol and Shell supported anti-regulatory efforts.
The people at the head of these companies started off by denying climate change, funding campaigns that questioned the whole concept of global warming. By the 1990âs the evidence was too strong to ignore so those in charge of these companies now publicly accepted the science but lobbied to delay regulation for as long as possible. By 2010 they were forced to adopt climate-friendly branding while still continuing large fossil extraction investments.
Over the last 20 years total corporate fossil-fuel donations to the Labour Party are reckoned to be around £100,000. However, indirect donations over the last 20 years, either to the Party directly or to individual Labour MPâs is much higher. It is estimated that these payments are £400,000 - ÂŁ600,000.
This figure pales into insignificance compared to the money received by the Conservative Party over the same period. It is estimated that the Tory Party received over £3,000,000 from fossil-fuel interests. Not only has the Tory Party received hundreds of thousands of pounds for events and policy research from the companies themselves, but fossil-fuel individuals have also made donations. It is estimated that over a 20 year period individual fossil-fuel individuals donated £1.5 - £2 million to the Conservative Party.
In short, the Conservatives have received roughly 6-8 times more fossil-fuel linked money than the Labour Party. Is it any wonder that Kemi Badenoch promotes further oil exploration and extraction despite the obvious evidence we are in the midst of a global warming crisis.
Like Badenoch, Nigel Farage is also promoting the expansion of fossil-fuel extraction. Aping his corrupt friend Donald Trump, Farage has told energy firms to get ready to âdrill baby drillâ. Regardless of the catastrophic effects of fossil-fuel use, money takes precedence.
Nigel Farage has multiple donors and financial backers with direct links to fossilâfuel producers, fossilâfuel investors, and fossilâfuel lobbying networks. Across his political career (UKIP â Brexit Party â Reform UK), at least 6â8 major donors have clear fossilâfuel connections.
Christopher Harborne (Brexit Partyâs biggest donor ) gave ÂŁ10 million. He is a direct fossil fuel investor. Arron Banks gave ÂŁ8 million to UKIP: a direct fossil fuel investor. Richard Tice, Deputy Leader Of Reform UK, (and subject to investigation regarding funds) is an indirect fossil-fuel investor. Tice is indirectly exposed to fossilâfuel interests primarily through Reform UKâs donor base and GB Newsâs ownership structure, both of which include individuals with substantial oil & gas investments or climateâscienceâdenial affiliations.
Nigel Farage (and therefore Reform UK) has significantly more fossilâfuelâlinked donors than any mainstream UK politician except senior Conservatives. His donor base is heavily concentrated in energy commodities, aviation fuel, mining, and libertarian networks funded by fossilâfuel wealth.
Reform UK has the highest concentration of fossilâfuelâconnected donors of any UK political party. Not the highest total fossilâfuel money (thatâs the Conservatives), but the highest number of donors whose wealth comes from fossilâfuel extraction, trading, or investment.
As you lay in bed unable to sleep because of the heat, as you watch Englandâs once âgreen and pleasant landâ turn brown, as wild fires rage, as more and more farmers go out of business and food prices rocket, as hosepipe bans spread ever wider, and as more and more migrants flee their own parched lands heading for the UK, remember who is to blame: the top management of fossil-fuel companies and the politicians who were, and are, prepared to take their money despite the consequences for our planet and the people on it.
