The Role of the Fossil Fuel Industry

Abstract

The global fossil fuel industry has played a pivotal role in the quadrupling of population since World War II and in the commensurate exponential increase in economic growth with its associated wealth creation. The foundation stone was massive expansion in the production and consumption of fossil fuels, globally and in Australia, which led to a corresponding accrual of power and influence on the part of fossil fuel industry players. The implications of increasing fossil fuel use, in terms of global warming as a result of increased atmospheric carbon concentrations, have been understood scientifically for decades. Yet the fossil fuel industry chose to ignore the science, and in its own perceived self-interest, deliberately prevented the development of serious policy to avoid the potentially catastrophic outcomes of this warming. The result is that the world must now take emergency action to rapidly reduce atmospheric carbon concentrations, in large part due to the intransigence of the industry itself in facing up to this reality, and its refusal to constructively manage its own decline. This is particularly the case in Australia. The industry should either proactively co-operate in handling the emergency, or it will be rapidly phased out.