or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
June 18, 2008
The Shell Scenarios For Planetary Catastrophe
You might think even giant multinational oil companies have woken up to the dangers of global warming...so that no matter what they're doing in reality, their PR people will at least make noises about dealing with it in plausible ways. You would be wrong.
Shell, the second largest oil company on earth, has a nice little page where they lay out three different scenarios for the future. The least optimistic is called "Scramble" (for governments scrambling to secure energy sources without regard for climate change) and the most optimistic is called "Blueprints (with CCS)" (CCS meaning carbon capture and storage).
Here's a slide from one of the Shell powerpoint presentations. As you see, the most optimistic scenario is that our CO2 emissions will in 2050 have peaked and declined to present levels.
The atmospheric concentration of CO2 is currently at 385 parts per million. Until recently it was believed we had to stop at 450 ppm to prevent catastrophic climate change; the evidence today suggests we are already too high and must get down to 350 ppm as quickly as possible. Under the most optimistic Shell scenario, we will be (by my rough calculation) at 485 ppm in 2050, and rising quickly.
So that's the downside of the future Shell envisions for us. The upside is that Shell executives will be living comfortably in their gigantic floating fortress in the Arctic.
WEBCHAT: A Shell vice president is hosting a webchat on CCS tomorrow, June 19th, at 11 am EST. If you want to participate, you can register at the "Shell Dialogues" site.
I, CRIMINAL: Part of the terms and conditions of the "Shell Dialogues" site is that you cannot link to them without their permission. Seriously:
If you wish to provide a hypertext or other link to this web site, please contact the webmaster with details of:the URL(s) of the web page(s) from which you are proposing to link to this web site
the URL(s) of the web page(s) on this web site to which you are proposing to link
and we will consider your request. It is our decision as to whether we agree to your request and we do not have to do so.
I see many long and fruitful dialogues with Shell ahead.
—Jonathan Schwarz
Posted at June 18, 2008 12:09 PMShell is also aware of all Internet traditions...
Posted by: Peter VE at June 18, 2008 03:02 PMGeorge and Dick tell them anything they might want or need to hear out of me. I just buy their gas, I can't see what the fuck more they'd want.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 18, 2008 03:38 PMIt would be interesting if they mention Nigeria in the report as I personally have the former Prince of Nigeria who Emails me about his Mom, the Queen, and his 8 sisters who are starving even thouth they have 10 million in the bank. It was his dad's, the King, who was killed in the revolution. They are waiting for my account number and they are gonna split 50/50 with me as soon as I get an account somewhere. Perhaps I could get an account with Shell.
Posted by: Mike Meyer at June 18, 2008 03:56 PM
