Last week The New York Times reported that the war in Ukraine has been good for oil companies. The story looked at Shell, the world’s largest private oil supplier. Its first quarter profits were a record breaking $9.1 billion, three times what it made in the first quarter of 2021. We are paying the price for company fat cats profits.
Shell also has a history. Few of us remember Ken Saro-Wiwa, a Nigerian activist and 19 others who were hanged for their activism against the destruction of the Niger Delta on trumped up charges of a murder. Shell was the target of his activism.
Of course, Shell is not the only oil company that has caused massive environmental damage. There is Exxon and the Valdez oil spill In Prince William Sound. There is the opposition to wind farms and solar energy by big oil and big gas. Moving beyond fossil fuels must be an environmental and social priority. The earth is bleeding.
Prayer for the Day
Old images of oil encrusted birds disappear from our minds,
For there is so much more that we must be concerned about;
Rising gas prices and food costs help to destroy our faith in government,
But so often we look at the effect rather than the cause.
Help us to discern, O God, what it is we need to do for the earth,
For as the sign often says: There is no Planet B.
In the name of the One whose words cause us to think,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
If we keep pulling death from the ground, we will reap death from the skies.
- Van Jones, from The Green Collar Economy
We must always remember that the fossil fuel era began in violent kleptocracy, with those two foundational thefts of stolen people and stolen land that kick-started a new age of seemingly endless expansion.
- Naomi Klein, from On Fire: The Case for a Green New Deal
You visit the earth and water it, you greatly enrich it; the river of God is full of water;
You provide the people with grain, for you have so prepared it.
You water its furrows abundantly, softening it with showers and blessing its growth.
You crown the year with your bounty; your wagon tracks overflow with richness.
The pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with flocks,
The valleys deck themselves with grain, they shout and sing together for joy.
Psalm 65: 9-13