Predatory ambitions: “the tactical setting of ambitious-looking but unattainable climate targets” — Ketan Joshi
The Greenwashing Habitability Zone, as described by Ketan Joshi (in the first figure below), shows the usual suspects of discourses of denial are at work in the technophilic solutions we have been presented with by fossil fuel industries and their emissaries. Rather than simply ramping down fossil fuels use, we are fed every single deus ex machina possibility that seems ‘just around the river bend’ — false solutions that seem like they could possibly help us out with our technical problems, but instead simply are carrots on sticks that keep us on a denialist treadmill.
If it is true that the goal of the fossil fuels industry is to Delay, Deny, Defend, so that they can keep on polluting as long as possible, to keep the money rolling in, and put off until mañana the social and political reckoning of destroying the equilibrium of life on this planet. As soon as it is incontrovertible and irreversible that fossil fuels are indeed stranded assets, the stock prices of these companies will tank.
Due to the scarcity and fear factors of those who are most well-off (an inverse proportion to actual risk and insecurity), elites with major stock holdings in fossil fuels and other unsustainable industries, against their own self-interest as human animals, let alone that for their species or the planet (yes, they are species traitors), they would rather pretend that their wealth remains high invested in such unsustainable businesses, than actually invest in real wealth and security.
By making technological solutions seem easy, then anyone who disagrees can be written off as a climate alarmist. All of these false solutions are seen as gee-whiz Jetsons cartoons, lulling us all into emotional and then intellectual infantalization, that the really smart science guys, the captains of industry will solve all of our problems for us as we just eat our ultra-processed foods from door dash and binge watch the next fad show.
As ExxonMobil in 2024 promoted:
CCS is proven, and ready now at scale. To meet its net zero goals, the world needs to speed deployment of CCS and its related infrastructure, and enact robust policies that support it.
Or, as they said in the TV ads: “Hurry! Act now!” https://corporate.exxonmobil.com/what-we-do/delivering-industrial-solutions/carbon-capture-and-storage/carbon-capture-storage-slice-and-dice
This is an actual advert. Not a joke. I repeat, they expect us to take this seriously.