<
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2022/02/19/fossil-fuel-industry-jobs-killer>
"For years now, any discussion about climate action or the need to move off
fossil fuels has run headlong into a familiar quandary: The industries fueling
the climate crisis create good jobs, often in areas of the country where
finding work that can support a family is incredibly difficult.
This leaves activists gesturing towards well-intentioned goals like a "just
transition," a promise that likely rings hollow for workers and many labor
unions because it's hard to see where this has actually happened—even though,
by every measure, we need to create some real policies that turn this vision
into reality. While there are encouraging examples of labor unions throwing
their support behind robust climate plans, it has proven difficult for the
climate movement to find its way out of the jobs versus environment framing.
But that is especially true when we refuse to question the original premise.
The truth is that the fossil fuel industry wildly inflates its employment
record, and the recent data show they are producing more fuel with fewer
workers. Instead of avoiding this reality, perhaps it is time to tackle it head
on. Dirty energy corporations are not creating jobs as much as they are cutting
them these days, and that provides an opening to envision the kinds of
employment—in areas like orphaned well clean up and energy efficiency—that will
provide employment for the thousands of workers the industry is no longer
employing.
Some of the most common jobs estimates are produced by the American Petroleum
Institute (API), the powerful oil and gas trade association. Over the years,
API has released reports claiming that the domestic fracking industry creates
somewhere between 2.5 million to 11 million jobs, both directly and indirectly.
These numbers—or versions of them—are floated in political debates and in the
media, but they are significantly out of step with other estimates, including
the federal government's labor reports. Food & Water Watch, an organization I
founded, created a more accurate model that relies on direct jobs and relevant
support activities, including pipeline construction and product transportation.
The total comes to just over 500,000 in 2020, or about 0.4 percent of all jobs
in the country."
They use these same tactics around the world, including here in Australia.
Via Robert Sanscartier.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
