https://www.positive.news/environment/life-after-oil/
"If it’s tough for a society to transition away from oil, it’s tougher still
for those whose entire livelihood is tied up with the stuff. Yet as the costs
of our addiction to it begin to bite – on our pockets and our planet – an
increasing number are doing just that. And giving up a lucrative career as they
do so.
Samantha Cooper’s one of them. Back at university in the ’90s, her career aims
were simple: get a job in London where she could continue a studenty social
life – and get paid for it. Out of the so-called ‘milk round’ of companies who
came calling for bright young graduates, she picked oil giant Mobil, and soon
found herself just where she wanted to be.
The pay was good, there was a chance to travel, “it was hard work, but it was
also fun.” Early on, she was in charge of scheduling barges delivering fuel oil
for the Tube network – nice, practical stuff. “Occasionally I’d be sitting with
my friends in a pub by the river, and one of my barges would go by – it was
rather exciting!”
The appeal more or less held, too, as she won promotion – more responsibility,
but a lot more rewards. After BP entered into a joint venture with Mobil’s
European fuels business, Cooper went on to become a senior executive, running
global trading strategies: a vital cog in a machine that, in her “bubble of
ignorance”, as she now describes it, was wrecking the climate
So what changed? No sudden Damascene conversion, but rather the combination of
personal pressure and dawning awareness. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in
2010, oil traders in America going to prison for price fixing, hearing that the
crew on a ship whose cargo she was trying to sell had run out of water – “I
thought, ‘Oh, there’s people on the boat.’ Which sounds ridiculous. Of course
there’d be people…” But her surprise was a measure of just how disconnected
she’d become from the real, physical world.
Meanwhile, “I felt I was on a treadmill, and I couldn’t get off.”
Metaphorically and literally: she’d be up at six, on the treadmill in the gym,
before a pressure-packed day. Work bled into all areas of life. Even over
Christmas, every news headline triggered one thought in her head: “What’s that
going to do to the oil price?”
“However much money you made, your [sales] targets were always going up, year
after year.” One year, she recalls, she hit her target, and thought,“‘I should
be on top of the world. Why don’t I feel that?’ I just felt empty.”
Shocked into reviewing her life, she explored mindfulness, finding solace in
Buddhist meditation. She was able to take some time out to volunteer with
women’s and environmental groups. Ostensibly mentoring them on building
partnerships with business, and on raising funds, she quickly found that “they
were mentoring me! I had such an education from some amazing people, on social
issues, equality, ecology and climate.”
The things she learnt, combined with the personal toll the job was taking on
her, made it impossible to go back. So in 2015, after 20 years in the oil
industry, she left and, with the same energy and drive that had made her such a
successful oil trader, threw herself into a new career tackling the challenges
which, inadvertently, she’d helped to exacerbate through her work."
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
