They once worked for big oil’s enablers. Now they refuse to be complicit
More than a century ago, fossil fuel firms hardly needed help maintaining their image. Coal-powered trains, oil-burning power plants and gas-heated houses were likened to patriotism and social progress. But over time, especially as industry scientists began uncovering the direct link between the burning of fossil fuels and the climate crisis, America’s petroleum giants turned to the public relations industry they had helped create to persuade consumers to remain loyal.
PR campaigns that frame oil and gas as essential to solving the climate crisis have become the industry survival strategy. But over the past decade, the spinmasters behind these campaigns and the executives in industries that prop up fossil fuels have woken up to the role their work plays in contributing to climate breakdown.
Waves of employees have co-signed letters and quit en masse in response to their firms’ complicity in obfuscating climate crimes and rolling out aggressive greenwashing schemes. And the resignations are picking up pace. Just this week in a bombshell public resignation, Caroline Dennett, a consultant for Shell, parted ways with the company, citing its “double talk on climate”. She urged others to do the same. The Guardian spoke with three people who reveal their experiences closing the door on fossil fuel projects, and share advice for others who may consider following in their footsteps.
When I took the reins of BlackRock’s sustainable investing operation, it was because I still bought into the myth that societal ills could be solved at the intersection of profit and purpose. I’d left the investment banking world to start an ed-tech non-profit called Rumie. But when approached with an offer, I couldn’t turn down the chance to take a
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