Rising fuel prices hurt almost everyone — driving up the cost of transportation, food and electricity (even when much of the latter comes from cheaper renewable sources). Rising living costs disproportionately harm those who can least afford it. The ultra-wealthy don’t have to worry much, and those who profit from polluting, climate-altering oil and gas get to add more to their already overflowing coffers!
Recent price hikes — during a growing affordability crisis — are in large part due to the United States’ ill-advised and poorly planned attacks on Iran. These compelled Iran to choke shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, through which one-quarter of the world’s seaborne oil and gas is moved.
The horrific conflict illustrates the volatile nature of fossil-fuelled economies and shows the need to get away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible — not just because of their lethal pollution and climate impacts but also because clashes over who controls them cause so much death and destruction. Despite false claims about drug smuggling, the U.S.’s recent violent actions against Venezuela were also about securing oil supplies.
Unmoved by the clear advantages of renewable energy over energy from coal, oil and gas — lower costs, less pollution, greater supply and price stability, improved energy independence, reduced conflict — petrostates and fossil fuel–supporting governments continue to impose measures to stall renewable energy development while incentivizing fossil fuel expansion.
The U.S. offers a clear example, but even in Canada, Alberta continues to throw roadblocks onto the renewable path while clearing the way for more oilsands, liquefied natural gas and coal production. One of the province’s largest and most important companies, ATCO Ltd., is even blaming the Alberta government for “a $408-million hit to the value of its wind and solar projects,” arguing that government energy and electricity policies are “detrimental” to renewable energy investment. The company is considering legal action.
Among other recent restrictions, Alberta imposed a moratorium on renewable energy development in 2023 and is promoting oilsands and LNG expansion and new pipelines. Along with the federal government, the province is offering tax breaks and other incentives for oil and gas companies to do what they should and could afford to do themselves, such as building carbon capture facilities and cleaning up the tens of thousands of inactive wells they’ve left behind to pollute water, land and air.
The fossil fuel industry is driving up living costs for most people, polluting and heating the planet, widening the wealth gap and contributing to deadly conflict worldwide. As the planet surpasses the 1.5 to 2 C warming limit countries adopted under the Paris Agreement, we’re seeing consequences as bad as or worse than scientists and others predicted: accelerating extreme weather events, massive floods, prolonged droughts, more water shortages, rising sea levels, widespread disease transmission, increased human migration and ongoing hostilities. Yet we continue to needlessly pump increasing amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
Why do we put up with it? Why do governments and news media entrusted to represent and reflect the public interest put so much money and effort into keeping this dying, destructive industry alive? Why are some of the world’s most powerful nations raining horror and death on countless people in oil-producing countries?
Guardian columnist George Monbiot says we’re being “gaslit” for the sake of the ultra-rich: “What the owners of newspapers and politicians want is what their entire class demands: a world in which resources are controlled and prices harvested by those who own them. You can do this with fossil fuels, whose reserves are concentrated and under the exclusive control of the companies licensed to exploit them. You cannot do it with renewables, because sunshine and wind are everywhere.”
It may seem difficult — especially since we’ve wasted so much time ignoring scientific warnings and spewing ever-increasing amounts of long-lasting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — but we can and must shift rapidly from fossil fuels to renewable energy.
Switching to technologies like wind and solar with storage will give us a chance of stalling and reversing global heating. It will also give us cleaner air, water and land, increase affordability, provide greater energy stability and reliability, improve energy independence and reduce the bloody disputes over limited fossil fuels.
It’s not a difficult choice.
David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington.
