Reg: “Puppies, Syd?”
Syd: “Wolf cubs.”
Reg: “Same difference.”
Syd: “Not when they’re in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And before you get started ripping me over ‘environmental codswallop’ again, let me remind you. I task my Research Director with keeping me informed about trends that might affect our businesses. So she does.”
Reg: “Doesn’t mean you have to do anything about it.”
Syd: “But it does mean I have to read. You and I both know that R&D people with a clue are hard to come by. This one’s got a plus/minus in the millions in the black. I’m not losing her to the competition by ignoring her. Even if that means reading something like this every once in awhile.”
Reg: “And what is this?”
Syd: “Sierra Club. Circulating a petition to Congress to stop plans to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.”
Reg: “Again. Yet. Still. When I see those people all working out of cells in the Catholic monastery they bought for the purpose, and peddling their message without using any of the fossil fuels that they would willingly deprive the rest of us of, I might pay attention.”
Syd: “Hm. That sounds like the Live Where You Work® product conception you had awhile ago. That never did get anywhere, did it?”
Reg: “Biding its time, Syd. There will come a day when that idea will make money when it’s launched. But not today. You have been following the current election cycle?”
Syd: “[shudder]”
Reg: “Then you know. The backlash, against any restrictions on fossil fuel use that anybody threatens to place on John and Jane Q. Public, threatens to put our dear Donald in the White House.”
Syd: “Which could make the pound sterling look like the world’s strongest and most stable currency.”
Reg: “Indeed. So I’m not prepared to join those who want to proclaim a climate emergency. No matter how alluring the publicity photos of Nature are that they use to plead their case. Amazing how those pics always seem to leave out the [ahem] unpleasant parts of the story.”
Syd: “What unpleasant bit did they leave out of that photo?”
Reg: “The clouds of mosquitoes?”
Syd: “Oh.”
Reg: “Something else they never tell you. Who are the Sierra Club members, anyway?”
Syd: “Mostly white and wealthy.”
Reg: “White and wealthy, and prepared to ignore any opinions that don’t reflect their worldview. Including those of the renowned British scientist whose research suggest that the nirvana of a sufficiently carbon-free economy to make a difference to the global carbon budget and associated climate change is, at best, decades away. And that can only be implemented at a horrendous cost, either to implement mostly unproven technologies or force draconian personal energy reductions on those same persons who are revolting against the milder proposals already being mooted. And on whom do you suppose the main burden of these costs will fall?”
Syd: “On those whom it usually falls. The non-white, and the non-wealthy.”
Reg: “Who are, by definition, expendable. So tell me, Syd, how the Sierra Club and its allies differ from the anti-vaxxers, the anti-GMO crowd, the whole-food nuts …”
Syd: “You mean, the white racist elitists?”
Reg: “You could get killed for saying that, you know.”
Syd: “Which is how come you got me to say it, isn’t it, Reg?”
Reg: “The way things are going, Syd, I’m not sure that we aren’t all targets, whatever we say or do.”
Syd: “I suggest we wash that thought away with a bottle or two.”
Reg: “I second that motion …”