Abbas, S. (2019). Opinion: Guilty conscience from a world on fire – The Review. Retrieved 18 November
2019, from http://udreview.com/opinion-guilty-conscience-from-a-world-on-fire/
This opinion piece about chemical engineering and biofuels places blame on engineers for creating the technologies that burned fuel to put us in this situation and not emphasizing use of clean energies. This train of thought was brought up in the face of the California wildfires that seem to happen continuously and climate refugees leaving third world countries. The article pokes blame at ExxonMobil for having thousands of engineers and not prioritizing biofuel engineering because they are not driven by the market to do so, although they advertise as if it were a forefront of their business.
I find this piece to be very necessary. So much of the pollution done today is done by massive corporations such as ExxonMobil in order to cut costs, and as long as it benefits them to do so, they will not change. I think the fact the ExxonMobil advertizes like they are putting a lot of effort into biofuel is unethical if they are not, especially since the potential of algae is so huge. The article leaves with the statement that as we can see, it is pointless to try to get companies to change their ways, so all we can do is change our own ways and reduce our own energy consumption. This relates to environmental science as it combines economics with ethics and pollution.
I think it’s awful that ExxonMobil advertises how they are a clean company. Especially since they do so much to ruin the environment, saying that they are taking steps to mitigate impact when they are not is awful.
I would believe that Exxon would only advertise such claims because there IS a market for it. Many people love the idea of eco-friendly products, so it makes sense that an industry giant would use such tactic. There is a lot more education and awareness about emissions, so the company can’t get away with normal oil ads.
This was an interesting article and I like the analysis. I do believe there is a market for this type of fuel and it’s just a matter of getting initial investments for Exxon to begin focusing. Renewable energy is the future, and Exxon should be focusing on that.