Surviving Capitalism (Not) : World’s largest Earth science organization to continue accepting ExxonMobil sponsorship despite calls from 250+ geoscientists

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

World’s largest Earth science organization to continue accepting ExxonMobil sponsorship despite calls from 250+ geoscientists

Click here to access article by Geoffrey Supran, Ploy Achakulwisut, Ben Scandella, and Britta Voss from Skeptical Science.

Last week, the President of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) - the world’s largest association of Earth scientists - announced the AGU Board’s decision to continue accepting sponsorship from ExxonMobil, despite calls for an end to this relationship from more than 250 geoscientists owing to ExxonMobil’s past and present climate science disinformation.

This is another illustration among many of the overwhelming power of major corporations in today's world. When capitalist power can triumph over the conservative discipline of scientific inquiry, then we are all in trouble.