We don’t need oil

The same can be said of heaping blame on the oil companies for the mess we find ourselves in — -as if, suddenly at some point during the last decade (or maybe less) we’ve woken up to the fact that fossil fuels are killing us. Shell and Exxon are the culprits, so they must be responsible for our imminent demise.

I recall we all had the same revelation/denial about tobacco. The tobacco barons collectively denied that their product was death on a stick. We collectively enjoyed burning the stuff so it was easier and more pleasant to believe them and deny our own common sense.

I used to watch my dad smoking his life away — -from about 5 or 6 years old, I used to think “that’s a stupid thing to do” — -just so obvious even when learned men were assuring us that tobacco was harmless. Or even good for you. How could a 6 year old know more than they did?

The ads used to show doctors advising this or that brand of cigarette. A blatantly obvious lie, catering to the gullible.

Read the Medium story by Norman Pagett - “We don’t need oil.”