The Absurd Amount Of Money Oil Companies Spend To Buy Your Approval
The Absurd Amount Of Money Oil Companies Spend To Buy Your Approval
Pathetic master manipulators.
It’s safe to say the writing is on the wall for oil companies. The general public and international governments have woken up to the fact they have gotten away with ecocide for well over a century by burying the science that uncovered their crimes, heavily lobbying governments, and manipulating the public. But such deception can only last so long, as reality will make itself known sooner or later. However, rather than embracing the changing times, it seems old habits die hard, as oil companies are shelling out billions to turn the tide on their public perception and buy themselves social approval to continue devastating the world we call home.
This revelation comes from a new Green think tank, the New Weather Institute (NWI) report. They analysed more than 200 active deals between oil companies and sports personalities, teams, and clubs and found that “sport is increasingly one of the areas oil and gas companies are using to greenwash their reputation.” How? Well, they are pumping an ungodly amount of money into sports through sponsorships “in an attempt to divert attention from their role in fuelling the climate crisis and harming human health” and effectively “buy [a] social licence to operate.”
The scale of this crooked PR scheme is almost unbelievable.
NWI found that Saudi Arabia’s national oil giant Aramco, which sponsors the likes of the Aston Martin F1 team, has spent over $1.3 billion across ten active sponsorships! Moreover, they aren’t trying to hide the intentions behind this exuberant expenditure. Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, has stated, “If sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by 1%, then we’ll continue doing sportswashing.”
But it isn’t just Aramco; when you account for the likes of Total Energies, Shell, and INEOS, you will find that the industry as a whole has spent over $5.6 billion on sportswashing.
To call this a flagrant waste of money is to put it lightly. This does nothing to address the actual issue of these companies’ environmental impact; it only marginally improves the public’s perception of them (for example, Sebastian Vettel, who used to drive for Aston Martin Aramco, quit the profession citing sportswashing as his main reason) and doesn’t actually increase the company’s sales.
Let’s say that instead of splashing all this cash on a hollow and greedy PR campaign, they combined forces and built renewable energy infrastructure. Something like this would future-proof their business, actually help this ongoing PR nightmare, and allow them to transition their business model away from destroying the planet. So, what would that look like?
Well, a 1 MW solar farm costs roughly $1.1 million to build, including the cost of buying the land on which it will be built. As such, $5.6 billion could build 5090 MW of solar capacity! Now, each MW will produce around 1,825 MWh over the course of a year, so this giant solar farm will make a total of 9,289,250 MWh of energy each year! Naturally, a MWh of solar energy produces $52 profit, meaning this mega solar farm will make $483,041,000 annually! As such, it will pay for itself in only 11 years, and because these solar panels will last roughly 30 years, they will produce a total of $14 billion profit over their lifetime.
Surely that would be a better use of this money?
The fact of the matter is that the oil industry’s days are numbered, not just for their planet-destroying ways but because, as a business, their methods are making less and less sense. Renewable energy companies don’t need to waste money lobbying governments to cover up their crimes or spending billions upon billions buying favour with the public. As such, they can spend more money expanding or developing new technology, and it is only a matter of time before they simply out-complete oil companies.
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Sources: BBC, Politico, The Guardian, Coldwell Solar, Land Search, Solar Mentors, A1 Solar Store