Corporate Knights is “the” Canadian magazine for responsible business, and calls for clean capitalism. Jim Harris, author, environmentalist, and former leader of the Green Party of Canada, recently discussed our addiction to oil, and demonstrated how governments around the world subsidize Big Oil and Gas companies to the tune of $500 billion a year!! It turns out that we are all paying to destroy our grandchildren’s future, while these corporations rake in huge profits. BP, for example, whose profits in the first quarter of 2010 were $5.6 billion, is the same company whose oil rig sunk in the Gulf of Mexico last week, and which is pouring 42,000 gallons of oil per day into the ocean. This growing slick is expected to hit the vulnerable coast of Louisiana this weekend.
BP is just one example of how oil companies rake in monstrous profits while making us, our oceans, and our planet sick. Seven to the top 20 most profitable corporations worldwide were oil companies in 2008 – and their cumulative profit roughly equaled the other 13 firms added together. The question we should all be asking ourselves is why are global governments subsidizing the most profitable corporations in the world?
In contrast, subsidies to green energy sources are only 6-9 cents on the dollar when compared to oil and gas subsidies.
Click here to view Harris’s special presentation on Corporate Knights web site. Also available on the website is a word doc giving you all the links and documentation from the presentation. This is an incredible resource for those working for urgent action on climate change. Jim also invites your feedback – you can connect with him on Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.com.
Meanwhile, there are signs of change. 100,000 people rallied on the Mall in Washington D.C. last Sunday to call for action on climate change and a green energy economy.
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