Long ago, greenhouse gases were relegated to environmentalist checklists and were rarely considered a part of mainstream business coverage. But not anymore, Don Pittis writes.
An otherwise excellent Canadian energy story published earlier this week contained a glaring omission.
And so did a second one, also a perfectly good report, with the same conspicuous gap. And then there was a third.
All three stories left readers uninformed about a key consideration for making business decisions: They didn’t make any mention whatsoever of climate change.
Long ago, greenhouse gases were relegated to environmentalist checklists and were rarely considered a part of mainstream business coverage. But not anymore.
Unmentionables
In the current context, leaving the effects of fossil fuels on climate, even if just peripheral, out of any substantial report on the energy industry is simply bad economics. Anyone trying to make good investment decisions who repeatedly runs across articles that find the subject unmentionable should likely seek more complete sources.
The most credible oil experts, including old-style Texas-based petroleum geologist and petroleum analyst Art Berman, made no bones about it on Twitter not too long ago.
Some of you believe that climate change is a hoax invented by left-wing academics to attract research money & promote green energy.
Here is Exxon’s 1982 internal forecast for temperature increase based on CO2 emissions. It’s dead-on.https://t.co/26JwwWhbPb#OOTT #fintwit pic.twitter.com/DF6rQH3dYO
The Houston oil and gas analyst is by no means some sort of environmentalist naysayer against the petroleum industry. Taking a political advocacy position is not necessary to fill the gap in reporting.
But there is a danger if the divided nature of thinking evident in social media is perpetuated in respected sources of news.
On Twitter, Berman is a bit of an exception. Generally, tweets divide between the pro-green supporters of climate change action and the pro-fossil fuel rejectors of climate change as untrue or overblown. By selecting the voices one prefers, it is possible to get a distorted view of any issue.
Clearly, some