Climate crisis: Children are going to be in the business of survival

In an open letter to fossil fuel executives with children,  climate activist Tom Adams warns of a devastating future ahead if climate change is not addressed

An oil rig in the North Sea. ‘The brutal reality is this: your children, like my daughter, are going to suffer from the deadly consequence of
global heating.’

In January this year my partner gave birth to our first child. The period since has been a wonderful and devastating time. Wonderful because I have seen at close hand how my daughter’s mischievous personality has emerged. Devastating because, in light of this year’s climate destruction, I have found myself projecting forward to the ‘unrecognisable’ future awaiting her. I remind myself she is one of the lucky ones. In the Global South, the lives of children are already being ripped away by global heating-induced disasters.

A while after my daughter’s birth I decided to contact an old friend who had also just become a father. Like you, he is a fossil fuel executive — in his case for one of the big players. I wondered if parenthood might have given him a different view of his industry. After exchanging photos of our little girls and concerns about the impacts of climate change — he was at least on board in this regard — I expressed my concern about the intransigence of Big Oil and Gas. His response depressed but did not surprise me. He highlighted the growing demand for energy, emphasised that the global economy was effectively built on oil and, in a curious echo of Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicky Hollub’s shame-faced statements at COP27, concluded that ‘people taking personal responsibility is going to be the key.’

It is true that those of us in developed countries need to rapidly decarbonise our lifestyles. But your industry is investing in our continued consumption by pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into fossil fuel expansion, driving the world way beyond 1.5C of heating, the only safe pathway for our children.

The notion that growing energy use necessitates a continued supply of hydrocarbons also negates the reality that renewable energy is already meeting increased electricity demand. Imagine how fast the energy transition might occur if, instead of enriching shareholders, hiding behind hollow net zero rhetoric and deflecting blame onto individuals — a longstanding tactic — your industry used excessive profits to boost its meagre investment in green energy.

I recognise that fossil fuel executives like yourselves will not be convinced by this. You have heard these arguments many times before. You have your own narratives.

So let me reframe my plea in more emotive terms. The brutal reality is this: your children, like my daughter, are going to suffer from the deadly consequence of global heating. Bill McGuire, author of Hothouse Earth and professor of Climate Hazards at UCL, has described in unsparing terms what the coming decades will look like. Even in comparatively temperate regions like Ireland and the UK, month upon month of ‘blistering heat’ will turn cities into ‘unbearable saunas’, unleash new diseases, and further accelerate species loss.

Rather than bringing respite, the truncated winters will see unimaginably destructive storms, river flooding ‘on a biblical scale’, and deluged coastal communities.

Crop failures in even more vulnerable regions will increase food scarcity. Many, many people will die.

Perhaps you imagine that your economic advantages will insulate your children from the most savage aspects of this breakdown. If so, contemplate the impact on their mental health, relationships, and life expectations.

A study last year found that four in ten children already fear having children due to the climate crisis. Imagine how much this will have spiked by 2050 when global temperatures are on average between 1.7C and 2.4C warmer and, as per a recent Unicef report, ‘virtually all children on Earth will face more frequent heatwaves’ among other unforgiving conditions. Will your children want to travel, to live abroad?

In addition to the proliferation of wildfires and floods and droughts, the world will experience escalating political violence, social unrest, and geopolitical tension. The Institute for Economics & Peace has predicted that there will be over a billion people displaced by climate change. Consider how this level of migration will tear at the social fabric. It does not seem hyperbolic to suggest that the anxiety will be pervasive and potentially overwhelming. So many of us have had the luxury of being able to live freely and fully.

 Our children, on the other hand, are going to be in the business of survival.

How will they view us? I don’t know about you, but this keeps me awake at night. I was born in 1986. More than half of all CO2 emissions since 1751 have been emitted since 1990. As a result of my Western lifestyle, I am intensely implicated, and I do not work as an executive in a fossil fuel company.

 In our present 1.2C world children of fossil fuels executives are already ashamed of their parents. Imagine how their anger is going to entrench as the window for a safely habitable world slams in their faces.

Climate awareness is only growing among younger people. Climate education will likely become compulsory in schools and universities. Think where youth consciousness will be in ten or fifteen years after an exponential rise in tragedy and devastation.

I’m sure that many of you are, like my friend, decent people motivated by the desire to provide for your families. Our children will be the ultimate arbiters of our actions, however, and this will be guided by their lived experience. If they are left to battle things out on a dying planet, then no amount of PR or greenwashing will persuade your children that your role in the industry was anything other than a betrayal of their futures. Take personal responsibility. Transform your industry immediately or suffer their rejection.

Psychotherapist Tom Adams is a member of Extinction Rebellion

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