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.’