THE LINK: JULY 2023 8 A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of joining a panel at the Society of Professional Engineers Western Region Meeting in Anchorage. The topic was “Outlook for fossil fuels in the Energy Transition.” As part of my remarks, I talked about the opportunity for our industry to be a beacon of hope for a generation of young people who are being misled by sensational messaging from climate doomists. Many of the attendees agreed that this was a critical issue to be addressed. A professor from U.C. Berkley in attendance spoke passionately about what he was seeing, every day, with his students because of climate doomism. It was not good. Climate doomism is the idea that we are past the point of being able to do anything at all about global warming — and that mankind is highly likely to become extinct. That is wrong, and it is doing serious damage to our future generations. Multiple polls over the past year have indicated that our young people are feeling overwhelmed, anxious and depressed about global warming. In a recent BBC interview, one young man said “Give me hope. Convince me that there’s something out there that’s worth fighting for, that in the end we can achieve victory over this, even if it’s only temporary.” Our industry has the opportunity to provide that hope and we should all get involved in the conversation. When you hear young people express concerns about the potential for mankind to become extinct in the not-to-distant-future (or any other alarmist messages), I hope you will take the opportunity to talk to them about what is really happening in the efforts to achieve a cleaner energy future. They need to know that every day, people are working hard and are successful in their efforts to move toward a clean energy future. They need to hear that oil, gas and mining are playing, and will continue to play, a vital role in their clean energy future. Most importantly, they need to know that climate doomism is wrong, there is a role for them to play in developing their future and there is plenty of time to do it! Don’t let doom win. Teach your children well: We have a vital role to play Message From CEO Rebecca Logan
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