An Open Letter to Royal Dutch Shell
- Asitha Samarawickrama
- Mar 17, 2017
- 3 min read
To the Directors of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, past, present and future,
I recently watched a short documentary called ‘Climate of Concern’, produced by your Film and Video Unit in 1991. As you may already be aware (which I hope you are), the film spoke about how burning fossil fuels alters the balance of the Earth’s unique atmosphere. The atmosphere regulates the Earth’s temperature, which in turn enables life to thrive on this beautiful planet we call home.
Although the documentary was produced twenty-six years ago, I would highly recommend it to someone who wanted to learn how greenhouse gases help regulate our planet’s temperature. The documentary displays a graph depicting the increase in atmospheric Carbon dioxide levels (CO2) since we started burning fossil fuels, such as coal, oil and gas since the start of the industrial revolution in the 1850’s. Atmospheric concentrations of CO2 rose from 280 parts per million (ppm) in 1850 to 350 ppm in 1991 (Figure 1). Just last year in 2016, CO2 concentrations in both the northern and southern hemispheres crossed the 400 ppm mark.
Figure 1: Increasing concentration of Carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere
© The European Environment Agency (EEA)
I remember when I was a schoolboy, I learnt that the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 0.03%. Today students will learn that this figure has now increased to 0.04%. This may not seem like much of an increase especially to those who are privileged to be living in the comfort of an air-conditioned office or home. But, when you consider that CO2 levels have never been above 300 ppm in the last 400 000 years (Figure 2), and the fact that there has never been such a steep increase in CO2 levels as we are seeing at present, it is a cause concern. More concerning is that we are experiencing the predictions about rising temperatures and sea levels, climate refugees, increased flooding and heatwaves twenty-six years later.
Figure 2: Historical concentration of Carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere © NASA
The effects of anthropogenic climate change have never been clearer than they are today. In 1991, you were more aware of the consequences of climate change than most of us, yet you failed to act to solve the problem and instead, acted in ways that would enhance the problem by investing trillions of dollars in fossil fuel extraction and lobbying against climate change. To you, climate change may seem like a daunting issue, a wicked problem with limited solutions and many barriers hindering change.
Yet others are converting this challenge into an opportunity, and reaping the benefits of their entrepreneurship. It is not too late to shift your priorities, although your time to act is running out fast. Solar power is now the cheapest form of energy available in many countries and several countries have introduced bold targets to phase out fossil fuels in the next few decades. The world is moving rapidly renewable energy and you must decide if you want to be a part of this exciting transition.
As the documentary states, “Our numbers are many and infinitely diverse, but the problems and dilemmas of climatic change concern us all.” To miss out on this opportunity to contribute to our current era of technological innovation would be a shame. So why not join us in being responsible stewards for the place we call home. There simply cannot be a greater satisfaction than that.
Yours sincerely,
Present and future generations of planet Earth.
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