The Lil' Zet is a tumblelog.

Exxon Backs Away From Pledge

In 2008, under pressure from shareholders including the descendants of Standard Oil Founder John D. Rockefeller, Exxon made the pledge to stop funding climate crisis deniers, writing: 

“In 2008 we will discontinue contributions to several public policy research groups whose position on climate change could divert attention from the important discussion on how the world will secure the energy required for economic growth in an environmentally responsible manner.” 

Now it seems they have backed away from that pledge. According to Mother Jones:

“Free-market, anti-climate change think-tanks such as the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in the US and the International Policy Network in the UK have received grants totaling hundreds of thousands of pounds from the multinational energy company ExxonMobil. Both organizations have funded international seminars pulling together climate change deniers from across the globe.” 

Exxon needs to be honest with its shareholders and consumers. It’s time for them to once again live up to the pledge they made in 2008.

Thanks, Al.

The idea of progress: Onwards and upwards | The Economist

“Why is the modern view of progress so impoverished?”

I’d hoped to write a reaction to this, one of the best things I’ve read this year, before 2010. I’m a technologist, so the idea of lasting, meaningful social progress is especially elusive—and personal—for me.

I didn’t write my reaction, but here. It’s the right thing to read as 2010 begins.