4 ms·

In this case we could get huge sums of money to fix the sinking ship(climate change). So, I am not seeing how this analogy applies.

mac01021 7y ago
How much could we possibly get? Nothing proportional to the cost of a solution, certainly.
ta0987 7y ago
The reason the characters are lieutenants in my story is because this problem is bigger than them. You could take every penny the oil companies have and it would barely make a dent in the problem. This isn't a money problem it is a fundamental economic and industrial structure of society problem.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- calcifer 7y ago
  > You could take every penny the oil companies have and it would barely make a dent in the problem. Citation needed. The top 10 oil companies [1] had a cumulative $2.5 trillion dollars in revenue in 2017. I'd say that'd go a long way in climate change R&D. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_oil_and_gas_companies_by_revenue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_oil_and_gas_co...
  - onetimemanytime 7y ago
    Value would go to zero the minute you announce confiscation or whatever we call it. And revenue is different from money in the bank or assets.
  - Aunche 7y ago
    Revenue, not profit. Oil is very low margin. Oil companies makes about 7 cents per gallon of gasoline. That's a lot less than the amount of money that is collected from gasoline taxes. https://www.forbes.com/2011/05/10/oil-company-earnings.html#a79a3ca2dc83 https://www.forbes.com/2011/05/10/oil-company-earnings.html#...
  - WillPostForFood 7y ago
    So, nationalize oil sales revenue to fight to raise money to climate change. See any problem there?
anonuser123456 7y ago
Exxon's current market cap is something like 300 billion. It is worth that much because of future claims it has on profits from the extraction, refinement and sale of oil. If Exxon makes enough to recoup that... you'll have another 50ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. So no. You won't have a huge sum of money to fix the sinking ship. You'll be bailing water from one compartment and throwing it into another.

mac01021 7y ago

How much could we possibly get? Nothing proportional to the cost of a solution, certainly.

ta0987 7y ago

The reason the characters are lieutenants in my story is because this problem is bigger than them. You could take every penny the oil companies have and it would barely make a dent in the problem. This isn't a money problem it is a fundamental economic and industrial structure of society problem.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
calcifer 7y ago
> You could take every penny the oil companies have and it would barely make a dent in the problem. Citation needed. The top 10 oil companies [1] had a cumulative $2.5 trillion dollars in revenue in 2017. I'd say that'd go a long way in climate change R&D. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_oil_and_gas_companies_by_revenue https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_oil_and_gas_co...
- onetimemanytime 7y ago
  Value would go to zero the minute you announce confiscation or whatever we call it. And revenue is different from money in the bank or assets.
- Aunche 7y ago
  Revenue, not profit. Oil is very low margin. Oil companies makes about 7 cents per gallon of gasoline. That's a lot less than the amount of money that is collected from gasoline taxes. https://www.forbes.com/2011/05/10/oil-company-earnings.html#a79a3ca2dc83 https://www.forbes.com/2011/05/10/oil-company-earnings.html#...
- WillPostForFood 7y ago
  So, nationalize oil sales revenue to fight to raise money to climate change. See any problem there?

anonuser123456 7y ago

Exxon's current market cap is something like 300 billion. It is worth that much because of future claims it has on profits from the extraction, refinement and sale of oil. If Exxon makes enough to recoup that... you'll have another 50ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere. So no. You won't have a huge sum of money to fix the sinking ship. You'll be bailing water from one compartment and throwing it into another.