ExxonMobil Shareholders Vote To Ignore Climate Change Completely

ExxonMobil Shareholders Vote To Ignore Climate Change Completely

If you try to imagine the most pathetic gathering of humans ever, it would probably look a lot like this group of people who have amassed their fortunes by stripping the Earth of its fossil fuels and are desperately trying to squeeze the last gasp of relevance out of a backwards-thinking, planet-strangling industry.

Still winning hearts and minds. AP Photo/Stapleton

This morning, ExxonMobil held its annual shareholder meeting at the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, Texas. This meeting was ostensibly focused on the climate crisis, something which Exxon has most likely exacerbated. But that doesn’t mean that all of Exxon’s investors are bad people. Some of them are demanding that the corporation make big changes, not only to compete in the world’s energy marketplace, but also to prevent the inevitable destruction of that world itself.

There were 11 measures related to climate change that were voted on today. We already know that in advance of today’s meeting, Exxon actively encouraged its shareholders to vote against any climate-related policy. So the fact that all of the climate-related measures were voted down are not all that surprising. Still, here they are, the most disturbing and outrageous outcomes from Exxon’s fossil fuel lovefest.

“Climate report? No, we’re good”

“There’s no need to reduce emissions”

“Nah, we don’t need a climate expert”

Meanwhile, some shareholders appeared especially progressive

And the CEO doesn’t seem to really get it

Sadly, this seems to happen annually

There was one good thing, though

Even though the move to put a climate expert on the board was voted down, in a rare moment of clarity, voters approved what’s called a proxy access measure, which is actually very good. It means that shareholders with a minority stake could eventually work together to nominate a climate scientist to become a director. Eventually. Someday.


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