16 death of big oil, fiery summer for the west

we were on the phone recently, setting up an appointment with a nurse. she asked us what our preferred pronouns were, and by mistake we said “him/her”. after a moment of awkwardness, we caught ourselves, but we sure were glad we had the chance to correct ourselves. feel like TWR needs to correct something? email us!

big idea: the death of big oil is here

1. some great news wednesday signaled the end of big oil’s power. first, Shell, the world’s largest oil trader, lost a legal case in the Netherlands, where it is headquartered, forcing it to cut emissions by 45% by 2030. second, ExxonMobile lost a shareholder vote, with two climate activists elected to its board.
2. while both these events come with some caveats, they still form a narrative that has been building over the past decade - big oil is dead. neither society nor shareholders are interested in supporting petroleum companies that have no plans to transition to green energy.
3. now let’s get to the caveats. the Shell case, while significant, will be in appeals for years. it’ll also be virtually impossible for a dutch court to enforce Shell’s actions outside of europe. if the decision is upheld, instead of slowing their oil extraction, Shell may decide to simply sell parts of its operations - which wouldn’t really reduce emissions overall.
4. the ExxonMobile shareholder vote is important because the world’s largest hedge fund, BlackRock, voted for the climate activists to join the board. how much impact two treehuggers can have on a board of twelve is up for debate, but at least ExxonMobile will know it can’t continue business as usual.

story to watch: the west is facing a terrible summer

1. amid news that the world is likely to hit the 1.5 degree temperature threshold in the next five years, the western US is facing the driest summer in recorded history. lower than normal snowmelts and the lack of summer rains last year has resulted in critically low levels of water in dams around the grand canyon. scientists calculate that about half of these declines are caused solely by climate change. water levels are getting so low in these dams that there is a possibility the hydroelectric turbines may shut down, resulting in widespread power shortages across the west.
2. the federal government is predicting it will have to declare a water emergency for the first time ever this august. this would severely restrict water supplies from the colorado river to arizona and nevada farms, but would not affect cities or california - so dirty hippies won’t have a reason to skip showers.
3. hotter, drier weather will also result in a fiery summer. 4 million acres burned last year, another broken record. maybe it’s time for humans to admit we’re not supposed to live in the godforsaken deserts of the southwest, and leave them to wile coyote.

this week’s image: russian spiderman

• (The Atlantic) spiderman dances on the st. petersburg subway. just off camera - batman sulks.

this week’s number: 2.7% of workers test positive for mary J

1. data released by Quest, which performs drug tests for employers, shows that 2.7% of american workers tested positive for marijuana last year, an all time...high. that number may be even...higher, but many companies have stopped testing for pot since legalization has taken hold. now we finally get why Taco Bell has been doing so well - only stoners could think that hot garbage is edible.
2. state laws around testing for marijuana in workplaces is constantly changing, so expect more businesses to simply stop testing for that. marijuana is the new alcohol - as long as you don’t turn up to work smelling like a gordita crunch, you won’t have a problem.

what we’re reading: “Footnotes in Gaza”

1. a graphic novel drawn and written by a journalist, this groundbreaking piece of art is an exhaustively researched narrative of human rights violations during the suez crisis
2. drawing on UN reports and first-person interviews with survivors, the novel tells the story of nearly 400 innocent palestinian civilians being murdered in cold blood by israeli forces. the incidents drew little attention at the time, and this is the only english-language publication on the atrocities. 

reader mailbag:

• readers A.Q. and M.M. asked for the recipe of our tres leches cake featured in last week’s issue. while we’d love to say we created it ourselves, it’s just ATK’s recipe with a touch less sugar and evaporated milk.

and, in case you missed it:

• separately, both the author of “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and the illustrator of “Chicka Chicka Boom Boom” died this week
• the Pfizer vaccine is effective against the indian COVID variant
• just when we started to feel good about ourselves again, a 2-year-old with a 146 IQ was not only admitted into Mensa, and also has more IG followers than you do

the weekly rundown is produced by Yunus, Faisal (@faisalc93), and Ahmed (@ahmedhcheema). learn more about us and email us your comments and feedback!