Despite BHP chief, fossil fuels will power the future

We are all truly doomed if BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie is right and global dependence on fossil fuels poses a potentially existential risk to the planet, (“BHP warns of ‘existential’ climate risk”, 24/7).

Fossil fuel consumption worldwide is up and rising. With coal alone, the International Energy Agency advises that 2018 consumption was 7585 mega tonnes — half by China, with US, India and Japan next in descending order. Australia exports over 400 million tonnes each year for others to burn.

I doubt that Mackenzie’s linking of executive pay packets to greenhouse gas emissions will influence these facts one iota. Our future will be powered mostly by fossil fuels and if Mackenzie doesn’t like it he should find another planet — this one isn’t going to change because he has delusions of foresight and wisdom.

Doug Hurst, Chapman, ACT

BHP chief executive Andrew Mackenzie says global dependence on fossil fuels poses a risk to the planet and that he wants BHP to do something to address that. He has been in the job at BHP for five years so one wonders why this sudden revelation has only now come to him.

I know the feeling, for I too have been on a bus only to have the later realisation the bus was heading to a destination I did not want to visit. But Mackenzie’s plight is different for he is the bus driver. I can only suspect that Mackenzie may be suffering a form of midlife crisis.

Geoff Ellis, Smithfield, Qld

Our hunter-gatherer ancestors survived the last ice age that ended 11,700 years ago and which saw mass extinctions of large animals. Yet BHP’s chief executive Andrew Mackenzie warns of an existential threat if temperatures increase by 2 degrees or so over this century. If we become extinct, it will be due to mass hysteria rather than climate.

Michael Cunningham, West End, Qld

When the chief executive of the world’s largest mining company describes the human-induced climate crisis as “indisputable” and warns of a an existential risk, most sensible people would accept the reality of a zero carbon emissions future.

So could John Egan (Letters, 24/7) specify which of “the many problems that should be tackled ahead of climate change” poses as existential threat to humanity, because “to make our world a better place” you’d probably still need humans to enjoy it.

Could any of Bjorn Lomborg’s disciples name a single scientific organisation that takes his theories seriously, or provide verifiable evidence from “seven Nobel laureates” who can prove the CEO of BHP is wrong?

Chris Roylance, Paddington, Qld

It is laudatory that leading resources company BHP enjoys healthy profits from its mining activities and delivers significant dividend and capital income to millions of shareholders and superannuants.

But it is a bit rich of chief executive Andrew Mackenzie to warn the world of the existential threat posed by climate change and increasing carbon dioxide emissions.

Until he can produce evidence that increasing CO2 emissions causes dangerous global warming, then he is just another virtue-signalling voice no different to Greta Thunberg, the Swedish schoolgirl, or to the activists who glue themselves to roads.

A case can be made that BHP itself is of more concern than any of these perceived climate matters. In November 2018, a Pilbara iron ore train became a runaway disaster because a hand brake failed when the driver got out to check connectors between his wagons; the train travelled unmanned for 90km and reached speeds of 160km/h before BHP purposely derailed the train, costing the company more than $600 million.

In Brazil in 2015, a tailings dam operated by BHP and Vale collapsed and sent toxic sludge down 650km of river into the Atlantic Ocean, killing 19 people and resulting in a $8.9 billion lawsuit.

G. M. Derrick, Sherwood, Qld

BHP chief Andrew Mackenzie must be a corporate denier of science who believes climate change is hurtling towards crisis point. Is he so desperate that his virtue must be recognised by his audience? Meanwhile the company he leads makes a very nice living from fossil fuels and ores requiring enormous energy supplies to produce their ultimate products. Stick to your knitting, BHP.

Robin Southey, Port Fairy, Vic