Hot Features
Premium
Trade smarter, not harder: Unleash your inner pro with our toolkit and live discussions.
I knew there was a reason that I have used Shell (LSE:RDSA) gasoline in my cars for 35 years, but today I gained a better understanding because of what Shell’s CEO Ben ven Beurden is saying about the oil industry and fossil fuels in general. I don’t believe that he has it completely right – or perhaps he is purposely being shrewdly politically correct so that he doesn’t offend people in high places like I am about to do. But, I think he has mostly got it right – especially for his shareholders and his company.
Before I go any further, let me say that Shell’s share price closed today at 2,112.50, down 1.58% on the day, although it did peak at 2,162.34 at about 3:00 p.m. UTC. Of course, we expect Shell shares to be down, given the drop in crude prices precipitated by OPEC. HA! I guess it would be a surprise, then, to learn that, precisely one year ago today, Shell’s share price closed at 2,114.00: 38 points lower than today’s closing price!
What ven Beurden Is Saying
Mr. ven Beurden has given notice that he is going to take a stand against the imbecilic tree-huggers, politically correct elite and the blissfully misinformed public who are trying to bring an end to the recovery of fossil fuels. He rejected the concept of “fossil fuels out – renewables in” as “simply naive.”
Politicians, journalists and naive environmentalists (Forgive me. Those two words are redundant.) are already rising up againt ven Beurden, saying that “Oil firms must think beyond shareholders.” That’s just downright stupidity. “The debate over climate change is being run by forces opposed to the fossil fuel industry.” And that debate starts with the United Nations and its Agenda 21.
The Agenda 21 Lie
Here it is: “One of the most serious problems now facing the planet is that associated with historical patterns of unsustainable consumption and production, leading to environmental degradation, aggravation of poverty, and imbalances in the development of countries.”
The problem is that the entire premise of Agenda 21 is not true. Earth does not have a scarcity of resources. It has an abundance of resources. Independent, bona fide studies, including one from the London School of Economics and Political Science, have proven over and over that we have tapped less than 1% of earth’s natural resources near the crust of the planet’s surface. The UN Agenda 21, which has been bought-into by nearly every member nation, is a fraudulent plan to manage the planet and the entire population under a single, authoritarian entity, which is, obviously, the United Nations.
Conceived in 1992, one of the many claims of Agenda 21 is the myth of overpopulation. Overpopulation means increased consumption. If your worldview mistakenly embraces scarcity of resources, you will accept the lie – which the majority of the planet seems to be doing – and try your best to conserve our resources. Now, there is nothing wrong with conserving resources. But when the ultimate goal is to get us all on-board with a program to take the control of those resources from citizens and companies, that is nefarious.
If you don’t agree that Agenda 21 is a farce, I invite you to check what its creators expected the world population to be by now. All I’m going to tell you is that they were way off.
The Resource Optimists’ Creed
The report by the London School of Economics says that, if the resource optimists’ creed (it’s not really a creed) is true, “There is no need to worry about the doomsayers’ prediction of running out of resources.” Following is what we optimists believe:
- Demand shifts away from Resource A, so another Resource (B) becomes economical and becomes a substitute to Resource A. Demand shifts away from products that require large amounts of Resource A.
- Recovering and recycling Resource A becomes more economical as demand decreases. Because of diminishing demand, the price of Resource A begins to drop.
- Man-made capital (technology) becomes a substitute for Resource A.
- Advances in technology make it cheaper to extract Resource A. Simultaneously, the same technological advances reduce the amount of Resource A required per unit of output.
The cycle eases both natural and economic resources. The report concludes, in part, that, “The world economy has, so far, exhibited a most remarkable capability to overcome resource constraints. Resources that were feared to become scarce at one time, often turned out to be abundantly available only a few years later. This gives reason to hope.”
At any rate, we stand in danger of limiting the economic growth of every person, business and nation if we fall prey to the fallacy that Earth’s resources are limited.
So, are you ready to sell your shares in Shell (and BP and ExxonMobile, etc.), or will you consider that Mr. ven Beurden just might be correct?
