Do the fossil fuel barons think the collapse will happen before they need to invest in green? They know peak oil already happened.
this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2025
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Seems plausible, but could also be that there's just no path towards change within the system.
They were already changing and installed current POTUS? Forgive me if I'm being obtuse, it's not deliberate. I'm trying to see outside my own limited perspective.
I mean the logic of capitalism dictates that companies have to keep making profit, and for any companies traded on the market that means showing constant quarterly growth to shareholders. This makes it very difficult to make a fundamental pivot in the business model that would be needed to switch from extracting fossil fuels to building renewables. It would require setting up supply chains, building factories, training workers, etc. At the same time their current investments into mining equipment, land, and so on lose value. All of these are astronomical expenses these companies simply can't justify doing. Capitalist realities favor short term planning.
I see that. I also see palentir and formerly Tesla getting massive subsidies and tax breaks for double subsidies. I also get these are people who plan on centuries, rather than decades, and there won't be decades left, at this rate. I must be missing something somewhere, unless it's simply spite?
Sorry, comrade, I'm not trying to bust your chops, it's just I'm clearly missing something.
I think Tesla is just a straight up scam, and Palentir is doing surveillance. These aren't really companies that are going to drive a shift away from fossil fuels. It could be that the rich are just planning to ride out the climate disaster in their bunkers too. Or that they're oblivious. Many of them are old as well and perhaps think that the big disasters will start after they're dead anyways.
Fair enough. I've heard "who cares, we'll be dead!" more times than I can count.
après nous le déluge
It's so funny to say the US has far surpassed China in AI when AI is the field where literally no company has a competitive moat to speak of besides Nvidia.
And Nvidia isn't even in the AI race- they're just the proprietor selling picks and shovels to the gold miners hoping to strike it rich. And so far, they're the only ones profiting from it, just like the pick sellers were during the gold rush.
Even nvidia isn't going to have an edge for long. Huawei can already make competitive compute clusters today.