The Moral Climate Safina Summary

The Moral Climate, is a magazine article written by Carl Safina and published by Orion Magazine. Safina opens his article boldly getting to the point by saying, “What most distresses me is the thirty years we’ve wasted by asking people to live sustainably.” (1). This statement refers to his disappointment with society, pertaining to the issues with our climate. How society has become blinded as to what is important. This article shoots for the attention of environmentalist and the ordinary public. The authors purpose is the grasp the reader’s attention by basically criticizing them, and nobody like to be criticized. This criticizing is an effective way to bring the reader in so they can see what is the purpose.
One major claim that Safina brought up was referring to our refusal to sacrifice. He states,
This refusal to “sacrifice” is actually a pathological refusal to change for the better. That is the real sacrifice. That refusal is framed and abetted by the disinformation campaigns of companies that would shrink if we realized we would be better off with less of them. Think of ExxonMobil; it’s probably the best example. Those companies’ fear of us — specifically that we might accept the consequences of reality — compels them into a rather successful effort to retain power over us by distorting our understanding of what’s real. (¶ 4).
He criticizes a major oil company by making seem like the bad guy. When in fact companies as such are well aware of the inefficiency of fossil fuels. The ExxonMobil company is far on way of giving back to the environment by experimenting with natural gases, that have shown less emissions of CO2. They also are creating ways to capture the carbon dioxide in the air and store it away safely. These vital facts were not included in within his article, which seem morally wrong to just discourage a company that’s trying to make a difference for the