“The new IPCC report,” tweeted Greta Thunberg, “... doesn't tell us what to do. It is up to us to be brave and take decisions based on the scientific evidence provided in these reports. We can still avoid the worst consequences, but not if we continue like today, and not without treating the crisis like a crisis.”
Boris Johnson has a different perspective. “We can’t just tear up contracts,” said the British prime minister, known across the world for shredding the Irish backstop. He was referring to the recently discovered Cambo oil field, west of Shetland, where oil companies Shell and Siccar Point Energy want to drill for at least 150 million barrels of oil, smashing through any hope of cutting carbon emissions by as much as is needed.
Because the field is technically attached to another, the oil firms assert their rights to it. Hence the contracts that ‘we’ apparently can’t just tear up.
