Personal/Political dilemma

I get you and I’m not one to accept things like working for a company that does something I think is wrong just because they pay more. I’ve only worked for affordable housing, renewable energy, education, or abortion rights endeavors.

But, you’re taking their money. And it’s not for something bad. I installed a lot of BP solar panels at one time. Shrug, they were solar panels.

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Same way I’d take a million bucks off of Nazi Elmo. Better I have it than he does, plus obviously the greed angle.

I likely would’ve told them to f off in my college years to be fair with you. Nowadays it’s like it doesn’t mean anything whether you do or don’t in the grand scheme of things so it’s just about you personally. If it’s going to bother you a lot then don’t.
If you do take it, think of it as a great payday for a simple meaningless thank you note and hahahaha suckers.

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There was the mathematician who turned down the million dollars for the Millennium Prize and also declined the Fields Medal (Grigori Perelman). I mean I can understand the impulse to say fuck off to the establishment and feeling a little dirty about taking money but that is some expensive integrity.

Thanks for the money. I look forward to Exxon transitioning into a sustainable energy concern. I hope it has a Germany-like transformation, and goes from one of the greatest villains of the 20th century to one of the leaders of the 21st.

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I do like how the top two math problems solved in my lifetime were from a Cambridge professor, and a reclusive Russian (Wiles/Fermat’s Last Theorem, Perelman/Poincare Conjecture). Both look exactly like you would imagine.

But seriously dude, accept it and put at half into charity. Because yeah fuck Exxon

I’ve watched the BBC/Nova documentary on Wiles and Fermat multiple times. It was based on Simon Singh’s book. Recommended if you haven’t seen it and can find it.

Echoing what others have said, take the money. You’re not working for them, they’re not asking you to work for them. You’re taking their money, money they now can’t use to make the world a worse place, money they now can’t use to give to some other student who will be pressured into turning into a villain and making the world a worse place.

Taking care of your family is also important, and listening to your life partner is also important. No downside.

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Easiest take the money ever. Better you than some climate change denier getting the money.

Hmm. Pretty clear consensus.

I’m still mad. So I’ve vented by drafting my thank you note.

I might never use it, but it’s made me feel a little better.


Dear ExxonMobil.

Thank you for the generous scholarship award for the Energy Systems grant. As my degree focuses primarily on the challenges of climate change, I was doubly honoured to see that it was ExxonMobil that had partnered with my University for this prize.

Exxon has a long and illustrious history funding research related to climate change, and like Turkish and Australian veterans reuniting on the cliffs of Gallipoli, let’s not quibble over who was on which side.

From providing more than $33m of funding for climate denial, to your success in preventing US ratification of the Kyoto agreement, it’s hard to imagine a better benefactor for a degree that covers both.

Personally, I will invest this award in my green energy business, (redacted again). At every step and with every drop of oil I help keep in the ground, I will keep ExxonMobil squarely in my thoughts.

Kindest and sincerest regards.

Jim

(This is the second draft after editing)

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I am going to be the odd man out but here but I don’t understand the point of that email. It seems designed to make you feel good but has nothing to do with the intended audience.

Do you believe they don’t know their history?

Change your view to your audience for the letter. Sure point out their history but focus more on what you want them to do (which they are at least partly doing by offering by scholarship).

Point them to the benefits of shifting to green energy and supporting it financially and politically.

This letter doesn’t seem designed for them at all.

Also, the entire environment world is tiny. Everyone knows everyone. You really want your first move to be taking the money and yelling fuck you to the people who just gave it to you? Those people are 100% members of your local environmental professional organizations, they attend or run your local climate change conferences and they know all the people in your local academic community.

If you genuinely believe these people are irredeemable (which is insane imo) it is far better for your career to not take the money.

I’ll say all the things you say they have done are 100% true.

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I am on team “don’t send that letter” for basically the reasons Clovis gave. Take the $ though

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Of course I know that. As I said. I’ll probably never send it.

As to the rest of your point.

These people are not funding energy research to encourage renewables. They are actively attempting to slow down and redirect work away from a complete phase put of fossil fuels and towards delaying techniques like carbon capture and storage. This has been well documented.

Exxon is not active in the the environmental organisations I operate in. Nor should they be. Fossil fuels companies with no path to an alternative model are not part of the solution.

I worked with some great people in the fossil industry who did believe in climate change and are closing their stuff down. Exxon is not those people.

Your credulity as to the fossil fuel industry needs to be reexamined. This is in “I do not in fact have to hand it to ExxonMobil” territory.

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I appreciate you putting your thoughts down, but boy do I hate the idea of actually sending this.

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I have no credulity of oil companies. As I said I don’t deny any of the charges you laid. I’ve worked in this world for 25 years. This allows me to not see this all as some kind of simplistic good guys bad guys narrative. We don’t need to have this debate again but there is no path to net zero that doesn’t heavily involve current oil and gas companies.

I think you should send a letter. Just make it actually for the audience. Advocate in it don’t just admonish.

Yes. A good policy is to write the fuck you letter or email, and then never send it.

I’ve done this a few times and always been more and more relieved that I didn’t send it as time went on. I’ve never wished I sent it.

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As someone who is trying to figure out how to put my kid through college, please take the money and just say thank you if necessary.

Think the positive responses here arent taking into account that if you work at a job doing something that is fundamentally against your core beliefs, it eats away at you, no matter how good the job is or the pay. one of my last jobs was like this. the difference between that and working for something you actually believe in is huge. some people can compartmentalize or rationalize it better than others.

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