Laser Talk: How will the Fossil Fuel Industry be dismantled?

How will the Fossil Fuel Industry be dismantled?

The fossil fuel industry has known since the 1950s that their product was heating the planet.

In Canada, they began obstructing the energy transition in the 1960s. In the 1990s they knew that carbon pricing was key to transitioning and they created a playbook to obstruct that too.

As well, spikes in fossil fuel prices have been behind every recession since the Second World War II, including the inflation crisis we are in right now.

Fossil fuel companies and their political enablers spent at least one million dollars on Meta falsely claiming that the consumer carbon price caused inflation. The only silver lining from its cancellation is that they can no longer falsely blame fossil fuel price increases on the carbon tax.

Now that the carbon rebate program can no longer be blamed as a bogus bogeyman for inflation, a trade war has moved to centre stage, causing real inflation and real unease.

Oppressive systems have long marginalized vulnerable people and fomented anger to garner support. Thus, it should not be surprising that a June 2025 investigation showed 80% of U.S. anti-trans groups receive fossil fuel funding.

The deep interconnectedness of the fossil fuel and military industrial complex is also a well-proven phenomenon. Ergo, the tragedies in Ukraine and now unfolding in Venezuela should also not be surprising.

We have been here before. The slave masters did not want to give up their industry. In the United States their greed and cruelty led to a civil war. And, in the United Kingdom, the government had to pay off the slave traders and finally paid off that debt, which began in 1835, in 2015.

That leaves one wondering how this industry that will not cooperate, listen to experts, nor play by the rules can be dismantled? The answers are:

• legal consequences
• insurance and financial institutions no longer backing fossil fuel projects
• brave politicians 
• rules that protect us all from politicians who lie about climate solutions 
• healthy democracies that have robust media landscapes
• enforced regulations to protect our democracy from foreign interference 
• multilateral and global cooperation for a road map to unwind our economies from fossil fuels
• many unsung heroes who focus on doing the hard work behind the scenes building community anchored in integrity and compassion, one riding at a time.

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	Professor Leslie Shiell Will be discussing with us the paper he coauthored From Rebate to Rate Cut: Low-Income Households Lose Out Thursday, February 19, 2026 Please note your time of day for this event. 5 pm PT / 6 pm MT / 7 pm CT 8 pm ET / 9 pm AT / 9:30 pm NT Register and ask questions here.