The world’s preeminent advocate for electric vehicles is telling the world to not go so hard or so fast on eliminating fossil fuels.It comes after Tesla founder Elon Musk on the weekend told a gathering of Italian Prime Minister Giogia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party climate change alarmism “is exaggerated in the short term” and that environmental activists are turning people away from legitimate pursuits to reduce emissions.Although he said he considers himself an “environmentalist” and that it is “important” that industries reduce carbon emissions, he said in an interview that “we should not demonize oil and gas in the medium term,” as per Reuters..It comes after representatives from 199 countries — excluding Iran — agreed at the COP28 summit in Dubai to begin reducing fossil fuels to “avert the worst of climate change.”It’s not the first time Musk has called on the world to continue to extract oil and gas in order to “sustain civilization.”Speaking in Norway in August of 2022, Musk encouraged Equinor, the Norwegian state oil company, to continue to explore for petroleum deposits off its shores. “Realistically I think we need to use oil and gas in the short term, because otherwise civilization will crumble,” he said at the time. “One of the biggest challenges the world has ever faced is the transition to sustainable energy and to a sustainable economy. That will take some decades to complete.”.Critics complained his latest comments were aimed at a partisan populist audience of what Italian media has called neo-fascists. That’s because the Brothers of Italy has its roots in Benito Mussolini’s Italian Social Movement that began with his infamous ‘March on Rome’ in 1922.A century later, the modern Brothers of Italy won the most votes in the country’s 2022 election on what critics called an ‘Islamophobic’ — and ironically, antisemitic — platform of climate denialism. Meloni herself has been accused of xenophobia and has come out against same-sex marriage and parenting, as well as immigration which she described as an “epochal battle for Italy and Europe.In September, Meloni announced plans to give authorities new powers to detain illegal migrants for up to 18 months after more than 10,000 people landed on the tiny island of Lampedusa, outstripping the local population.In that regard, Musk voiced concerns over Italy’s “low birth rate.”"If the workforce declines then who will work in the country?" he added.
The world’s preeminent advocate for electric vehicles is telling the world to not go so hard or so fast on eliminating fossil fuels.It comes after Tesla founder Elon Musk on the weekend told a gathering of Italian Prime Minister Giogia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party climate change alarmism “is exaggerated in the short term” and that environmental activists are turning people away from legitimate pursuits to reduce emissions.Although he said he considers himself an “environmentalist” and that it is “important” that industries reduce carbon emissions, he said in an interview that “we should not demonize oil and gas in the medium term,” as per Reuters..It comes after representatives from 199 countries — excluding Iran — agreed at the COP28 summit in Dubai to begin reducing fossil fuels to “avert the worst of climate change.”It’s not the first time Musk has called on the world to continue to extract oil and gas in order to “sustain civilization.”Speaking in Norway in August of 2022, Musk encouraged Equinor, the Norwegian state oil company, to continue to explore for petroleum deposits off its shores. “Realistically I think we need to use oil and gas in the short term, because otherwise civilization will crumble,” he said at the time. “One of the biggest challenges the world has ever faced is the transition to sustainable energy and to a sustainable economy. That will take some decades to complete.”.Critics complained his latest comments were aimed at a partisan populist audience of what Italian media has called neo-fascists. That’s because the Brothers of Italy has its roots in Benito Mussolini’s Italian Social Movement that began with his infamous ‘March on Rome’ in 1922.A century later, the modern Brothers of Italy won the most votes in the country’s 2022 election on what critics called an ‘Islamophobic’ — and ironically, antisemitic — platform of climate denialism. Meloni herself has been accused of xenophobia and has come out against same-sex marriage and parenting, as well as immigration which she described as an “epochal battle for Italy and Europe.In September, Meloni announced plans to give authorities new powers to detain illegal migrants for up to 18 months after more than 10,000 people landed on the tiny island of Lampedusa, outstripping the local population.In that regard, Musk voiced concerns over Italy’s “low birth rate.”"If the workforce declines then who will work in the country?" he added.
