Our Road — Now: EP 45 The Petrochemical Industry Take Over: An All Hands on Deck Moment

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Screenshot photo: Vice-President Al Gore speaking at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, Opening Reception of Climate Week, April 21, 2025 (ABC7 News Bay Area). 

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In this episode, Ken and Deborah explain why this podcast has been such a long time coming. As with many Americans, they've been busy keeping up with the current administration’s daily assault on democracy, with more than one-hundred-fifty executive orders so far, including day one’s declaration of a “state of energy emergency,” with plans to lift the “burden” of regulations on the fossil fuels and to open up all aspects of the oil and gas industry.

The real emergency, according to Deborah and Ken, is that in effect, President Trump is facilitating a petrochemical takeover of the country and reversing decades of efforts to reduce deadly greenhouse emissions that are responsible for global warming and climate disaster.

They read former Vice-President Gore’s sobering climate change speech delivered just before Earth Day and decide to share much of the speech with their listeners as Gore tells his audience that with this presidency we are in an existential, “all hands on deck” moment as never before, and that we have “to solve the democracy crisis in order to solve the climate crisis.” 

Adding to Gore’s sentiments, Ken and Deborah share excerpts from a recently published May 14, 2025 Union of Concerned Scientists damning report titled: “Decades of Deceit: The Case Against Major Fossil Fuel Companies for Climate Fraud and Damages.”

They share Yale Climate Connection  findings, namely, “The 2024 presidential election saw over $4 billion in various fossil fuel contributions to the candidates’ campaign committees and to outside groups supporting them.”

Still, Ken and Deborah agree with former Executive Secretary of the UN Climate Change Convention, Christina Figueres, “The task of a mindset of stubborn optimism about the climate crisis is needed more than ever,” because, she said, “As Henry Ford phrased it, “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re usually right.”