Amid record heat in Europe and the UK that has already killed hundreds, a Twitter account from a Shell company, a global oil and gas company, gave advice on Monday on how to fight the heat and received some online rejection.
“No air conditioning? No sweating. These are our tips for staying cool (and saving energy) when it’s hot outside,” the tweet says.
“Your company is one of the main reasons we are in this situation,” said a Twitter user he wrote.
No air conditioning? Without sweating. Here are our tips for staying cool (and saving energy) when it’s hot outside. ☀️ https://t.co/2xw0D57Gw8 pic.twitter.com/HldFxFGOTo
– Shell Energy (@ShellEnergyHome) July 18, 2022
The tweet links to a blog on how to stay cool and use less energy at home, such as closing curtains or drying clothes in the air.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the company’s tweet had more than 300 quotes and more than 200 replies, not a good proportion. Most of the other recent tweets on the account have three or four likes and replies.
Another of these dating tweeters referenced a 2018 Guardian article, which spoke of a 1988 Shell note where the company predicted that an increase in CO2 in the atmosphere would end up causing a catastrophe for the environment, from the loss of animal and plant species until sea level rise.
Last May, a Dutch court ruled that Shell could be held responsible for its carbon emissions. A 2022 article reviewed the promises of Shell and other oil companies transitioning to clean energy through financial analysis to determine if it was really happening. It was published online in PLoS ONE, an open access journal.
“The financial analysis reveals a continuing reliance on the fossil fuel business model along with negligible and opaque spending on clean energy,” the authors wrote.
Shell reported in March its highest quarterly earnings since 2008 amid rising gas prices, CNBC reported.
Other energy companies, such as ConEdison, have given warnings before the heat waves. But Shell’s advice, in the midst of the rising summer heat, seemed to touch a string.
“Honestly, do the audacity of this tweet,” another person said he wrote.
Shell CEO Ben van Beurden said last week that it was possible to ration energy in Europe amid the heat wave, according to the BBC. The UK faced a record temperature of 104.5 degrees linked to climate change on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.
A Shell representative declined to comment. His website says he plans to become a zero-emission net company by 2050.