What or Who Is The Petro-Elephant?
08/01/23 • 30 min
Episode 1: What is the petro-elephant?
Plastic production is by far the largest industrial oil, gas, and electricity user in the EU, overshadowing other energy-intensive industries, contributing to the ongoing energy crisis in Europe.
Its unseemly ties to the energy crisis bring to light the massive energy use of the petrochemical industry. Plastics are oil and gas, and should be addressed as such in energy and climate debates. Yet we are seeing a strong buildout of petrochemical and plastic production facilities. Something is not adding up so our host Sarah Diedro Jordão speaks to writers of Break Free From Plastic’s Winter Is Coming report to the podcast to tell us their groundbreaking insights. With Delphine Lévi Alvarès of Break Free From Plastic & CIEL in Belgium and Andy Gheorghiu, activist and campaigner in Germany.
Transcript: Coming soon!
Recorded in April 2023.
Read the Winter is Coming report: https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/winter-is-coming/
Amadeo Ghiotto and Delphine Lévi Alvarès co-authored the report, with support from Andy Gheorghiu (Andy Gheorghiu Consulting), and review by Lili Fuhr (CIEL), Tom Harrison (GGON), Carroll Muffett (CIEL), Joan Marc Simon (Zero Waste Europe), Sarah Baulch (The Pew Charitable Trusts), and Jozef Vandermeulen (FairFin).
Find out more about Delphine Lévi Alvarès: https://www.ciel.org/about-us/ciel-staff/delphine-levi-alvares/
Find out more about Andy Gheorghiu: https://humansandnature.org/andy-gheorghiu/
This podcast series was created by Amadeo Ghiotto (Greenpeace) and Bethany Spendlove Keeley (Break Free From Plastic).
Our audio editor and podcast consultant is Anja Krieger.
The Music is from the YouTube Audio Library:
Accralate - The Dark Contenent by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100341
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Cover design elements by Bryan Mathers, Visual Thinkery.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Episode 1: What is the petro-elephant?
Plastic production is by far the largest industrial oil, gas, and electricity user in the EU, overshadowing other energy-intensive industries, contributing to the ongoing energy crisis in Europe.
Its unseemly ties to the energy crisis bring to light the massive energy use of the petrochemical industry. Plastics are oil and gas, and should be addressed as such in energy and climate debates. Yet we are seeing a strong buildout of petrochemical and plastic production facilities. Something is not adding up so our host Sarah Diedro Jordão speaks to writers of Break Free From Plastic’s Winter Is Coming report to the podcast to tell us their groundbreaking insights. With Delphine Lévi Alvarès of Break Free From Plastic & CIEL in Belgium and Andy Gheorghiu, activist and campaigner in Germany.
Transcript: Coming soon!
Recorded in April 2023.
Read the Winter is Coming report: https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/winter-is-coming/
Amadeo Ghiotto and Delphine Lévi Alvarès co-authored the report, with support from Andy Gheorghiu (Andy Gheorghiu Consulting), and review by Lili Fuhr (CIEL), Tom Harrison (GGON), Carroll Muffett (CIEL), Joan Marc Simon (Zero Waste Europe), Sarah Baulch (The Pew Charitable Trusts), and Jozef Vandermeulen (FairFin).
Find out more about Delphine Lévi Alvarès: https://www.ciel.org/about-us/ciel-staff/delphine-levi-alvares/
Find out more about Andy Gheorghiu: https://humansandnature.org/andy-gheorghiu/
This podcast series was created by Amadeo Ghiotto (Greenpeace) and Bethany Spendlove Keeley (Break Free From Plastic).
Our audio editor and podcast consultant is Anja Krieger.
The Music is from the YouTube Audio Library:
Accralate - The Dark Contenent by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100341
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Cover design elements by Bryan Mathers, Visual Thinkery.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
Coming soon! New #BreakFreeFromPlastic podcast
In 2022, the Break Free From Plastic movement published a new report, making the case for turning off the petrochemical industry’s plastic production tap to reduce European Union’s dependency on fossil fuels and Russia. The report came in light of the Russian war on Ukraine and it exposed, in a brutal way, Europe’s dependence on fossil fuels, particularly Russian oil and gas. In the midst of an energy crisis, EU governments demanded far more action — and adaptation — from individual citizens than from industry sectors that consume the lion’s share of fossil feedstock and fossil energy, while they also completely overlook the huge potential to reduce fossil fuel consumption by tackling unnecessary use.
The petrochemical industry is the largest global driver of the increased demand for oil and gas, fueling the climate crisis and its disastrous impacts on the most vulnerable communities and ecosystems. Yet, this extremely high fossil fuel-consuming industry has remained a complete oversight in the EU public energy and climate debates. This is despite clear and feasible pathways to reduce consumption of one of its main products: plastic.
Join us for our new podcast series, hosted by Sarah Diedro Jordão and with special guests from the Break Free From Plastic movement and beyond.
Transcript: Coming soon!
Recorded in April 2023.
Read the Winter is Coming report: https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/winter-is-coming/
Amadeo Ghiotto and Delphine Lévi Alvarès co-authored the report, with support from Andy Gheorghiu (Andy Gheorghiu Consulting), and review by Lili Fuhr (CIEL), Tom Harrison (GGON), Carroll Muffett (CIEL), Joan Marc Simon (Zero Waste Europe), Sarah Baulch (The Pew Charitable Trusts), and Jozef Vandermeulen (FairFin).
This podcast series was created by Amadeo Ghiotto (Greenpeace) and Bethany Spendlove Keeley (Break Free From Plastic)
Our audio editor and podcast consultant is Anja Krieger.
The Music is from the YouTube Audio Library:
Accralate - The Dark Contenent by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100341
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Cover design elements by Bryan Mathers, Visual Thinkery.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Next Episode
Plastic Production From The Frontline
Episode 2: Plastic production from the frontline
Since the Russian war on Ukraine and the cut of supplies of gas and oil to Europe, the EU is replacing Russian fossil fuels with imports from other regions. Though the EU’s fossil fuel needs could be drastically reduced through cutting virgin plastic production, EU member states are expanding to find new sources of oil and gas to build new infrastructures. As a result, communities across the world are facing the harsh consequences of the harmful plastic production industry. In this episode, Sarah Diedro Jordão speaks to Sarah Martik of the Center for Coalfield Justice in the USA and Dean Bhekumuzi Bhebhe of Power Shift Africa in South Africa. How does Europe’s hunger for fossil fuels exacerbate negative environmental, social and cultural impacts elsewhere?
Recorded in April 2023.
Read the Winter is Coming report: https://www.breakfreefromplastic.org/winter-is-coming/
Amadeo Ghiotto and Delphine Lévi Alvarès co-authored the report, with support from Andy Gheorghiu (Andy Gheorghiu Consulting), and review by Lili Fuhr (CIEL), Tom Harrison (GGON), Carroll Muffett (CIEL), Joan Marc Simon (Zero Waste Europe), Sarah Baulch (The Pew Charitable Trusts), and Jozef Vandermeulen (FairFin).
Find out more about Sarah Martik: https://centerforcoalfieldjustice.org/about/
Find out more about Dean Bhebhe and Powershift Africa: https://www.powershiftafrica.org/ and check out their Don’t Gas Africa campaign: https://dont-gas-africa.org/
This podcast series was created by Amadeo Ghiotto (Greenpeace) and Bethany Spendlove Keeley (Break Free From Plastic).
Our audio editor and podcast consultant is Anja Krieger.
The Music is from the YouTube Audio Library:
Accralate - The Dark Contenent by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100341
Artist: http://incompetech.com/
Cover design elements by Bryan Mathers, Visual Thinkery.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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