Is it just me, or are you as amazed and disgusted as I am by the recent item in the news about Exxon-Mobil's profits? In the last quarter, their profits were up almost 75% to almost $10 billion dollars! As summarized in a recent USA today article by Matt Krantz, Exxon has reported:
* Net income up 75% to $9.92 billion. That is the most a U.S. company has earned from operations in a three-month period [...]
*Revenue up 32% to $100.7 billion. That is greater than the annual GDP of all but just 38 of the world's economies. Note also that Royal Dutch Shell reported $9 billion, BP $6.5 billion.... etc. The reason this all makes me a bit sick to the stomach is that as a civilization, we are spending such a relatively tiny amount of money on research into alternative fuel sources to oil. We are knowingly ...
