Oil funds tyrants

Oil consumption is driving the climate crisis, and the peaking of global oil production, due to overconsuming a finite resource, contributes to high fuel prices. Today I want to discuss how purchasing oil funds tyrants and terrorism around the world.

In 2019, before the pandemic sharply reduced demand, global oil production was 95M barrels per day. Few countries have oil production in sufficient quantity to allow for much export. Just four countries account for 46 percent of global exports: United Arab Emirates (16.3 percent), Saudi Arabia (11.4 percent), Russia (10.5 percent), and Kuwait (7.6 percent).

#1, United Arab Emirates,

“is a federation of seven hereditary tribal monarchs. All responsibilities not granted to the national government are reserved to the individual emirates. Human rights in the country are generally substandard. Citizens criticizing the regime are imprisoned and tortured, their families harassed by the state security apparatus, with cases of forced disappearances. Sharia religious courts have exclusive jurisdiction over a wide range of laws; amputation and stoning are considered legal punishments, with homosexuality and apostasy from Islam, punishable by death.”

“In 2013, the country had a population of 9.2 million, of which 1.4 million were Emirati citizens and 7.8 million were expatriates (guest workers). The UAE, with the seventh largest oil reserves, has developed to one of the world’s most wealthy states, but the wealth gap between rich and poor is one of the worst in the world, largely due to the amount of welfare and protection afforded to native Emiratis and the amount of neglect towards migrant workers.”

#2, Saudi Arabia, “is an absolute monarchy. No political parties or national elections are permitted, and observance of Sharia law are mandated for Muslim and non-Muslim alike. The Economist rated the Saudi government as the fifth most authoritarian government in the world.”

“A founding member of