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Saudis mastered ‘sportswashing,’ so now they’re trying oil-washing

This article was published by St. Louis Post-Dispatch and distributed by Tribune Content Agency.

World leaders gathered in Egypt last month for a summit to address climate change, but thanks to heavy lobbying by Saudi Arabia, they couldn’t quite bring themselves to put into writing the two main culprits behind climate change: humans and their consumption of fossil fuels.

If the major and minor nations of the world can’t agree on a common statement outlining what is causing the world’s rapidly escalating climate disasters, how can they ever hope to impose effective solutions?

The omission from the climate summit’s final communique is a monument to Saudi Arabia’s ability to throw its weight — or, more appropriately, its money and petroleum resources — around to create an artificial image that all’s right in the world as long as everyone keeps burning oil.

The Saudis have tried “sportswashing” to clean up the kingdom’s tattered international image by bribing professional golfers to join a Saudi-sponsored international tour. The best soccer team money could buy just whipped Argentina at the World Cup soccer tournament. All this to distract the world from what U.S. intelligence agencies say is the Saudi crown prince’s complicity in the murder and dismemberment of journalist and Washington Post contributing columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

Now comes oil-washing. At the climate summit, the Saudi delegation pulled out all the stops to ensure that fossil fuels didn’t get blamed for the wildfires across the Western United States and Western Europe, or East Coast hurricanes, or massive flooding that affected more than 33 million Pakistanis, or the rising sea levels that are wreaking havoc on poorer coastal nations.

Opinion

en-kr

2022-12-02T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-12-02T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://thekoreatimes.pressreader.com/article/282080575858483

The Korea Times Co.