Quiet moments of any kind are rare during South By Southwest, a festival that trades primarily on hustle, bustle, booze and sensory overload.
So it’s clear the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) was trying to pull a major “everyone chill out” zag this spring with its World’s Aquarium activation. The “aquarium” is actually a giant movie screen and ocean-themed diorama in the heart of a downtown Austin Hilton. On the screen, visitors see tranquil looped footage of whales, turtles, and other sea life enjoying a pristine ocean habitat.
The serene setting softens up visitors for the NRDC’s warning that is central to its SXSW presence: The sea life on the screen may soon become chum without some major help. That’s because their habitat is at risk of being wiped out by a proposed liquified natural gas drilling project in the Gulf of California.
For those short on their geography studies, the gulf is the marginal sea in the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja California peninsula from mainland Mexico. Described as “the world’s aquarium” by oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the gulf contains 39% of all known species of marine mammals, including blue and fin whales, whale sharks, Leatherback sea turtles, and thousands more.
Why is the gulf in trouble?
Major fossil fuel players Shell, ConocoPhillips, and ExxonMobil are among the backers of the project pushed by Houston-based Mexico Pacific. NRDC wants the attention it’ll get as the sponsor of SXSW’s Climate and Sustainability programming track to sway banking giant J.P. Morgan Chase to withdraw from its role as a financial advisor.
“Sustainability has to be defined beyond just things like tech and green building,” NRDC senior attorney Joel Reynolds said after the group’s panel discussion, which included participation from longtime supporter and actor Gael García Bernal.
“This particular conflict is directly related to climate change and the generation of energy going forward. Liquefied natural gas is just an extension of the fossil fuel addiction that is killing the planet.”
While sustainability initiatives at SXSW have traditionally leaned more toward the technology and products side, advocates like Mima Holt, NRDC global coordinator of international climate, said energy giants have used “green innovation” as a stalking horse to disguise their goal of exploiting more natural resources.
“There are conversations around carbon capture and storage, and now we have conversations around hydrogen and co-firing and co-firing ammonia, where the fossil fuel industry is basically using those sorts of ‘carbon mitigating’ technology that haven’t been proven viable as an excuse to keep expanding,” she said.
“There’s a responsibility in the tech industry to not be leveraged and used by the fossil fuel fuel industry.”
Those are harsh words words that may cause some raised eyebrows and hurt feelings among SXSW’s “tech rulz!” set. But in a space that prides itself on disruption and future-thinking, perhaps it’s exactly the kind of wake-up call that those attendees need to hear.
Correction: This story has been updated to correct a quote from Holt. It’s “co-firing and co-firing ammonia.”
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