Fossil Fuel Industry Hijacks, Sabotages U.S. Pavilion at 2017 World Expo

Exxon Mobil and Chevron ensured the U.S. pavilion ignores expo theme, remains silent on climate change and alternative energy.

For those unfamiliar, “Future Energy” is the theme of the 2017 World Expo, which is being held this summer in Kazakhstan’s futuristic capital, Astana. 194 countries from around the world curated pavilions to showcase their advances in renewable energy, green technology, and the fight against climate change.

As the host of the expo, Kazakhstan’s pavilion is housed within a giant glass orb at the center of the expo that reads as an attractive and well-curated science museum of alternative energy. Germany, Singapore, Israel, China, and Korea also have thoughtful, informative pavilions that seriously address how each nation is doing their part to reduce carbon emissions. Other pavilions are humorously off-topic, such as Turkmenistan’s, which takes the form of an extravagant gift shop where nothing is actually for sale, and Burkina Faso’s, which just houses samples of cocoa butter.

The biggest flop, however, is the U.S. pavilion, which draws large crowds eager to see what kind of spectacle the world’s premier superpower might put on. The audience is ushered into a sparse, industrial theater which looks something like a Walmart stockroom. A film begins to play which begins with the narrator posing a question: “what is the source of infinite energy?” What proceeds is an awkwardly evasive montage that does nothing to answer this question. An American woman and a Kazakh man take turns dancing in front of frames of a family barbecue cookout, a rodeo, a football game, and other cliche American scenes. At the end of the film, the two dancers kiss, and the narrator finally answers the question: “the source of infinite energy is YOU!” The audience is then bombarded with fluffy, nausea-inducing platitudes, including such gems as: “infinite energy is the energy that fuels our dreams,” and “when we come together, we can do amazing things.”

The film does not mention or depict alternative energy sources or climate change as specified by the expo guidelines. As the lights came on, I felt shocked and humiliated. That’s it? The world comes together to discuss the most serious issue to ever face mankind, and the U.S. is completely silent? Even Angola and Andorra manage to contribute something more substantial.

The British pavilion is also conspicuously evasive. Its centerpiece is a large yurt made of glowing LED lights. Though the British pavilion is decidedly more creative and tasteful than the American pavilion, it does not seriously engage with the expo theme.

Perhaps, not by coincidence, both the American and British pavilions’ websites cite oil companies as their primary sponsors. Exxon Mobil and Chevron served leading roles on the American expo committee while Shell spearheaded the British one. The expo theme “future energy” implies moving away from the oil economy on which these corporations’ fortunes are based. Can we be surprised that they poured money into gagging two countries that lead the world in green technology and innovation?

Surely the American pavilion would look very different if Tesla were its primary sponsor, but it was the U.S. Department of State, lead by Trump appointee and former Exxon Mobil executive Rex Tillerson, that was charged with recruiting sponsors for the project. Savor the irony that a petro-state and top exporter of fossil fuels took the initiative to fund, organize, and host an international exposition on alternative energy while the U.S. does not even manage to mention the phrase “alternative energy” in an exposition about alternative energy. I am disappointed and embarrassed but not surprised.