⚠️Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed. #ClimateCrisis
The case for prosecuting fossil fuel companies for homicide
"In today’s thinking, tort law—the law of civil wrongs—seeks economically efficient outcomes: The question is about whether one party should give another some money. Criminal law, by contrast, is concerned with society’s fundamental values—with morality. It answers whether conduct is permissible or forbidden. Where tort law prices misconduct, criminal law prohibits it.
" If someone substantially contributes to or accelerates a death, that counts as “causing” it. If they did so intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly, that counts as “culpable mental state.” "
Well, #ExxonKnew. #ShellKnew. They all knew, very early on and with astonishing accuracy, what the burning of their product will do. They not only kept on selling the product at great profit, they lied about it.
Exxon CEO Darren Woods says the quiet part out loud: The problem with renewable energy sources is that they “don't generate above-average returns for Exxon's shareholders.” — @pluralistichttps://pluralistic.net/2024/03/06/exxonknew/
The sun generates virtually limitless and free energy, with much of it available in the form of wind and tides. And we’re already well underway to harnessing that energy.
Former Exxon top DC lobbyist Keith McCoy “confessed to everything: funding fake grassroots groups and falsifying the science – he even names the senators who took his bribes. McCoy singled out Manchin for special praise, calling him "a kingmaker" and boasting about the "standing weekly calls" Exxon had with Manchin's office.”
When hydrocarbon barons do their damndest to torch the Earth with fossil fuels, they call us dreamers. They insist that there's a hard-nosed reality - humanity needs energy - and they're the ones who live in it, while we live in the fairy land where the world can run on sunshine and virtuous thoughts. Without them making the tough decisions, we'd all be starving in the frigid dark.
After all #ExxonKnew. 40 years ago, Exxon's internal research predicted climate change, connected climate change to its own profits, and predicted how bad it would be today.
Those predictions were spookily accurate and the company took them to heart, leaping into action.
These lies aren't up for debate. Back in 2021, Greenpeace tricked Exxon's top DC lobbyist Keith McCoy into thinking that he was on a Zoom call with a corporate recruiter and asked him about his work for Exxon, and McCoy spilled the beans:
Exxon's CEO is happy to lay the blame for global heating on consumers — while his company enjoys record profits from climate-wrecking fossil fuels, and also rakes in obscene amounts of government subsidies.
HEADLINE: "Exxon CEO blames public for failure to fix climate change"
The world isn’t on track to meet its climate goals — and it’s the public’s fault, a leading oil company executive told journalists.
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods told editors from Fortune that the world has “waited too long” to begin investing in a broader suite of technologies to slow planetary heating.
That heating is largely caused by the burning of fossil fuels, and much of the current impacts of that combustion — rising temperatures, extreme weather — were predicted by Exxon scientists almost half a century ago.
Since taking over from former CEO Rex Tillerson, Woods has walked a tightrope between acknowledging the critical problem of climate change — as well as the role of fossil fuels in helping drive it — while insisting fossil fuels must also provide the solution.
For example, Woods said Exxon “could, today, make sustainable aviation fuel for the airline business. But the airline companies can’t afford to pay.”
His comments doubled down on the claim that the energy transition will succeed only when end-users pay the price.
“People who are generating the emissions need to be aware of it and pay the price,” Woods said. “That’s ultimately how you solve the problem.”
The original article in Fortune Magazine openly sympathizes with Exxon. It's a disgusting example of corporate media eagerly supporting Business As Usual.
"A coalition of oil and car manufacturing interests in 1954 funded Keeling’s earliest work in measuring CO2 levels across the western US, the documents reveal.
Experts say the documents show the fossil fuel industry had intimate involvement in the inception of modern climate science, along with its warnings of the severe harm #ClimateChange will wreak, only to then publicly deny this science for decades and fund ongoing efforts to delay action on the climate crisis."
We know that #ExxonKnew, and #ShellKnew about climate change at a very early stage, but now it transpires that car manufacturers and banks also knew.
"A total of 18 automotive companies, including Ford, Chrysler and General Motors, gave money to the foundation. Other entities, including banks and retailers, also contributed funding."