Bread and Circuses on Nostr: Excerpts from a compelling piece arguing that fossil fuel companies should be charged ...
Excerpts from a compelling piece arguing that fossil fuel companies should be charged with homicide. Yes!
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Fossil fuel companies have long understood — with shocking accuracy — that their products would cause, in their own words, “globally catastrophic” climate change. Instead of shifting their business model, or at least alerting the public to this threat, the companies concealed what they knew and executed a disinformation campaign to spread doubt about climate science. They achieved this spectacularly, making trillions of dollars from their deception while most of humanity pays an increasingly devastating price.
The climate crisis, and the crimes committed in perpetuating it, constitutes an existential threat to our society. Fossil fuel companies may have committed numerous criminal acts, including fraud, deceptive advertising, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, conspiracy, racketeering, and more.
But the crime that best captures the nature, scale, and gravity of their misconduct in most jurisdictions might be homicide. The basic questions in a climate homicide trial are as follows: Did fossil fuel companies substantially contribute to or accelerate deaths, and did they do so at least recklessly, if not knowingly or intentionally? These questions would be presented to a jury. If you think the jury should say “yes,” you’re not alone.
The reason for pursuing criminal accountability is simple: The climate crisis is an all-hands-on-deck moment if there ever was one, and we need to use every available strategy to curtail greenhouse gas pollution.
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FULL ARTICLE -- https://newrepublic.com/article/179624/fossil-fuel-companies-prosecute-climate-homicide
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateJustice
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Fossil fuel companies have long understood — with shocking accuracy — that their products would cause, in their own words, “globally catastrophic” climate change. Instead of shifting their business model, or at least alerting the public to this threat, the companies concealed what they knew and executed a disinformation campaign to spread doubt about climate science. They achieved this spectacularly, making trillions of dollars from their deception while most of humanity pays an increasingly devastating price.
The climate crisis, and the crimes committed in perpetuating it, constitutes an existential threat to our society. Fossil fuel companies may have committed numerous criminal acts, including fraud, deceptive advertising, reckless endangerment, criminal mischief, conspiracy, racketeering, and more.
But the crime that best captures the nature, scale, and gravity of their misconduct in most jurisdictions might be homicide. The basic questions in a climate homicide trial are as follows: Did fossil fuel companies substantially contribute to or accelerate deaths, and did they do so at least recklessly, if not knowingly or intentionally? These questions would be presented to a jury. If you think the jury should say “yes,” you’re not alone.
The reason for pursuing criminal accountability is simple: The climate crisis is an all-hands-on-deck moment if there ever was one, and we need to use every available strategy to curtail greenhouse gas pollution.
______________________________
FULL ARTICLE -- https://newrepublic.com/article/179624/fossil-fuel-companies-prosecute-climate-homicide
#Environment #Climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateJustice