April, 30 2024, 10:14am EDT
New Evidence of Big Oil’s Climate Deception Demands Justice Dept. Inquiry
House and Senate Committees Issue Joint Findings from a Years-long Investigation into the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Long-Running Campaigns to Lie to the American People About Climate Change
Members of the U.S. House and Senate today jointly released new evidence shining further light on the fossil fuel industry’s decades-long efforts to deceive the American people about climate change.
Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, released the following statement:
“This new evidence of Big Oil’s climate lies will likely be used to hold these companies accountable in court — and it should generate renewed calls for the U.S. Department of Justice to finally open its own investigation into the fossil fuel industry.
“We applaud Senator Whitehouse, Representative Raskin, and their committees for helping to shine further light on Big Oil’s ongoing climate deception. Communities across the country are already taking these polluters to court to make them pay for their deceit, and many of their lawsuits have cited documents unearthed by Congress as evidence.
“Big Oil’s concerted efforts to mislead the public about their destructive industry are the most consequential corporate fraud in history. Tomorrow’s hearing should make clear that it’s time for the U.S. Justice Department to get off the sidelines and take action to hold Big Oil accountable for lying to the American people for decades."
Background on Congressional Investigations into Big Oil
In 2021, the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform launched an investigation into the role of ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, the American Petroleum Institute, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in a “long-running, industry-wide campaign to spread disinformation about the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming.”
In a historic hearing, the Big Oil executives testified before the committee and refused under oath to pledge that they would stop spending money to oppose climate action. The committee subpoenaed the companies for documents, and in 2022, the committee twice released new evidence showing that the companies continue to obstruct climate action and deceive the public.
Background on Congressional Calls for DOJ Action Against Big Oil
Last summer, nearly two dozen House and Senate members wrote letters to Attorney General Merrick Garland urging the Department of Justice to either investigate or sue Exxon, Shell, and other fossil fuel companies for violating fraud, racketeering, and other federal laws.
Background on State and Local Climate Accountability Lawsuits Against Big Oil
The attorneys general of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, and the District of Columbia, as well as dozens of municipal governments in California, Colorado, Hawai`i, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Puerto Rico, and two tribal governments, have filed lawsuits to hold major oil and gas companies accountable for deceiving the public about their products’ role in climate change.
At least four of those lawsuits have cited evidence unearthed by the House Oversight investigation in their filings.
The Center for Climate Integrity (CCI) helps cities and states across the country hold corporate polluters accountable for the massive impacts of climate change.
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'Wake-Up Call for the World': Millions Impacted by Extreme Floods in Brazil
"This is not a disaster of Brazil's making. The whole planet is experiencing increasingly rapid climate changes due largely to the greenhouse gases produced by a handful of wealthy nations," one expert said.
May 20, 2024
Experts emphasized the escalating risks of climate-related disasters and their disproportionate impacts on low-income people on Monday following flooding in Brazil that has killed at least 150 people and displaced more than 600,000.
The floods that hit over recent days and weeks have knocked out bridges and the main airport in Porto Alegre, a port city in southern Brazil. More than 460 of the 497 municipalities in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sol have been affected, with more than 2 million people impacted, according to provisional government data.
"The situation is catastrophic," said Rachel Soeiro, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) medical coordinator in Brazil, who visited the area by helicopter. "We were able to view the towns from above and noticed that in some cases we couldn't even see the roofs of houses.”
More than two feet of rain has fallen so far this month, according Brazil's national weather service, inundating large areas.
"Whole towns and large, urban city centers are in some cases almost completely underwater," the BBCreported on Saturday.
We joined an emergency services helicopter rescuing people from Brazil's floods. The rescues themselves are fraught with risks. More than half a million people are displaced.
Watch on @BBCNews at 6 today (on at 1705) or catch up on the News at One.
Whole cities are destroyed👇 pic.twitter.com/hxZYSVDDmz
— Ione Wells (@ionewells) May 19, 2024
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"In many ways, this is not a disaster of Brazil’s making. The whole planet is experiencing increasingly rapid climate changes due largely to the greenhouse gases produced by a handful of wealthy nations," Cristiane Fontes (Krika), executive director of World Resources Institute (WRI) Brasil, wrote in a commentary earlier this month in which she called the situation a "wake-up call for the world."
In recent weeks, flooding has also hit China, the United Arab Emirates, and Australia, and WRI's staff in Kenya are dealing with dam breaches from heavy rains, Fontes noted.
A Brazilian expert indicated that the flooding, catastrophic as it has been, should not come as a surprise.
"People on the streets here in Brazil, they've attributed this change to global climate change driven by the increase of fossil fuels," Paulo Artaxo, a physics professor at the University of Sao Paulo, and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He explained that was in line with IPCC projections showing that southern Brazil would face more extreme rainfall due to tropical and polar currents.
In Brazil, as elsewhere, climate impacts are not evenly distributed. MSF relief efforts are focused on the most vulnerable, including Indigenous communities, one of which had been isolated by rising waters and without help for 10 days before being reached by the humanitarian group.
"Assisting those who are most vulnerable is one of our main concerns in such situations," Soeiro said. "These people were already facing difficult situations before the flooding. But their needs have risen further and access to them has become more difficult."
Some wealthy people in Porto Alegre have choices such as escaping to a second home, but in "rundown towns" on the city's periphery, low-income people have no such options, according to CNN.
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As European Union voters prepare for June elections, far-right leaders gathered in Madrid for a weekend rally hosted by Spain's Vox party—a gathering at the Palacio de Vistalegre that drew protests and warnings about their plans for the continent.
Rally speakers delivered "strong messages against illegal migration and the bloc's climate policy while declaring their support for Israel in its war against Hamas,"
according toThe Associated Press.
France 24reported that the audience at Europa Viva 24 "jeered at every mention of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the United Nations' 2030 Agenda, feminism, or socialism."
Participants included French National Rally party President Marine Le Pen, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and Portuguese Chega party President André Ventura, with some joining by video.
"Dear Spanish friends, we patriots must occupy Brussels," Orbán claimed in a video message, according toEuractiv. He framed the upcoming elections as a "great common battle" against those who he said are "unleashing mass illegal migration" and "poisoning our children with gender propaganda."
Right-wing Argentine President Javier Milei traveled to Madrid for the event. During a speech, he suggested that Sánchez's wife is "corrupt," which led the Spanish government to recall its ambassador to Buenos Aires.
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The Party of European Socialists Secretary General Giacomo Filibeck similarly condemned the "totally unacceptable attack by Milei on PM Pedro Sánchez and his family."
"Death and poverty—this is what fascism brings, as Spain knows all too well. That's why voters reject the far-right and embrace Pedro Sánchez and the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party," Filibeck continued, also calling out Meloni and Alberto Núñez Feijóo of the Spanish People's Party. "We know where we stand for a democratic and respectful society, we can't be so sure about them."
As The Guardiandetailed:
Sánchez himself said Sunday's far-right summit was indicative of an "undercurrent" vehemently opposed to social justice which denies both science and women's rights.
"Why have all these people chosen Spain as the place to meet?" he said in a speech in Barcelona on Saturday. "It's no coincidence. They've chosen Spain because we, as a society—not as a government; as a society—represent everything that they hate and detest: feminism; social justice; dignified employment; a strong welfare state; and democracy."
"In democracy, as in life, forgiveness is far stronger than bitterness, coexistence is far stronger than confrontation, and union is far stronger than division."
Opponents who demonstrated against the far-right also took aim at Argentina's leader. One toldEuronewsthat fascism "is growing,'' and "with Milei's visit we are seeing the grouping of a lot of sectors of politicians and the business world, which is quite worrying and I think that has to raise the alarm a little."
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AP. "I am worried because Hitler won because of democracy, and I think that maybe we'll have the same situation."
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Climate justice advocates on Monday expressed hope that a landmark youth-led South Korean lawsuit—which alleges the country's government is failing to protect citizens from the effects of the human-caused planetary emergency—will have a ripple effect that inspires activists throughout Asia and beyond to take similar action.
South Korea's Constitutional Court is set to hold a second and final hearing Tuesday in the case, which was filed in 2019 by 19 members of Youth4ClimateAction who accuse the South Korean government of violating their rights to life, the "pursuit of happiness," a "healthy and pleasant environment," and to "resist against human extinction."
"All countries need to take action in order to tackle this global crisis, and there are no exceptions."
The case was merged with three similar suits filed since 2020, including one brought by parents on behalf of dozens of children under the age of 5. One infant, nicknamed "Woodpecker," was not yet born at the time the complaint was lodged. The lawsuit comes amid a growing wave of similar cases around the world.
"If we have a favorable precedent in South Korea, I think that will really be a trigger in spreading this trend," Sejong Youn, an attorney in the South Korean case, toldNature Monday. "It will send a message: All countries need to take action in order to tackle this global crisis, and there are no exceptions."
Referring to the Paris climate agreement, Amnesty International Korea climate campaigner Jiyoun Yoo said Monday that "strategic litigation is a powerful tool which is being increasingly used to enforce states' binding duty to protect people's rights from the adverse impacts of the climate crisis and ensure there is no backsliding on the international commitments they made in 2015 to prevent average global temperatures from rising above 1.5°C this century."
"The climate crisis is already upon us but the effects will be felt even more intensely by future generations," Yoo added. "Cases like this are vital to safeguarding citizens' rights. Taking legal action against a state is often a long and arduous process which requires patience and perseverance and the courage of these pioneering plaintiffs is to be admired and applauded."
According to the United Nations Environment Program's (UNEP) most recent Emissions Gap Report, humanity must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 28% before 2030 to limit warming to 2°C above preindustrial levels and 42% to halt warming at 1.5°C. UNEP said that based on current policies and practices, the world is on track for 2.9°C of warming by the end of the century.
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"Even if you lose this time, you can lose beautifully in the sense that you provoked social awareness," Zhu said. "The very fact that this case went to the Constitutional Court—that is already a certain sense of success. I believe in people's creativity. Even if you fail this time, you can learn from this experience and just try another pass."
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