{"id":2343,"date":"2019-12-16T09:03:59","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T14:03:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/?p=2343"},"modified":"2019-12-16T09:03:59","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T14:03:59","slug":"the-climate-crisis-worsens-and-big-oil-dodges-legal-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/the-climate-crisis-worsens-and-big-oil-dodges-legal-accountability\/","title":{"rendered":"The Climate Crisis Worsens and Big Oil Dodges Legal Accountability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The world\u2019s leaders met in Madrid to discuss new steps to combat the threat posed by global warming.\u00a0 The Conference was convened by the United Nations two weeks ago and finished its work with far too little progress toward curbing a rapidly heating planet.\u00a0 The Conference wrapped up with a modest agreement, too weak to have any effect on the warming of the planet \u2013 a warming that is heating up at a pace that exceeds even the direst predictions from a few years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And the data is showing that the world may be\npast the tipping point \u2013 the point at which the damage to the environment and\nthe public\u2019s health may be catastrophic.&nbsp;\nFor example, a report by the United Nations found that by 2030, global\nemissions \u2014 <em>which are currently still rising<\/em> \u2014 would have to be 25\npercent lower than last year in order to keep the rise in the global\ntemperature less than 2\u02daC (3.6\u02daF) and 55 percent less than last year in order\nto keep the global warming to less than 1.5\u00b0C (2.7\u02daF).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Why should the world be keeping the heat to\nthose levels?&nbsp; According to the\nInternational Panel on Climate Change (the world\u2019s experts), going from 2.7\u02daF of\nglobal warming to 3.6\u02daF could mean:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>1.7 billion more people will experience\nsevere heatwaves at least once every five years.<\/li><li>Seas will rise \u2013 on average \u2013 another 4\ninches.<\/li><li>Up to several hundred million more people\nwill become exposed to climate-related risks and poverty.<\/li><li>The coral reefs that support marine\nenvironments around the world could decline as much as 99 percent.<\/li><li>Global fishery catches could face massive declines.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Going above 2.7\u02daF of warming puts millions\nmore at risk of potentially life-threatening heatwaves and poverty. It all but\nwipes out coral reefs that entire ecosystems rely on. Seas will flood even more\nof the world\u2019s cities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, not enough is being done to keep the lid\non heating.&nbsp; Instead, the planet is\nheating up at a rate that may threaten our existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As depressing as the projections are, what is\nmost shocking is that we are doing it to ourselves.&nbsp; Most notably, scientists at huge oil\ncompanies like Exxon knew since the 1970s that global warming was an increasing\nexistential threat \u2013 unless actions were taken.&nbsp;\nBut instead of alerting the public and policymakers to the growing\ndanger, the industry focused on undermining the science and using its finances\nto bamboozle the public and purchase political leaders as its supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And they succeeded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We live in a country whose political leaders\ndon\u2019t believe the science.&nbsp; They are far\nmore interested in fattening the profit margins of the oil, gas and coal\nindustries.&nbsp; And the nation\u2019s lack of\nleadership is also contributing mightily to the global failures to collectively\nact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The fossil fuel\u2019s industry actions may have\npushed the earth \u2013 and civilization \u2013 to the breaking point.&nbsp; What consequences should they face?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week, the effort by the New York State\nAttorney General to hold oil companies legally accountable for their actions\nwas blocked.&nbsp; A judge ruled in favor of\nExxonMobil Corp. in a case that accused the company of misleading investors\nabout climate-change regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>New York state&#8217;s attorney general launched an\ninvestigation into Exxon in 2015 and then sued the company&nbsp;last year,\nclaiming it used two sets of numbers when calculating the cost of climate\nchange regulations on its operations. This approach, according to the Attorney\nGeneral, misled investors and made the company&#8217;s investment decisions appear\nmore profitable or less costly&nbsp;than they otherwise would have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The court ruled against the Attorney General,\nhowever, stating that New York &#8220;failed to prove that ExxonMobil made any\nmaterial misstatements or omissions about its practices and procedures that\nmisled any reasonable investor.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether New York chooses to challenge the\nruling is unclear, but it shouldn\u2019t be the last effort to hold the industry\naccountable.&nbsp; The Attorney General\u2019s\neffort deserved public support.&nbsp; But its\nlegal loss shouldn\u2019t mean that the industry should not be held to account for\nits efforts to undermine the science and corrupt the nation\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Like any polluter, they should pay for the\nmess that they have created.&nbsp; And\npolicymakers worldwide should use the industry\u2019s resources to pull back from\nthe climate abyss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The world\u2019s leaders met in Madrid to discuss new steps to combat the threat posed by global warming.\u00a0 The Conference was convened by the United Nations two weeks ago and finished its work with far too little progress toward curbing a rapidly heating planet.\u00a0 The Conference wrapped up with a modest agreement, too weak to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2343","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2343"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2344,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2343\/revisions\/2344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2343"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2343"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nypirg.org\/capitolperspective\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2343"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}