Climate homicide: article argues that oil companies are held responsible for deaths in disasters

The article called 'Climate Homicide: Suing Big Oil Over Climate Killings' (🇬🇧) is based, in large part, on the recent revelation that Fossil fuel companies knew about the damage their products caused to the environment and misled the public about them.

Oil company knew about the impact of its activity on global warming, but lied, says UN

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres accused big oil companies this Wednesday (18) of spreading a “big lie” about their role in global warming, days after the publication of a study on what the American giant ExxonMobil knew about this risk four decades ago. The research, published in the journal Science, revealed that the oil and gas multinational disregarded its own scientists' findings about the role of fossil fuels in climate change. 🤯

The paper argues that oil companies' climate research and ongoing fight to delay climate regulations amount to a “culpable mental state” that inflicted harm on people, including death.

“Once you start using these terms, you realize this is criminal law,” Donald Braman, a law professor at George Washington University and co-author of the paper, told The Guardian. “Culpable mental state causing harm is criminal conduct, and if they kill someone, that’s homicide.” (The Guardian*)

The thesis authors argue that facing murder charges would have a greater impact on fossil fuel companies than cases currently before the court, in part because the penalties would be more severe. Instead of paying a fine, murder charges can open up a host of other outcomes that can materially alter how companies operate.

Climate homicide…is this the solution?🤔

Read also

Adding fuel to the fire: big banks continue financing oil and gas despite environmental commitments, NGOs denounce

Large financial institutions that are part of alliances that say they want to achieve carbon neutrality continue to finance oil and gas exploration, denounced 9 NGOs in a study published this Tuesday (17).

(🇬🇧): content in English

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