Researchers are currently promoting a new legal theory that says fossil fuel companies – which, data show, are the leading contributors to planet-heating pollution – could be tried for homicide for climate-related deaths.
Each year, extreme temperatures take 5 million lives, while 400,000 people die from climate-related hunger and disease and scores perish in floods and wildfires.
The radical idea, which was first proposed last year by consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen, may sound far-fetched, but it’s gaining interest from experts and public officials.
“We’ve been really excited to see the curiosity, interest and support these ideas have garnered from members of the legal community, including from both former and current federal, state and local prosecutors,” said Aaron Regunberg, senior policy counsel with Public Citizen’s climate program.
According to reports, the Public Citizen researchers are currently holding events at top law schools including Yale, the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard, University of Chicago and New York University to promote the idea.
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“I strongly support the effort to go after these bastards,” Christopher Rabb, a Pennsylvania state representative said at a recent UPenn event. The researchers say other public officials have expressed interest behind the scenes as well.
The proposal, which will soon be published in the Harvard Law Review, stems in part from the growing body of evidence that the fossil fuel industry hid information about the dangers of fossil fuel use from the public. Those revelations have inspired 40 lawsuits alleging big oil has violated tort, product liability and consumer protection laws and engaged in racketeering.
In addition to those civil lawsuits, fossil fuel companies should also face criminal charges, the researchers say.
“Criminal law is how we say what is right and wrong in our society,” said David Arkush, who directs Public Citizen’s climate program and co-authored the paper on the proposal. “I think it’s important that some of the most damaging conduct in human history be squarely recognized and pursued as criminal.”
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
