Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
id575758025
Already, air pollution causes 6.7 million premature deaths each year. And extreme weather events, like floods, wildfires, and droughts, are becoming more likely — weather-related disasters have increased fivefold over the last fifty years, leading to two million deaths and $4.3 trillion worth of economic damage. More than 90 percent of these deaths occurred in the Global South. Those forced to bear the consequences of global warming largely caused by the Global North are those least able to bear the economic and health consequences
id575758071
We have known for some time that one hundred companies are responsible for around 70 percent of global carbon emissions.
id575758143
scientists at firms like ExxonMobil were aware of the damage that would be caused from burning fossil fuels as far back as the 1970s. But rather than bringing this information to the public’s attention, studies were buried, research budgets cut, and billions poured into lobbying and climate denialism.
id575759740
One study has demonstrated the direct consequences of the emissions released by the biggest fossil fuel companies, showing that BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, Total, Aramco, and Chevron are collectively responsible for 209 billion in annual climate reparations as a result.
id575759747
Clearly, these firms and the coterie of lobbyists, lawyers, and politicians that support them are very well-organized. But the forces opposing them are not. Rather than banding together to demand that the big fossil fuel companies pay for the damage that they have caused, most people seem to believe that the only way to fix climate breakdown is to stop using plastic straws, take the bus, or go vegan.
✏️ The most insidious part of all this. They’ve caused endless suffering past, present and most damningly future, but they’ve convinced the public that the only way to fix the climate breakdown is in our individual hands and choices. It’s our responsibility to fix things that we’re doing (not them), and to police each other (not them), and the fault of the climate breakdown is our inability to take a bus, go vegan or stop using plastic bags (not them). 🔗 View Highlight
id575760263
leading climate campaigners can often be found playing up to this dynamic by blaming working people for their “carbon footprint” —a concept that was developed by BP to shift the blame for climate breakdown onto individuals.
✏️ Continuation of my thought above. 🔗 View Highlight
id575760319
Climate breakdown is the direct result of an utterly unsustainable economic and social system that gives most people no choice other than to pollute in order to survive.