Climate Deniers Should Not Assume They Will Never Face Justice

[LawDem]

STEVEN DAY
Sep 08, 2023
Common Dreams

If you’re a reasonably young person who is opposing measures to address climate change for reasons of financial or political gain, be afraid. Be very afraid.

Largely out of public view, there is a growing advocacy for treating certain forms of climate change denial as a crime. The political will to do this doesn’t exist today, of course, but give it a decade or two. The planet is warming faster than predicted. Oceans are warming more rapidly than expected, extreme weather events are occurring with unprecedented frequency; glaciers are disappearing, sea levels are rising, prolonged droughts are becoming common place, tropical diseases move North following the mosquitos, and much more.

Estimates of the number of people who will die each year because of climate change range from 250,000 to 5,000,000. And the butcher’s bill is sure to grow as the crisis worsens. The tragedy, of course, is this was preventable—every death, every extinction of a species—all unnecessary.

Humanity can’t say it wasn’t warned. Almost half a century ago Jimmy Carter became the first president to raise the alarm on climate change. But America chose Ronald Reagan, who quickly gutted Carter’s efforts to develop alternative energy sources. What a different world this would be if we had listened to Carter.

Why didn’t we listen? Why, for that matter, are so many people still not listening? Sociological studies suggest there are many factors contributing to climate change denialism. There is no doubt, however, the biggest factor has been the political war on truth initiated by the petroleum industry and other polluting enterprises. With help from their political cronies, they have been extraordinarily successful in convincing a large minority of the population that scientific truth is found, not in a laboratory, but from blowhards on talk radio.

Read More: https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/climate-deniers-face-justice

[Think. Again.]

1. "Humanity can't say it wasn't warned"

[BlueIn_W_Pa]

2. I would absolutely fight against this BS

Largely out of public view, there is a growing advocacy for treating certain forms of climate change denial as a crime.

especially since simple math says stopping climate change depends on APAC countries - not western countries. They push out 85% of GHGs and dwarf any kind of reduced emissions the west has already achieved.

Make it a crime here for something we can't control? No way, and I've read CommonDreams for years and agree with a lot of what they say.

[IbogaProject]

3. Fraud

Maybe some kind of criminal negligence?