The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (notextraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Legal Memo Makes Case for Prosecuting Big Oil Over Extreme Heat Deaths
Dear Diary. The title of today’s main topic comes as no surprise. With each passing year more fingers get pointed to big oil for our climate woes…in this case extreme heat. Last year I started to name significant heat waves after oil companies to put a spotlight on what fossil fuel companies are doing to anomalous temperatures. Across the United States and Mexico Heatwave Exxon has been a monster and has lasted all season long, so far. I predict that eventually summers across the planet will get so hot that any current and even retired oil company executives will be locked up with numerous lawsuits flying around worldwide for monetary settlements and big fines. Climate retribution will become an “in” thing later in the 21st century.
Here are details about one potential initial lawsuit that could occur due to climate crisis heat from Common Dreams:
Legal Memo Makes Case for Prosecuting Big Oil Over Extreme Heat Deaths | Common Dreams
Lisa Long attempts to wake a resident at the First Congregational United Church of Christ shelter, which served as a cooling center on July 13, 2023 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
“The only question left,” said Bill McKibben, “is whether our legal system will recognize these crimes—and this report shows there’s a good chance the answer could be yes.”
By: JESSICA CORBETT
Jun 26, 2024
A U.S.-based consumer watchdog unveiled a legalmemoWednesday detailing how local or state prosecutors could bring criminal charges against Big Oil for deaths from extreme heatmademore likely by the fossil fuel-driven climate emergency.
“As Americans reel from another lethal heatwave, it’s important to remember that these climate disasters didn’t come out of nowhere,”saidAaron Regunberg, senior policy counsel forPublic Citizen, the group behind the framework.
Extreme heat and other deadly weather events, he continued, “were knowingly caused by fossil fuel companies that chose to inflict this suffering to maintain their profits, while regular people, like the victims of the July 2023 heatwave, and of so many other climate disasters, pay the price.”
“These victims deserve justice no less than the victims of street-level homicides. And this memo shows that prosecutors have a path to secure that justice, if they choose to pursue it,” added Regunberg, lead author of the new preliminary prosecution memorandum, which focuses on the fatalheatwavelast summer during thehottestyear in human history.
“These victims deserve justice no less than the victims of street-level homicides.”
The memo’s other authors are George Washington University law professor Donald Braman—who also worked with Regunberg for apaperon “climate homicide” recently published in theHarvard Environmental Law Review—as well as David Arkush, director of Public Citizen’s Climate Program, and Cindy Cho, a law professor at Indiana University.
“When someone causes suffering by breaking the law, good prosecutors know it is their duty to bring appropriate charges,” said Cho, a former federal prosecutor. “Some of the very best public servants I’ve had the privilege to work with are prosecutors who embrace really tough cases because they can also be the most righteous cases.”
“Although civil remedies are of course vital, sometimes only our criminal laws can measure up to the harm someone has inflicted,” she added. “If human-generated climate change is killing people, and the organizations that generated it knew the risks, then it stands to reason that criminal charges may be exactly what society expects.”
Last summer, the memo explains, “a lethal heatwave which would have been ‘virtually impossible’ but for human-caused climate change broke temperature records across the American Southwest. Communities like Phoenix, Arizona experienced a historic 31 days in a row with temperatures above 110 degrees.”
“Hundreds of people across the region were killed,” the document notes, “with Maricopa County alone recording 403 heat-related deaths in July 2023—far more than all the murders the county experienced that year.”
The defendants in a potential prosecution for last year’s deadly heat, according to the memo, “would include some of the world’s largest investor-owned fossil fuel companies and a national oil and gas trade association:ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Occidental, BHP, Peabody, and the American Petroleum Institute.”
— Data for Progress (@DataProgress) June 12, 2024NEW: Sixty-two percent of voters believe oil and gas companies should be held legally accountable for their contributions to climate change.
A plurality of voters support criminal prosecutions against oil and gas companies for climate-related deaths.https://t.co/uiF8aLW0ym pic.twitter.com/sYRTe7Tuq9
The proposed offenses are reckless manslaughter, defined as “recklessly causing the death of another person,” and second-degree murder, which is recklessly killing someone by creating a “grave risk of death” under circ*mstances “manifesting extreme indifference to human life.”
Pursuing those charges would require prosecutors to show that last July’s heatwave caused deaths, climate change caused the heatwave, and the fossil fuel companies caused climate change. The memo lays out how they could do all three—thanks in part to advances in attribution science—and explores various potential defenses.
It also emphasizes that “while the July 2023 heatwave was devastating, it was not a unique occurrence. In recent years climate-fueled heatwaves, hurricanes, wildfires, and other disastrous weather events have killed thousands of Americans—have burned children alive in Maui, drowned families in Puerto Rico, killed people by heatstroke in the Pacific Northwest and elsewhere—and this loss of life will continue to accelerate as climate chaos intensifies.”
“The charges described in this memo provide a starting point for similar analyses that could, and should, be undertaken by prosecutors in every jurisdiction that experiences loss of life due to climate disasters,” the document declares.
Welcoming the memo’s release amid more widelyanticipatedextreme heat, author and climate activistBill McKibbenstressed that “what’s happened to the climate is a crime: After fair warning from scientists about what would happen, Big Oil went right ahead pouring carbon into the atmosphere, and now there’s a huge pile of dead bodies (and a larger one of dead dreams).”
“After fair warning from scientists about what would happen, Big Oil went right ahead pouring carbon into the atmosphere, and now there’s a huge pile of dead bodies.”
“The only question left,” he said, “is whether our legal system will recognize these crimes—and this report shows there’s a good chance the answer could be yes.”
Earlier this month, McKibben moderated a virtual panel featuring the memo’s four authors along with Amy Fettig, deputy director of Fair and Just Prosecution; Kathy Mulvey, accountability campaign director at the Union of Concerned Scientists; and Hadrien Goux, fossil fuel campaign officer at Bloom, which recentlyfileda criminal complaint against TotalEnergies in France.
“There’s a lot of work to do here,” Regunberg said during that discussion. “We are creating a movement… and it needs to grow.”
Others suggested that legal leaders across the United States may be open to pursuing such cases, particularly if they face public pressure to do so. Cho said that early on in the research, she was skeptical about criminally prosecuting Big Oil in this way—but she concluded that “it actually isn’t as much of a stretch as the people on this call might think.”
“It fits within the framework of what they seek to do with their careers,” she said of prosecutors who want to protect their communities.
Fettig pointed out that for the most part, prosecutors and district attorneys are elected officials, meaning that “they’re accountable to you.”
“The truth has been that most people haven’t paid attention to those elections and so we haven’t seen the kind of public accountability for district attorneys and prosecutors that is really available—so as constituents, get to the ballot box,” Fettig said. “That’s an important power that you have.”
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Jessica Corbett is a senior editor and staff writer for Common Dreams.
More:
— Conejo Climate Coalition (@ConejoClimate) June 26, 2024Lawyers could charge big oil with homicide after 2023 Arizona heatwave | Arizona
Charges are reasonable after July 2023 extreme weather event, prosecutors write in new memorandum https://t.co/Fjvblt4jyD
#ThursdayMorning Reading: "A newly published study ofseven million parliamentary speeches around the world shows that high temperaturessignificantlyand immediately reducesthe complexity ofpoliticians' language choices." Interesting…read more: https://t.co/FHKDXfAi5s
— Silicon Valley North (@CCLSVN) June 27, 2024
#ThursdayMorning Reading: #FossilFuels: How the economics of gas and oil really works, especially since a lot of it goes overseas. https://t.co/JwvyzKFrCo pic.twitter.com/tMnXAOyTSC
— Silicon Valley North (@CCLSVN) June 27, 2024
— Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) June 25, 2024Los Angeles voted 12-0 to ban new drilling and to close all 5,000 existing oil and gas wells in the city. This is a historic victory by @STAND_LA and all citizens over the oil industry and environmental racism.
IT CAN BE DONE! Who's next?#ActOnClimate #climate pic.twitter.com/1TH2ICe4Ed
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports or outlooks:
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) June 27, 2024HISTORIC HEAT IN PHOENIX
Minimum temperature today was 95F or 35.0C which pulverized its record of hottest June night on record. https://t.co/78Dh97ENyM
#FFC issues Record Event Report (RER) at Jun 27, 4:19 AM EDT …RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT ATLANTA… https://t.co/ThVh1T5UEp
— NWS Record Event Reports (@iembot_rer) June 27, 2024
#FFC issues Record Event Report (RER) at Jun 27, 4:19 AM EDT …RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURE SET AT MACON… https://t.co/IBY9IuboPl
— NWS Record Event Reports (@iembot_rer) June 27, 2024
#MKX issues Record Event Report (RER) at Jun 27, 11:05 AM CDT …NO RECORD DAILY HIGH MINIMUM TEMPERATURE SET AT MILWAUKEE WI FOR JUNE 25TH… https://t.co/utYYeFLNh7
— NWS Record Event Reports (@iembot_rer) June 27, 2024
#VEF issues Record Event Report (RER) at Jun 27, 1:23 AM PDT …RECORD WARM LOW TEMPERATURES SET OR TIED AT MULTIPLE LOCATIONS YESTERDAY… https://t.co/jhXZtpIX9B
— NWS Record Event Reports (@iembot_rer) June 27, 2024
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) June 26, 2024Another scorching day in USA with widespread 100s in the Southeast, Southwest and Central Plains.
Cool in the far North and NW Pacific.It's the typical post-Nino "evolution" of the heat which ravaged Central America first and than Mexico,areas where now heavy rainfalls prevail. pic.twitter.com/qxXCVjWzh2
Very high minimum temperatures as well in Texas up to 84F both in coastal areas (Port Aransas,Galveston) but also in the highlands (El Paso, second hottest June night on record after 30 June 2023).
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) June 27, 2024
and in New Mexico. https://t.co/xYrL86KR7C
#EAX issues Record Event Report (RER) at Jun 27, 1:34 AM CDT …RECORD DAILY MAXIMUM RAINFALL SET AT ST. JOSEPH MO… https://t.co/gIYkmXagsH
— NWS Record Event Reports (@iembot_rer) June 27, 2024
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) June 26, 2024CARIBBEAN RECORD HEAT
More records of June hottest nights today
HIGH TMINS
27.8/82F San Juan PUERTO RICO tied
28.7 SABA
28.2 ST EUSTATIUSAbnormally warm water makes continuous heat records (specially of high minimums) unavoidable. https://t.co/sEdi4SE1ku
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) June 27, 2024‼️ HISTORIC 50 DEGREES IN ALGERIA 🌡️
For the first time in June
50.3 Ouargla
50.1 Hassi Messaoud
49.4 Touggourt
48.2 El Oued
46.7 GhardaiaNext day it can be even hotter and the all time African record can fall.
In TUNISIA June record at El Kef with 44.4C. https://t.co/maKBvOPL4b
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) June 27, 2024RECORD HEAT ALLOVER ASIA
Records are falling from Saudi Arabia to ChinaSAUDI ARABIA
MIN 35.0 Makkah Hottest June night on record, few days after its hottest day.
44.0 Najran 1200m all time high tied
46.0 Sharurah monthly recordMore to come… (50C Oman,45 Uzbekistan) https://t.co/2CqqcDDpoT
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) June 26, 2024Heat waves are sweep all ASIA from West to East
Some more remarkable values:39.8 Kaohsiung Lighthouse TAIWAN Record
38.3 Bayanotoorai 1200m MONGOLIA
Up to 38C in SIBERIAIRAN: Overnight MIN. 37.7 Bander E Dayyer pic.twitter.com/it9yxCdhPZ
EXCEPTIONAL HEAT IN MONGOLIA
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) June 27, 2024
Daytime temperatures >38C at 1200m asl and overnight MINIMUM of 24.3C at 1721 ! at Gurvantes (a record).
Even at high altitudes in Mongolian highlands the nights are very warm. pic.twitter.com/NaXnX5aFgk
— Extreme Temperatures Around The World (@extremetemps) June 27, 2024Exceptional heat wave in EUROPE
Records of June warm nights were broken in GERMANY
20.8 Potsdam
20.2 Hamburg-Neuwiedenthal
19.2 Ummendorf
19.2 Bevern
18.7 HelgolandNext days dozens of records can fall in NE Europe.
Map by Michael Theusner pic.twitter.com/OWLC01o5dk
Here is More Climate News from Thursday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)
— Ammar Moussa (@ammarmufasa) June 27, 2024Donald Trump is just posting his debate talking points.
Thanks I guess. pic.twitter.com/OfOCTmckIT
“The majority of breaking digital news stories about this month’s unprecedented weather don't mention the climate crisis… Instead, most mainstream outlets continue to write about these lethal, record-breaking events as if they were merely acts of God.” https://t.co/EwrXPJXUzp
— Sammy Roth (@Sammy_Roth) June 27, 2024
How big were Canada's 2023 wildfires? Updated analysis says the fires spewed 4X the co2 emissions of world's airplanes. They spewed more co2 than India's energy emissions. And they consumed an area bigger than West Virginia. https://t.co/Hj7QZliYqO
— @borenbears (@borenbears) June 27, 2024
#ThursdayMorning Reading: #Wildfire Season: Despite some areas being less affected so far this summer, the overall trend line is up. https://t.co/SO9p85heS5
— Silicon Valley North (@CCLSVN) June 27, 2024
— Green News Report (@GreenNewsReport) June 26, 2024"We build for a 100-year flood," Bakken said. "And we get 100-year floods every other year it seems."
Open manure pits reportedly overflowed at 16 large feedlots in Southern Minnesota https://t.co/FxGrHvNnus
"Say it!" – Minnesotans Grapple With "Why All the Rain?" https://t.co/6jFNMnN6Dy
— Peter Sinclair (@PeterWSinclair) June 27, 2024
— Citizens' Climate International (@Climate_INTL) June 26, 2024Great talk with @cathmckenna at @CitizensLobbyCa's conference.
"We need to create pressure on governments
that don't want to act, and we need to encourage governments who do but are working in a very difficult environment."#ClimateChange
⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️https://t.co/UyOHzzyMiO pic.twitter.com/fLDNfSX98i
#ThursdayMorning Reading: "Sea levels in the Gulf of Mexico have risen by six inches or more in the past 10 years" The consequences of ice melt and sea level rise are being felt, and some places are simply getting it worse and more quickly:#ClimateCrisis https://t.co/1kceaFZLOO
— Silicon Valley North (@CCLSVN) June 27, 2024
#ThursdayMorning Reading: #Environmental Racism and trying to achieve justice in the Sacrifice Zones near #fossilfuel plants. Ignore the trolls. https://t.co/F9LlAclm2J pic.twitter.com/hkiv5wuxa4
— Silicon Valley North (@CCLSVN) June 27, 2024
Good news: young people taking charge and a bit of cooling. Sorry for avoiding X and FB. Making progress, Sophie’s Planet will be finished this year. See June27 – https://t.co/WLSXlCHg37 pic.twitter.com/NY6UorPjE5
— James Edward Hansen (@DrJamesEHansen) June 27, 2024
More from the Weather Department:
Could we have a hurricane before the system reaches the Lesser Antilles Sunday-Monday? Yes. Many of the hurricane models do indeed show a low end hurricane by then. If so it would be in extremely rare company, and possibly the furthest east June deep tropics hurricane 1/ https://t.co/P1K1ePFdbi pic.twitter.com/GPgJu9kqWi
— Jeff Berardelli (@WeatherProf) June 27, 2024
While the black line might be the average track, it’s not the most likely. Why? Because as seen by the divergence of tracks near Hispaniola, most likely the storm will decide “either” the north route or the south route. In between is less likely. https://t.co/AVhPvNy3DN
— Jeff Berardelli (@WeatherProf) June 27, 2024
National #Hurricane Center gives 70% chance of tropical cyclone formation in next week for eastern Atlantic tropical wave. 7 years on record (since 1851) have had named storm formation in tropical Atlantic (S of 20°N, E of 60°W) by 4 July: 1901, 1933, 1979, 2008, 2017, 2021, 2023 pic.twitter.com/l5ucEx3hec
— Philip Klotzbach (@philklotzbach) June 27, 2024
As #95L steadily organizes in the open MDR, it's worth looking at its future path, as impacts to the Lesser Antilles could begin in just 4 days. Track-wise, things actually look pretty clear. Our vortmax should dip WSW as it rotates around the broader circulation, before (1/3) pic.twitter.com/pp10aScZzF
— Nikhil Trivedi (@DCAreaWx) June 27, 2024
Given the long term set up, it's seems unlikely that Invest 95L ("?" on bottom right of map) will pass over Florida. This map does not take into account the current environment/ set up… it is merely based on location of the system and stats. That chance = 10% given climatology. pic.twitter.com/p9YceezCqM
— Jeff Berardelli (@WeatherProf) June 27, 2024
— Steve Bowen (@SteveBowenWx) June 26, 2024Shouldn't we have had more Atlantic storms by now?
Not really.
Historical analog years since 1950 from @philklotzbach (Colorado State) for the 2024 season (1998, 2005, 2010, 2020) show that a seasonal ramp up almost always occurs in July / August.
Be ready. It's coming. pic.twitter.com/m7X8l4eL4A
Lighthearted beach photos clearly don't tell the full story of a dangerous heat wave, yet it can be tough to capture these quiet disasters in pictorial form. @CC_Yale https://t.co/wCXy6DZr3Z
— Bob Henson (@bhensonweather) June 26, 2024
"You just pressed a button!"
— Ronald Kotinsky Photography (@rkotinsky) June 27, 2024
I just pushed a button after:
* Purchasing a $4000 camera
* Purchasing software and computer hardware to edit images for $5000
* Driving hours and waiting hours to get the perfect shot.
* Learning weather patterns.@stormhour #weather #stormchaser pic.twitter.com/RreTfuc1TN
Today’s News on Sustainable Energy, Traditional Polluting Energy from Fossil Fuel, and the Green Revolution:
— Mike Hudema (@MikeHudema) June 25, 2024Los Angeles voted 12-0 to ban new drilling and to close all 5,000 existing oil and gas wells in the city. This is a historic victory by @STAND_LA and all citizens over the oil industry and environmental racism.
IT CAN BE DONE! Who's next?#ActOnClimate #climate pic.twitter.com/1TH2ICe4Ed
— Mark Z. Jacobson (@mzjacobson) June 27, 2024“Fossil gas, coal, and nuclear are quickly becoming the ‘alternative energy.’ ”
California Is Showing How a Big State Can Power Itself Without Fossil Fuels by @billmckibben @NewYorker https://t.co/gmFRM21ega
— Ellie Cohen 🌏 🚴🌈 #climateaction Views my own (@elliemcohen1) June 27, 2024Woohooo!!
“oil industry group is withdrawing its ballot challenge to a #California law that bans drilling within 3,200 feet of homes, businesses & schools, the group announced Wednesday!!”
Thanks again @SenGonzalez33 @MoniqueLimonCA @politico #SB1137https://t.co/5a5CPPmHhH
More on the Environment and Nature:
— Moms Clean Air Force (@CleanAirMoms) June 27, 2024Breaking News 🔥🔥🔥
US supreme court puts hold on @EPA attempt to reduce pollution that drifts across stateshttps://t.co/BJH2uiAFAK
#ThursdayMorning Reading: #Pollution vs. #ThePeople: Tesla ordered to stop polluting San Francisco Bay Area air with 'frequent and ongoing' toxic emissions https://t.co/zuoceHd8JT
— Silicon Valley North (@CCLSVN) June 27, 2024
— 🐝 Marine Ⓥ𓃟 PhD – #SDGs – #Breton (@BeeAsMarine) June 24, 2024This is how many forests we have already cut from Globaïa ⬇️
This is devastating … pic.twitter.com/qbIwn8E66H
#ThursdayMorning Reading: #PlasticPollution: "Plastics and climate change are inherently linked as plastic is derived from burning and refining fossil fuels." The 'cousins' : plastic pollution & #climatechange https://t.co/CYwByRZKf5 via @citizensclimate
— Silicon Valley North (@CCLSVN) June 27, 2024
— Edgar McGregor (@edgarrmcgregor) June 27, 2024Trash pickup day 1,798. This was a 90-minute pickup. #EarthCleanUp
Did not do a second clea up yesterday. Sorry. pic.twitter.com/iyI2gVzV65
