Penalize fossil fuel and tobacco polluters for climate damages

Oct 17, 2016

The climate is challenging us to break free from depending on fossil fuels before it’s too late.

 
By Ann Grace Apiita


‘Which side are you on boys?' A union song popularized by the late Peter Seeger in the 1930's still rings truer today for climate deniers who are not only polluting our climate, but spreading doubts and funding numerous organizations to support their mission.

 "Anyone who is obstructing, delaying or trying to derail policy steps that are in line with the scientific consensus that says we need to take rapid steps to decarbonize the economy" is a climate denier - Greenpeace.

Although the Koch Brothers Exposed created climate change denying think tanks in the 1980's, we declare that nobody should have the audacity to maximize profits from heat waves, rising temperatures and all humanitarian suffering caused by burning fossil fuels.

"Tobacco was big, but the fossil fuel industry is bigger—it's some of the world's biggest companies. And beyond the companies themselves is a massive array of front groups denying and spreading doubt about climate change. - Said Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse for Roll call.

In 2006, the United States court - Department of Justice found the tobacco industry guilty of a decades-long conspiracy to deceive the public about the dangers of smoking. The cigarette industry was charged for purposely and fraudulently misleading the public about the risks of smoking.

 

The United States government alleged that "Defendants have engaged in and executed - and continue to engage in and execute - a massive 50-year scheme to defraud the public, including consumers of cigarettes, in violation of Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act".

Consequently in the same year, they were declared guilty and had to pay $10 billion in fines. Since then, the lifecycle of the Tobacco Industry has become more difficult: laws and regulations were put in place, they have been isolated from negotiations, and strong regulations grow against their industry. Shamelessly, they continue attacking people's health unaffected by the underlying knowledge of cancerous products in cigarettes yet rapidly expanding their business in the global South.  As it was with the prevalent public health epidemic of our time, the fight still prevails against Tobacco which kills more than 6 million people yearly from cancer, heart-circulation diseases and respiratory illnesses according to World Health Organization report.

As the king of global oil - gas business operations with daily profits amounting to more than $1 billion, what would it profit ExxonMobil to lose it all for the sake of tackling climate change?

ExxonMobil Corporation knew about climate change way back in 1977; since then, it has contributed to harm the reputation of scientists by instilling doubt and funding 124 organizations to deny the existence of climate change using data of their official company page Exxonsecrets.org. Peabody energy, PetroChina, BP, Shell among others are energy companies motivated by overwhelming greed to make profits at the expense of the environment much less unmindful of the 2°C goal agreed in Paris, 2015.

The prospect of following the same oil producing roadmap by Uganda and other emerging economies to achieve economic affluence is within sights; however, is it based on the hypothesis that nature has the capacity to replenish itself despite the massive resource exploitation and that all countries are at different levels of development therefore industrialized countries must give others a chance to develop?

Across all borders, governments must cut off subsidies to the fossil industry and invest instead in clean renewable energy. Like industrialized countries are paying for historical carbon emissions, fossil fuels must account for numerous lives lost to droughts, coastal floods, landslides, heat waves among other intricate web of climate impacts.

Landslides in the eastern part of Uganda have claimed the lives of hundreds


(Flash) floods can also be equally as deadly


Although no amount of money can replace the value of human life, but to break free from over dependence on fossils and perhaps to regulate their activities, stringent rules for those causing climate injustices seem the only option left.

In addition, the costs to reduce emissions today to save human lives and the climate system is achievable with collective global action compared to the future cost of damages that will be steeply felt by climate dependent countries rising from the African plains, Asian horizons to the Amazon.

The climate is challenging us to break free from depending on fossil fuels before it's too late. Remember that ‘a stitch in time saves nine.'

The writer is a climate tracker
(@anngapita)


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