Just 20 companies have produced 35 percent of the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere since 1965. That’s the bedrock of The Polluters, a new series from the Guardian that explores Big Oil’s responsibility for the climate crisis.
With at least nine different pieces published yesterday, there’s a lot to get through. A good starting place is this story by Matthew Taylor and Jonathan Watts that uses Richard Heede’s work at the Climate Accountability Institute to identify the biggest emitters, and their respective responsibility for how much carbon dioxide and methane are in the atmosphere. There’s also a video version for the visual learners out there.
For a closer look at the top offenders, check out Fiona Harvey’s explainer on the state-owned oil companies that make up 12 of the 20 biggest culprits, or the simple profiles on all 20 companies.
Then consider taking a quick look at the timeline, which lays out how the industry was made aware of the risks of its products at various points through the mid 20th century, paired with a graph showing the rapid increase in emissions. The timeline starts with the 1959 warning to API, moving through the various warnings that “time is running out” (1965), that there’s an “overwhelming” consensus (1977) and that it’s “distinctly possible” that changes caused by the emissions will be “catastrophic” (1981). It then shows the funding of denial that started in ‘89 and 90, through to the industry’s donations to the Trump inauguration and a return to acknowledging the problem in 2019.
If you’d prefer a more narrative format, Richard Heede has an op-ed that puts it all together, while George Monbiot has a column explaining how clever these companies have been in shifting guilt for what he calls the Great Extinction off of themselves and onto consumers trapped in a materialistic society run on fossil fuels. But don’t just take his word for it. The Guardian reached out to the companies to request comments, and compiled them all in this story about what they have to say. In short, they pass the buck to consumers, exactly as Monbiot describes.
Lest you think this is all ancient history, check out Susie Cagle’s story about how residents of Richmond, California have organized to fight the Chevron plant that dominates the city. Between explosions in ‘89, ‘99, and 2012 and the regular operation of the plant causing sky-high asthma rates, combined with the fact that the residents are 80 percent people of color, Richmond is “a textbook example of an environmental justice community,” local leader Matt Holmes says.
And the community is fighting back, first by securing seats on the city council, and more recently by joining other California cities in suing Chevron and 28 other oil companies for public nuisance and negligence. All they want is funding to protect themselves from the climate change that those companies knowingly caused, and then covered up.
That’s a lot of coverage, but there’s more coming. And if you happen to work for a fossil fuel company and want to share something with the Guardian, they also have a page for that!
After all, we know their pipelines are plenty leaky, so maybe their employees will be too?
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