<
https://reneweconomy.com.au/new-study-shows-australias-carbon-majors-cause-hundreds-of-billions-in-climate-damage/>
"The fossil fuel industry has been conspicuous by its reluctance to take
obvious sides in Australia’s federal election campaign.
The gas lobby chimed in briefly when Dutton suggested reserving a tiny
proportion of exported fossil gas for domestic use. There have been a lot of
“gas is good” billboard posters, and some shady front groups with probable
industry links have been pushing ads.
But there has been no major campaign from the fossil extraction or
combustion-reliant industries to push for one candidate or another.
If this is due to them feeling largely unthreatened by either potential winner,
that’s a serious problem.
The extractive companies have been responsible for a large proportion of
Australia’s domestic emissions, due to the huge volume of fossil fuels required
just to dig up other fossil fuels. But what they dig up and sell is also
burned, and that causes climate change.
A recent study published by researchers at Dartmouth College analysed the
damage caused by the use of products sold by fossil fuel companies. “Emissions
linked to Chevron, the highest-emitting investor-owned company in our data, for
example, very likely caused between US $791 billion and $3.6 trillion in
heat-related losses over the period 1991–2020, disproportionately harming the
tropical regions least culpable for warming”.
The calculations are theoretically simple but practically complex: a monetary
cost is assigned to every unit of greenhouse gas emissions that’s produced as a
result of the combustion of coal, oil or gas products, using the best available
research.
Importantly, this new research aims to arm activists that have been fighting
fossil fuel companies in court aiming to hold them liable for the consequences
of the use of the product they sell (in the same way tobacco companies were
eventually made liable for the death and sickness relating to tobacco
addiction).
The authors are unambiguous on what their research means for the liability of
fossil fuel companies. “We argue that the scientific case for climate liability
is closed, even if the future of these cases remains an open question,” said
Justin Makin, the study’s senior author.
The study’s first author, Christopher Callahan, said “The affluence of the
Western economy has been based on fossil fuels … but just as a pharmaceutical
company would not be absolved from the negative effects of a drug by the
benefits of that drug, fossil fuel companies should not be excused for the
damage they’ve caused by the prosperity their products have generated”."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
