ExxonMobil put on mock trial for ‘climate crimes’ by Bill McKibben & Naomi Klein – But ‘trial’ ‘unable to reach a conclusive finding of guilt or innocence’
Closing arguments
In his closing arguments, McKibben said: “You have heard eminent scientists explain that because of the delay in [climate] action, because of Exxon’s failure to present the truth, we’re going to see increases in the level of the sea, and you’ve heard from people who will be driven from their homes.”
“It’s hard to imagine a set of corporate practices that could’ve done more damage and more damage needlessly. For that, we ask for a judgment against Exxon, and for the future of this planet.”
Klein added: “We have heard stories of people’s lives lost directly because of melting ice. We have heard stories of ancient cultures threatened because of climate change.”
“There is no price that can be put on the Marshall Islands, on Arctic cultures, on the lives of our loved ones.”
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And the verdict is…
“Given that as a court we lack the ability to compel testimony from Exxon, we are unable to reach a conclusive finding of guilt or innocence. The majesty of the law demands that a defendant be able to offer exculpatory evidence. However, we can ask other courts in other jurisdictions that have the power to summon this company before the law do so and with haste,” said Leak.
Back in the real courtroom in the U.S., the New York attorney general subpoenaed the company’s records from the 1970s, which revealed the company had been conducting its own scientific research into global warming, and that senior executives simply ignored the findings.…
‘Complete Transformation’ of US Energy System Will Stop 0.04 Degrees of Global Warming, Congress Told
he projected increase in global temperature averted by President Obama’s pledge to reduce U.S. carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions 28 percent over the next decade comes out to an “environmentally inconsequential” 0.04 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, the assistant director of the Cato Institute’s Center for the Study of Science testifiedbefore the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology last month.
“I basically told the committee that U.S. actions aimed at mitigating future climate change by limiting CO2 emissions from U.S. power plants and the rest of the economy would have a very small impact on future climate change,” Paul “Chip” Knappenberger told CNSNews.com.
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Your inland home may soon be waterfront! Real estate firm ‘helps clients cash in on climate change’ – ‘Sea-level rise will create new waterfront real estate’
Some New York City real estate consultants are using the threat of climate change as a business model.
Higher Tides Realty uses climate change projections to help clients maximize property values. In a promotional video, it promises customers, “We are here to help you benefit from the most significant environmental change since the ice age.”
The company looks for properties that could be undervalued now but may increase in value through the effects of climate change — like sea-level rise creating new waterfront real estate.…
Warmists Fret: ‘The Fraudulent Science at COP21 Exposed’ – Ignored ‘Critical links between climate change & agriculture’
Industrial, degenerative farming practices—which include tilling, deforestation, wetlands destruction and the use of massive amounts of synthetic and toxic fertilizers and pesticides—have stripped 136 billion tons of carbon out of the soil and sent it up into the atmosphere. Using the French government’s modest estimates, we can transfer, via enhanced plant photosynthesis, 150 billion tons of this carbon back into the soil in the next 25 years.
How do we achieve those numbers? All we have to do is help just 10 percent of the world’s farmers and ranchers adopt regenerative organic agriculture, holistic grazing and land management practices …”
For some reason, Greenpeace, 350.org and the climate movement think putting close to 100 percent of our policy and educational efforts into shutting down oil is our one last hope to stop climate change. This is madness. Can they really believe that fewer people will be driving cars in 2020 than in 2015? And don’t they realize that every new hybrid or 100 percent electric car in its making will contribute as much greenhouse gas emissions as would driving a five-year-old Toyota?…
George Will: Climate Fine-Tuners Reach Another False ‘Turning Point’
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, one of whose invaluable functions is to be a wet blanket about moveable feasts such as the Paris conference, says:
“Before (the president’s) international partners pop the champagne, they should remember that this is an unattainable deal based on a (U.S.) domestic energy plan that is likely illegal, that half the states have sued to halt, and that Congress has already voted to reject.”
The Paris agreement probably occasions slight excitement among the planet’s billion people who lack electricity, and the hundreds of millions in need of potable water.
Historians, write Walter Russell Mead and Jamie Horgan of The American Interest, are likely to say that the Paris agreement ended climate change the way the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Treaty ended war.
But as the ink dries on the Paris gesture of right-mindedness, let us praise the energy source most responsible for the surge of human betterment that began with the harnessing of fossil fuels around 1800.
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