Alluding to the behavior of big tobacco to mislead the public, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said, “For decades, Big Oil ravaged the environment, and Big Oil copied Big Tobacco. They used a classic cynical playbook. They denied and denied and denied that their product was lethal. Meanwhile, they spent a lot of time hooking society on that lethal product… It’s time for them to start paying for the damage they’ve done.”

The New York City lawsuit is based upon the fundamental principle that a corporation that makes a product causing severe harm when used exactly as intended should shoulder the costs of abating that harm.

How can you determine any one company’s contribution to climate change harms? Richard Heede found in his 2013 peer-reviewed paper published in the Journal of Climate Change that “the 20 largest investor-owned Carbon Barons have, over the past 150 years, extracted enough fossil fuels to produce up to 30% of global emissions. The five companies named in the suit resulted in 181 gigatons of carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere during the previous century and a half. That’s 12.5% of all human greenhouse gases.” Further research by Heede concludes that the collective business practices of “90 fossil fuel corporations have driven nearly 2/3 of the observed increases in global surface temperatures.”

Who knew what and when? According to the suit, the leaders of these companies have been aware their products were emitting dangerous greenhouse gases for nearly 40 years. In 2015, The Los Angeles Times cited Exxon scientists warning their own company that the use of fossil fuels “should not be encouraged because of the risk they poised” back in 1977. They also cited a director in Exxon’s research unit warning that the CO2 emissions modeled in the company’s 50-year planning documents “will produce effects which will indeed be catastrophic at least for a substantial fraction of the Earth’s population.”

But aren’t we, as consumers, equally culpable since we are the ones who purchase and burn the stuff? According to Jason Mark, we could certainly make a statement by skipping that vacation or walking to work. But the Carbon Barons alone had the ability to intervene when they learned their products could have catastrophic consequences. They alone possessed the scientific awareness, economic might, and political influence to have avoided climate chaos – and they chose not to.

The lawsuits come down to the argument that the Carbon Barons knew about the dangers of fossil fuel combustion for decades yet failed to disclose them and even spent money to confuse the general public. Doesn’t this sound like the Tobacco industry’s tactics?

The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report stating that more than $350 billion have already been spent in response to climate-change-related extreme weather events, and “these costs will likely increase over time.” Meanwhile, in 2014, Exxon Mobil posted a record profit of $32.5 billion.

We have been lifetime supporters of conservation and the environment. We believe that the producers of the fossil fuel energy we have become dependent upon should pay reparations for the damages caused by fossil fuel related climate change. Once the entire cost of burning fossil fuels becomes apparent, the alternatives will become much more financially attractive. Thank you, Jason and The Sierra Club, for your in-depth and insightful article. Read his entire article here.

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post NYC Sues Big Oil for Climate Damage Reparations appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The systematic dismantling of the EPA, rolling back of air quality standards and continued long-term commitment to fossil fuel are good reasons for a strong reminder. It’s not like we can take a break from avoiding this environmental disaster. The scientists weren’t satisfied with the last administration’s actions, and now they are marching!

What does it say for the level of education in our country that apparently allows this to happen in the face of irrefutable facts? Are we so short sighted and so selfish that we prefer to believe that the preponderance of science on this subject is wrong?

Will we have to get to the point of no return, have a stream of disasters hitting us regularly, and suffer vector spread pandemics before we wake up and listen to the experts? Will it be too late by the time we all get it?

That’s why the scientists are marching! They know enough to be scared for our health and welfare if we continue down this path. They don’t believe they did a good enough job getting the word out.

They thought, because they were scientists, that they would gain a certain level of respect above and beyond politics and not have to make a big demonstration. They were wrong!

Now we need scientists to really turn it up a notch. National Geographic’s last edition was on climate change. They had to write the article as if it was to a person who had been duped or wanted to believe that climate change was a hoax. Their article began with three highly substantiated statements: climate change is real; it’s our fault; there is no debate.

When our grandchildren ask us, “Why didn’t you do something?” Will we say, “We thought the only way to have jobs was to take your environment away from you”? Will we say, “Nobody knew how fast it would change” when in fact all the scientists knew and begged us to take it seriously. Or will we say, “We chose to get our news from sources that played down or denied climate change and scientific facts.”

It’s clear that the only industry that benefits from the denial of climate change is the fossil fuel industry. Even their relatively short-term gain will be a long-term loss due climate caused disaster to our economy.

Climate change is not political. You can’t vote, ignore, or argue it away. It’s happening regardless. The scientists are telling us that every minute we continue to increase emissions puts us closer to the tipping point of no return, and closer to run away warming. Are we really so foolish as to let this continue without making changes to mitigate it?

We believe the moves to dismantle the EPA and roll back emission standards are bad for business, bad for our standard of living, bad for our quality of life, and bad for our health. At their core these steps protect a has-been, buggy-whip industry which is using the government for its own selfish and shortsighted immediate gain – at the expense of our own, and our children’s, welfare. In short, these moves will be shown to have been on the wrong side of history. Let’s listen to our scientists!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post We Can’t Afford to Take a Break from Climate Change Mitigation appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.