Environmental groups want criminal prosecution for ‘climate deniers’
A coalition of environmental groups last week published a blacklist of “climate criminals” and demanded they be brought before an international tribunal.
24 ‘top enemies of the earth’
The Climate Accountability Research Project (CARP) is an initiative of Greenpeace, Climate Clock, Global Center for Climate Justice, Summer of Heat, and other organizations. In honor of Climate Emergency Day 2024 last week, CARP launched its Climate Criminals campaign, which accused 24 executives of climate crimes.
ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, Heartland Institute President James M. Taylor, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, former US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Chief of Staff Mandy Gunasekara, State Farm Insurance Chairman and CEO Michael Tipsord, Chevron CEO Mike Wirth, American Petroleum Institute CEO Mike Sommers, and Consumers' Research Executive Director Will Hild are just some of the names accused of “crimes against future generations & the Earth.”
Other charges being leveled at the climate offenders include bribery, fraud, money laundering, crimes against citizens, crimes against workers, and lobbying for the coal industry.
“These leading offenders have used their personal wealth, power and position to press the accelerator on climate change by promoting climate disinformation, engaging in greenwashing, lobbying for and implementing new fossil fuel extraction projects, and delaying public action on climate change,” CARP Co-Founder Chuck Collins said in a press release. “These are the top enemies of the earth, and future generations will want to know who was personally responsible.”
The press release made a point of noting that 21 of the climate criminals are male and 23 are White.
Daniel Faber, a professor of sociology at Northeastern University, took the opportunity to slam capitalism:
This campaign illustrates how certain individuals take advantage of environmental injustice and brings to life the ugly underbelly of capitalism for the benefit of the public. America's top corporate polluters who are profiled in the campaign influence important climate policies to stall action and are responsible for worsening our climate crisis. They are architects and facilitators of profit over ecological and social welfare and must be held to account.
"Less than five years to solve climate change"
CARP is asking people to protest the “climate criminals” during public appearances and to sign a “petition to the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court to charge and prosecute these individuals for their crimes against humanity.”
Like other environmental groups and activists, CARP says climate change is worse than ever before, despite record amounts of money going towards “fighting climate change” and governments imposing climate mandates. The coalition warned that there are less than five years to solve climate change, after which the world will presumably end.
Climate activists often use doomsday predictions to create a sense of urgency. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, for instance, warned in a 2018 tweet that climate change “will wipe out all humanity” unless fossil fuels are phased out over the next five years. Last year, after the five years had passed, she deleted her tweet.
