Climate change is not news to big oil companies. They’ve known about it for more than 40 years, even burying their own research results on the links between carbon emissions and global warming. In the 1970s, oil conglomerates commissioned research into climate change. It predicted the global warming that we’re facing today. But US oil companies hushed up these findings rather than accepting responsibility. Just like the tobacco industry before it, the industry spent millions on a disinformation campaign. This campaign aimed to discredit the results, sowing doubts about human-induced climate change, so the companies could stave off tougher climate policies and continue drilling for oil and gas unhindered. Now they are facing dozens of lawsuits. In the US, for example, the city of Charleston on the southeastern Atlantic coast is suing Big Oil for climate adaptation costs. The city says the companies are to blame for the increased flooding it is facing. The legal dispute could make history. The municipality alleges that climate change could have been effectively tackled decades ago had it not been for the oil industry’s ‘multi-decade campaign of deception.’ Oil companies have denied the allegations.
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