A Required Partnership
Following the advent of the 2015 Paris Agreement, one of the lesser-known research sectors has been getting a workout.
Known as attribution science, it is the study of the big oil and gas (BOG) contribution to climate change for the primary purpose of holding BOG legally responsible. On January 13, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court set precedence on behalf of climate litigation when it denied an oil company’s petitions to dismiss climate liability lawsuits from going to trial. Brought on by Honolulu against Sunoco LP and Shell, the lawsuits accused these BOG giants of lying about climate change risks as well as impacting the area’s extreme flooding and sea level rise.
Attribution scientists play an important role as their data is used almost extensively to prove such a claim. These folks are the perfect expert witnesses to have on your side when going up against the fossil fuel giants.
The Honolulu example is one of dozens of such actions that have multiplied over the last ten years. According to most experts, there are currently 85-90 worldwide cases pending against BOG, and more than half are within our nation. Since 2015, the number of cases nearly tripled, but according to experts none have resulted in an award-winning decision. ExxonMobil and Shell top the list of defendants accused of climate damage, misleading advertising, environmental impacts, emission proliferation, consumer harm, and criminal activity. The plaintiffs range from a Peruvian farmer alarmed over glacier melting, to U.S. counties/municipalities/cities suffering from the effects of extreme weather events, to Friends of Earth Netherlands coupled with 17,000 citizens accusing Shell of not reducing its emissions per the Paris Agreement.
Students for Climate Solutions New Zealand plus the UK Youth Climate Coalition submitted a case to the International Criminal Court against BP, formerly British Petroleum, senior executives alleging maximization of profits regardless of the severity of global warming. And so it goes, one after another spending millions of dollars fighting BOG when they should be partnering with them. The attorneys on both sides are smiling these days!
You probably thought, “Did Noah just go brain-dead?
No, not this time.
See if this makes sense. We all know fossil fuel is the root cause of the global crisis. Yet at the same time, it has been the driver for global economies to succeed beyond what anyone could have dreamed of. Where would we be without it? Oil and gas continue to be the critical ingredient for surviving Earth’s human population explosion that blew up from about 2.5 billion to over three times that - during the last 75 years. Remember, since 1 AD, it took around 1955 years to reach that initial 2.5 billion people. Can you imagine where we would be if dirty energy never existed? Whales would have gone extinct long ago, forests would not exist, and renewable energy would evolve into the main source of electricity. If coal, gas, then oil (in that order) had not powered up the Industrial Revolution, the growth of humanity would have continued at a snail’s pace, and the words “climate change” wouldn’t exist. Thus, we are incredibly intertwined with BOG - for all the good and bad that it brings our way.
Through the course of modern civilization, we’ve become dependent on fossil fuels and they must stay with us until an abundance of renewable energy options govern our power essentials, years from now. Sadly, during all this time the environment has suffered immeasurably while society reeks of chemical pollution-caused destruction. The following is a fact: we can’t succeed in a lawsuit world if our opponent is the one making us flourish throughout everyday life. That will be its defense!This is a useless struggle that will go nowhere. The plaintiffs won’t win because the damage is done. The defendants won’t win because they are eventually going out of business due to the forthcoming clean energy takeover. BOG will stall as long as it takes to get to that point, only, if necessary, to file bankruptcy to avoid the financial penalties of hiding their polluting truth - unless they convert to renewable energy production.
We will fight the ever-increasing rise in Earth’s temperature, AND WE NEED BOG ON OUR SIDE.
An agreement must be executed between worldly governments and big oil, gas, and coal that mandates the dismissal of all lawsuits in exchange for BOG’s participation in the development of clean energy while slowly eliminating dirty energy in increments that match the advancements of solar, wind, hydroelectric, etc. forms of energy. Once the world accepts the fact that we continue to economically benefit greatly from fossil fuel emissions, I believe all environmental destruction attributed to BOG will be forgiven. Unfortunately, only a small segment of the world’s population has time to think about the climate crisis.
Sure, those oil executives, gas scientists, and coal CEOs hid the truth which makes climate activists insanely furious, but the rest of society is too busy with daily challenges to give it much thought. Given what the future holds, to try and sort this out by suing for billions and billions of dollars is senseless. Instead, an agreement for that money to be applied to a permanent sustainable climate change solution is the answer.
Furthermore, world economies don’t need to add to their national debt overload by paying for more and more climate disaster relief funds while states and cities are paying to go after BOG in court. Our nation prospered beyond belief due to the BOG products, therefore it is pointless to sue, sue, sue our lives away. Anger and frustration over fossil fuel-caused global warming must be let go. Don’t forget: Many, many people unrelated to the energy industry are just as much to blame for the degradation of Earth’s land and waters. Due to food, water, and shelter requirements, civilization pushed nature’s boundaries way out from where they were meant to be. You, I, and nearly everyone else know all about that. Yes, we must share some of the blame with our power-up providers.
I have to admit: what makes my blood boil is knowing that BOG is fully accountable for its selfish desire to place profits over people for as long as it can get away with it. Worse: since caught last decade by society, it chose not to morally cleanse itself by admitting guilt. Had oil, gas, and coal been loyal to our planet 60-70 years ago by fully investing in renewable energy research, global warming today would be an unknown crisis. Yet, as Earth protectors, we must get over what happened. BOG’s morale collapse is not worth debating in court. As we try to forget the fossil fuel executives’ past decayed way of thinking, the most powerful industry in the world must align with the lawsuit plaintiffs to halt climate change, then invest in the removal of nearly two trillion tons of the atmospheric greenhouse gas BOG is responsible for. Oh, that electric carbon blanket in the sky!
This is where their billions of dollars must be spent - not in unrealistic courtroom theatrics on every continent. Instead of a decades-long never-ending battle in front of a judge where both parties are guaranteed to lose (while the global temperatures rises), let’s call for unification of the combatants. It’s the only way for the restoration and preservation of everything we once took for granted: Our lifestyles and Mother Nature’s natural surroundings.