Much of the U.S. fossil fuel industry was behind an effort to muddy climate science to prevent international agreements to lower emissions. Photo credit: Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images By Karen Savage It was a sweltering hot day in June 1988 when NASA climate scientist James Hansen stunned the world, testifying before the U.S.…
The Global Climate Coalition worked to influence the work of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change with aggressive tactics to muddy the overwhelming science that showed fossil fuel burning was warming the planet. Photo credit: Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images By Karen Savage At a small round table in a darkened room at one of Washington D.C.’s posher restaurants, Nicky Sundt listened intently. Two men…
A newly released trove of documents show how the Global Climate Coalition worked against international climate action from the inside of the UN process. By Karen Savage and Mat Hope This is a collaboration of reporting by Climate Liability News and Desmog UK A fossil fuel–backed industry group was…
The National Association of Manufacturers has taken a lead role in battling climate suits against the oil industry, similar to its defense of tobacco companies in their liability battle. Photo credit: Getty Images By Karen Savage In its fight to stave off a wave of climate change-related lawsuits, the fossil fuel industry has found a vocal and unapologetic…
Electric utility companies, like oil companies, have long known of the dangers of climate change, but pushed for more coal use anyway, a report says. Photo credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images By Kaitlin Sullivan A report documenting that electric utility companies, like the oil industry, understood climate change as far back as the 1960s could potentially…
The United Nations should consider a right to a healthy environment, the special rapporteur on human rights argues. Photo credit: John Moore/Getty Images By Ucilia Wang David Boyd stood in front of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City on Thursday as the new special rapporteur…
Valve turners Annette Klapstein, left, and Emily Johnston won the right to use the necessity defense in their trial for threatening an Enbridge oil pipeline. Photo credit: shutitdown.today By Seamus McGraw No one—least of all the defendants—disputes the facts of the case against four people known as valve-turners: activists who trespassed on private…
The people of Isle de Jean Charles, La., are among the first in the U.S. displaced by climate change. Photo credit: Karen Savage By Karen Savage Once a sprawling island, Isle de Jean Charles today is a mere sliver of what it used to be, more than 98…
Places like the Rockaways and Coney Island were devastated by Superstorm Sandy in 2012 and worry adaptation plans will not happen in time to protect against the next major storm. Photo credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images By Karen Savage When New York City announced its lawsuit against five major oil companies to hold them accountable for the impacts of climate change,…
Hawaii passed a state law in 2015 committing to using all renewable energy by 2045. Photo credit: Keppet via Flicker By Dana Drugmand Hawaii’s highest court took an important step in December to hold the state’s agencies accountable for transitioning away from fossil fuels as…