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Is climate denialism a crime?

Climate denialism is increasingly viewed as a crime

Houston, Texas, after Hurricane Harvey, August 2017 Credit: Twitter photo (unidentified)

Landmark case and ground-breaking book say “Yes”

...an overwhelming case that the public, especially young people, are victims of 'Unprecedented Crime.' They also present actions that people can take to alleviate the consequences.”
— Dr. James E. Hansen, Climate Scientist
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, USA, January 17, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Climate change denial and inaction are quickly emerging as crimes against humanity.

A case initiated by 21 children and youths seeking their constitutional right to a stable future climate and taking the US Government to court was set to go to trial on February 5th, 2018.

However, on January 16, clearly fearing an unsatisfactory outcome, the Trump administration procedurally delayed the case, using a writ of mandamus. According to Yale law professor Douglas Kysar, in this context the writ is a “trick,” offensive to the judge, to the entire federal judiciary, and to the rule of law itself.

Timed to coincide with the now delayed trial, "Unprecedented Crime: Climate Change Denial and Game Changers for Survival" — a new book that for the first time in 30 years addresses climate denialism as a crime — will be released by Clarity Press in February, 2018.

As the reader-friendly Appendix amply demonstrates, the science is indisputable: CO2 emissions are on the rise again and greenhouse gases are accumulating at an unprecedented rate. Our fossil-fueled civilization is already disrupting Earth’s climate, as witnessed by impacted crop yields.

World-famous former NASA climate scientist Dr. James E. Hansen first alerted Congress to the coming climate emergency in 1988. Now, in his Foreword titled “Criminality, Indeed,” Hansen says that this book makes “an overwhelming case that the public, especially young people, are victims of 'Unprecedented Crime.'" Fortunately, he adds, the book also points to technological game changers that could alleviate the consequences for current and future generations.

Calling "Unprecedented Crime" “an indispensable read for citizens and policy-makers,” Prof. Lawrence Torcello of the Rochester Institute of Technology, cites the work as a “damning case against fossil fuel companies and their political agents, showing that discounting of global warming in pursuit of short term profit is a crime against humanity. In this excellent, well-researched book, the authors map the global effort needed to survive the challenge of global warming.”

Reinhold Gallmetzer, an Appeals Counsel at the International Criminal Court, notes that “Peter Carter and Elizabeth Woodworth’s book is a timely and important contribution to the debate regarding how criminal prosecutions, both at the national and international level, could be used to repress and deter climate damaging conduct at a large scale and on a lasting basis.”

Indeed, on January 10, New York City announced a lawsuit against five major oil companies, seeking to collect billions of dollars in damages to pay for city programs to cope with the effects of climate change.

Co-authors Peter Carter and Elizabeth Woodworth have long promoted an informed and urgent response to the unprecedented crisis. Carter, a medical doctor, is founder of the Climate Emergency Institute and is an IPCC expert reviewer.

Woodworth is a climate change writer, and co-producer of the COP21 video A Climate Revolution For All. She has presented climate activism books to the last three UN climate summits.

"Unprecedented Crime" first lays out the culpability of government, corporations, and the media through their failure to report or act on the climate emergency. No emergency response has even been contemplated by wealthy high-emitting national governments. Extreme weather reporting never recommends the need to transform business-as-usual with strategies aimed at reducing global CO2 emissions to near zero.

This is beyond reprehensible, given that technological fixes are now available. "Unprecedented Crime" reports how scores of clean energy game changers have been coming online all over the world.

The cited video, for example, tours Spain's Gemasolar concentrated solar power (CSP) plant, which for years has been equivalent to a coal-fired or nuclear power plant – capable of powering energy-dense heavy industry such as the smelting of steel to build electric cars.

With these solutions we can act in time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to near-zero within 20 years.

But will we?

The malfeasance and negligence by governments, corporations and a colluding media are crimes against life on Earth that everyday citizens can readily grasp.

This thoroughly-researched and highly-documented book will show them a gamut of actions to pursue on behalf of their children and grand-children.


Contacts: Clarity Press
Review copies: businessmanager@claritypress.com
Author interviews: Dr. Peter Carter, 250-629-3811; UnprecedentedCrime@gmail.com

Business Manager
Clarity Press
404-647-6501
email us here

Tour of Spain's Gemasolar concentrated solar power plant

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