Will they pay?
The Climate Scientists predicted that one of impacts of Climate Change due to FF (fossil fuels) emissions would be an increase in the severity and perhaps the frequency of storms. Emissions include not only CO₂ (carbon dioxide) but also CH₄ (methane), unburnt hydrocarbons and carbon particles.This year the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean have seen higher temperatures than usual which has exacerbated the severity of storms and hurricanes. [1]
The US has just seen its 2nd Category 5 hurricane this season and one of the impacts on the rest of us outside of the US will be increased cost of insurance (policies and premiums).
How do we make the FF companies pay for these increases? They have ignored the climate advice for decades from expert scientists such as James Hansen's testimony to US Congress in 1988 and have downplayed the urgency and the impacts of their products and emissions from burning their products in order to protect their income streams and extend the burning of FF for as long as possible.
This is why the carbon price mechanism was introduced and why the LNP (Liberal National Party - Australia) - beholden to their major donors - got rid of it.
Science and engineering have discovered and developed less polluting methods for generating electricity, for transport and for manufacturing the materials we use that currently use vast amounts of FF and generate harmful emissions but these new methods are slowly - too slowly - being installed and utilised.
How do we make the FF companies pay for these impacts?
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Footnotes:
1. 2024, Hurricanes and Climate Change, https://www.c2es.org/content/hurricanes-and-climate-change/