Op-Ed: Voices from Our District
By Dave Spicer
For several years now, there have been repeated efforts to call climate change a “hoax” and a “scam” based on “fake science.” In the past several months, there has been an all-out assault on reversing efforts to protect our environment and slow climate change.
In just a few months, the US has been removed from the Paris Accords re climate change, major climate programs and grants cut for climate research, the Environmental Protection Agency has laid off hundreds of key EPA scientists, NOAA has been upended (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and its science-based climate research, and key aspects of the Biden efforts to fund renewables like solar and wind have been re-directed to fossil fuel incentives.
The EPA is now recklessly trying to dismantle a critical finding reached in 2009 that is the foundation of all environmental and climate regulations based on overwhelming scientific consensus. This finding established that greenhouse gases (CO2) in the atmosphere are primarily due to human activities leading to significant changes in the Earth’s climate. This is evidenced by intense heat waves, melting ice sheets, extreme storms, flooding, etc.
Climate change is no hoax. For over 60 years, the oil, gas and coal industry has engaged in a deliberate conspiracy to undermine the truth. According to a May 2025 report by the highly-respected Union of Concerned Scientists (“Decades of Deceit, The Case Against Major Fossil Fuel Companies for Climate Fraud and Damages.” https://www.ucs.org/resources/decades-deceit.), the industry has pursued this disinformation campaign despite their own scientists warning of serious concerns about fossil fuels and a worsening climate.
The report draws on dozens of fossil fuel industry documents that have been obtained by congressional subpoenas and various lawsuits and provides a glaring indictment of what the fossil fuel industry knew about climate change decades ago and the critical steps they took to deliberately mislead the public.
** In a 1980 presentation to the American Petroleum Industry, scientist John Laurmann stated global warming caused by fossil fuels would have “globally catastrophic effects.”
** Martin Hoffer, former head of Exxon Mobil’s Research Division, testified at a 2019 Congressional hearing that Exxon for years “was publicly promoting views that its own scientists knew were wrong,” and Exxon knew this would “greatly set back efforts to address climate change.”
Instead of taking action to phase out coal, oil and natural gas and pursue renewable energy sources, the industry developed a strategy to distort the truth and create uncertainty with the public about the gravity of climate change. In 1998, the American Petroleum Institute created a “roadmap” outlining how fossil fuel companies could create confusion before the American public about climate change. Toward that end, a small number of “expert” hired by the fossil fuel industry hit the air waves claiming climate change was not real and/or greatly exaggerated.
For example, between 1998 and 2004, ExxonMobil granted $16 million to advocacy organizations which disputed the impact of global warming. From 1989 until April 2010, ExxonMobil and its predecessor Mobil purchased regular Thursday advertorials in The New York Times claiming that the science of climate change was unsettled and unsubstantiated.
In contrast, 99.9% of all climate scientists agree that climate change is happening and that human activities are the primary cause.
But these years of deception are now being challenged in the courts by cities and states across the U.S. Similar litigation occurred in the 1990s when evidence emerged that tobacco companies had lied to the public for decades about the deadly effects of cigarettes
Now lawsuits against companies like ExxonMobil and Chevron may hold these companies liable for damages due to their corporate deception regarding climate change. These claims include legal concepts of public nuisance and consumer protection laws about deceptive marketing re oil and gas.
The first trials could happen in Massachusetts or Colorado sometime in 2026. If these cases go to trial before a jury, it’s possible that damage awards in the hundreds of billions or even trillions could be awarded to compensate states and municipalities for current and future damages related to climate change.
If these new legal claims are successful, it could be the key to turning around the views of the general public to demand that elected leaders take immediate action to reduce reliance on fossil fuels, create new legislation tackling climate change and reverse the current path of the worsening climate crisis.
In any case, if we don’t make overwhelming changes soon, we are on a collision course that could doom the habitability of the planet. Our children and grandchildren will damn us for not doing all we could to avoid this catastrophe.
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Dave Spicer is a retired Seattle attorney, Rotarian for 40 years with University District Rotary, and Chair of the District 5030 Environmental Sustainability Committee. He has been an advocate for the environment for 50 years.
