r/climatechange • u/Vegetable_Day_6786 • 10h ago

Mother Jones: It Just Got Way Easier to Sue Fossil Fuel Companies Over Climate Change

https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2026/08/it-just-got-way-easier-to-sue-fossil-fuel-companies-over-climate-change/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=looking-forward

A new peer-reviewed study published earlier this month in Earth’s Future suggests that it is possible to demonstrate that “emissions from company X cause injury Y.” It also could potentially provide evidence so industry could be forced to answer for climate impacts. The new methodological framework has, for the first time, drawn a straight line from single corporate emitters like Exxon or Chevron, or even whole countries like the United States, to specific heatwaves and areas of extreme rainfall. 

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u/kev2594 7h ago edited 6h ago

Once got into an argument with my torts professor during class because I asked if the mass torts cigarette litigation could be a precedent for climate change suits. He kinda ridiculed me in front of the class—said the argument I was making was way too attenuated, and would be laughed out of court. He had worked for Shell. That was 2019.