🔥 Climate change is evidence of intergenerational crime
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By David Suzuki
Knowingly causing harm or death to innocent people — not to mention other life forms and natural systems — is a crime. But that’s what the fossil fuel industry and its supporters have been doing for decades. In a just world, they’d face consequences. Instead, they’re being richly rewarded.
As far back as the 1970s, scientists working for oil giants including Exxon and Shell accurately warned that burning oil, gas and coal would cause global temperatures to rise, with “potentially catastrophic” effects. Other studies show the oil companies knew about the risks as early as the 1950s.
Instead of heeding the warnings, executives launched a massive campaign to cast doubt on and even outright deny the evidence. That campaign is ongoing.
Why would people knowingly put human health and survival at such great risk? Sadly, it comes down to money — a lot of money. Wars help drive those profits up, and many of the world’s wealthiest people care more about money and short-term profit than future generations. As writer George Monbiot notes, “Almost all the very rich are heavily invested in [fossil fuels].”
In just the first three months of the United States war against Iran, the eight largest oil companies raked in profits of more than $90 billion — double from the same period last year. Analysis by the Guardian found Aramco, BP, Shell, Equinor, TotalEnergies, Eni, Chevron and ExxonMobil “made more than $700,000 of profit every minute over the spring quarter.” Every minute!
Another study “found the emissions from any one of the 14 biggest companies were each enough to cause more than 50 heatwaves that would otherwise have been virtually impossible,” the Guardian reports.
Meanwhile, ordinary people struggle to pay for food, housing and transportation as gas prices spike.
This has many people calling for a “windfall profits tax.” That’s a start but it doesn’t go far enough, especially as the consequences of rapid global heating continue to mount: unprecedented wildfires and smoke-clogged cities, deadly heat domes, extreme drought, massive flooding, refugee crises, plant and animal extinctions, increasing spread of insects and diseases, sea level rise and more.
Those who have fuelled or supported this global crisis must be held legally accountable — and lawsuits have been launched in many jurisdictions, with varying degrees of success.
A woman in Washington state is suing the biggest oil companies for wrongful death after her mother died on the hottest day the state’s history, during a 2021 heat dome that killed 1,200 people in the region and that scientists say would have been virtually impossible without fossil fuelled climate change.
The David Suzuki Foundation has supported a lawsuit by 15 young people who claim the Government of Canada is contributing to dangerous climate change. It’s expected to go to trial in October.
As I’ve often said, though, it shouldn’t be up to young people. As parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and simply adults who care about others, we should be doing all we can to prevent the climate crisis from worsening. That means pushing back against the fossil fuel industry — from advocating for windfall profits taxes to ending subsidies to halting further industry expansion.
Some organizations have even called for “Nuremberg trials for Big Oil.” But as Public Citizen’s Climate Accountability Project director Aaron Regunberg writes in the Guardian, “there are already criminal laws on the books that describe and proscribe big oil’s conduct in knowingly driving and deceptively covering up the climate crisis — offenses such as reckless endangerment, causing or risking catastrophe, and involuntary manslaughter.”
The climate and biodiversity crises mark a failure of intergenerational responsibility. They also illustrate the failure of the current economic system, which encourages quick profits regardless of how much waste and destruction pursuing them causes.
Endless growth, gross domestic product, windfall profits — all are contingent on using up “resources” as quickly as possible. It’s insanity.
We understand the problem, we can see the consequences unfolding as predicted and we know what the solutions are. We also know the solutions would bring about many other benefits, from good jobs to cleaner air and water to cheaper energy. Why are so many people complacent in the face of resolvable catastrophe?
It’s time for all who care to stand up. We must hold fossil fuel executives and their enablers accountable!
David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with David Suzuki Foundation Senior Writer and Editor Ian Hanington.
Learn more at davidsuzuki.org.
REFERENCES:
Exxon:
Shell:
Campaign to cast doubt:
George Monbiot notes:
Analysis by the Guardian found:
Another study:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09450-9
Windfall profits tax:
Lawsuits have been launched:
https://www.climatecasechart.com
Woman in Washington state is suing:
https://grist.org/accountability/lawsuits-heatwave-wrongful-death-supreme-court
Lawsuit by 15 young people:
https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/canada
Aaron Regunberg writes in the Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/jul/28/prosecute-climate-crimes-big-oil
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