AZ Heatwave 2023: Lawyers Could Sue Big Oil, Hundreds of Deaths- Homeless, Well Off, Young, Older
- Lawyers could sue big oil for homicide after heatwave in Arizona, memo says, The Guardian, June 26, 2024. Ed. Charges are reasonable after July 2023 extreme weather event, prosecutors write in new memorandum. ☀️
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Prosecutors in Arizona could reasonably press homicide charges against big oil for deaths caused by a July 2023 heatwave, lawyers wrote in a new prosecution memorandum. “[T]he case for prosecuting fossil fuel companies for climate-related deaths is strong enough to merit the initiation of investigations by state and local prosecutors,” the document says.
The memo, published by the consumer advocacy non-profit Public Citizen on Wednesday, concludes that the state could pursue reckless manslaughter or second-degree murder claims for the extreme weather event that killed hundreds of residents and which climate scientists found would have been “virtually impossible” but for the climate crisis, caused primarily by the burning of fossil fuels.
Victims of the heatwave were diverse, the memo’s authors write.
“Some were homeless, like the man who died after breaking both legs jumping over a fence in a desperate attempt to find shade outside an elementary school; others were well off, like the woman who died in her $1 million home in Scottsdale,” the memo says, adding that while some victims were older and had pre-existing health conditions, the authors write, others were young and healthy.
The research comes as AZ and many other US states have broiled under extreme temperatures this month. Forty cities and states have sued major oil companies in recent years for their role in the climate crisis and in sowing climate doubt. Each of those existing cases is based on civil charges such as tort law and racketeering protections...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/26/arizona-heatwave-big-oil-lawsuit
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