{"id":49239,"date":"2026-07-17T17:47:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T00:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=49239"},"modified":"2026-07-17T17:47:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T00:47:23","slug":"us-gov-report-details-robust-ties-between-climate-crisis-and-big-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/07\/17\/us-gov-report-details-robust-ties-between-climate-crisis-and-big-oil\/","title":{"rendered":"US Gov Report Details \u2018Robust\u2019 Ties Between Climate Crisis and Big Oil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Philadelphia<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Eduardo Velev cools off in the spray of a fire hydrant during a heatwave on July 1, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by Jessica Kourkounis\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe next time your community is hit by a heatwave or flash flood, lay some blame with Big Oil. This report is yet another sign that we need to break away from this dangerous, polluting industry,\u201d one scientist said.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Olivia Rosane<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jul 16, 2026 (CommonDreams.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A landmark report released<\/a> by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on Thursday concludes that the science<\/a> of linking individual extreme weather<\/a> events to fossil fuel-driven climate change<\/a> has advanced considerably in the past decade, findings that bolster the efforts of communities to hold oil<\/a> and gas companies accountable for climate damages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report follows on the heels of deadly heatwaves<\/a> in Europe<\/a> and the US<\/a> that were<\/a> both deemed<\/a> to be \u201cvirtually impossible\u201d without the climate emergency<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cThe new report makes clear that the science linking ever-worsening extreme weather events to climate change is rigorous and sound,\u201d John Fleming, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity\u2019s Climate Law Institute, said in a statement. \u201cThe next time your community is hit by a heatwave or flash flood, lay some blame with Big Oil<\/a>. This report is yet another sign that we need to break away from this dangerous, polluting industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report from the National Academies, or NASEM builds on a 2016 report on the same subject and tracks the progress made since then in linking specific extreme weather events such as hurricanes or heatwaves to human-caused global warming\u2014a field known as extreme event attribution (EEA). It found that a combination of improvements in tools, datasets, and methods had made such attributions increasingly reliable, especially for events clearly related to rising average temperatures such as heatwaves, cold spells, and heavy rainfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe science is clear: The extreme heat<\/a> killing thousands of people in the Northern Hemisphere this summer is neither an unpredictable event nor an accident\u2014it is the result of corporate crime.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSignificant progress has been made over the last decade, with major advancements in methods and modeling that allow for more robust assessments of extreme events,\u201d James Hurrell, who chaired the report committee and serves as the Scott presidential chair of Environmental Science and Engineering at Colorado State University, said<\/a> in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

EEA could still improve when it comes to analyzing the climate footprint on smaller-scale weather events like thunderstorms and tornadoes, as well as attributing events in parts of the Global South<\/a> where climate data is less available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurrell continued: \u201cThe field still faces challenges, and addressing them is necessary to fully realize the value of attribution science. We hope our recommendations will guide those efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unaffiliated climate scientists and environmental advocates welcomed the report\u2019s findings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe robust conclusions that have been reached by the mainstream climate research community betray the dismissive claims that continue to be made by fossil fuel industry<\/a> groups, right-wing<\/a> think tanks, and Republican operatives who feel threatened by the scientific progress in this particular area,\u201d wrote<\/a> climate scientist and University of Pennsylvania<\/a> professor Michael Mann<\/a>. \u201cThey have long understood<\/a>… that Americans will increasingly demand meaningful policy action on climate as they come to understand the profound role that fossil fuel burning is playing in the worsening climate crisis<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mann continued: \u201cNothing connects the dots better that the increasingly dangerous, damaging, and deadly climate change-fueled extreme weather events. As an aside, I could see and smell the hazardous wildfire smoke that blanketed the northeastern US while on vacation with my family in New Hampshire this week. Increasingly, Americans are connecting the dots between our reliance on fossil fuels<\/a> and the hazards we face, whether its costly and dangerous wars of choice<\/a> in far-flung lands like Iran, or the threat of increasingly extreme weather events.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Carly Phillips, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists<\/a> (UCS) who has co-authored attribution studies, said<\/a> in a statement: \u201cAttribution science confirms what billions of people around the world have experienced firsthand\u2014deadly events like extreme heatwaves are occurring more often and tropical cyclones are more intense due to climate change. Despite efforts by the fossil fuel industry and its cronies to intimidate panelists and misrepresent the research, the academies\u2019 report affirms the scientific consensus: Attribution science is based on rigorous peer-reviewed methods and provides critical information about how climate change is driving increases in the frequency or severity of extreme events.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report is notable not only for its findings but for their context. It\u2019s publication comes amid the Trump administration\u2019s aggressive climate denial, including the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s repealing<\/a> of the so-called \u201cendangerment finding\u201d connecting carbon dioxide emissions to climate and public health<\/a> harms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, the fossil fuel industry and its right-wing political allies are scrambling to find a way out of the increasing number of lawsuits attempting<\/a> to hold<\/a> them accountable for the harms caused by the climate crisis. This has included pushing<\/a> bills in the House of Representatives and Senate that would grant the industry immunity from any lawsuits over damages caused by the use of their products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the fossil fuel industry and climate justice<\/a> advocates see the NASEM report as a potential weapon in the fight over climate liability. Argus Insight, an opposition research firm co-founded by former Trump staffers that has a history of working to undermine climate lawsuits, sent at least nine records requests to public universities where NASEM report authors work, as Politico reported<\/a> ahead of its release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andrew Dessler, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Texas<\/a> A&M University, advised<\/a> that journalists covering the NASEM report \u201cnot frame any story as \u2018Can we believe extreme event attribution research?\u2019 The actual story is: Fossil fuel interests are wetting their pants about this and will do anything to try to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet climate justice advocates argue that the report gives the advantage to communities over the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor decades, Big Oil knowingly poisoned our atmosphere and deceived the public about the impacts of burning fossil fuels\u2014all the while lining executives\u2019 pockets as communities continue to suffer from extreme heat, floods, and fires,\u201d Stephanie Brancaforte, climate accountability campaign director with Public Citizen\u2019s Climate Program, said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brancaforte added: \u201cThe science is clear: The extreme heat killing thousands of people in the Northern Hemisphere this summer is neither an unpredictable event nor an accident\u2014it is the result of corporate crime. With the backing of the National Academies, survivors of climate catastrophes now have strong evidence to pursue justice against fossil fuel polluters to pay for the devastation they have unleashed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cassidy DiPaola, communications director for the Make Polluters Pay campaign, said: <\/strong>\u201cThe National Academies just gave courts, cities, and communities something they\u2019ve long needed: the full weight of the country\u2019s most authoritative scientific body behind attribution science. It affirms what researchers and international bodies like the IPCC<\/a> [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change] have long recognized\u2014that we can say, with real confidence, which extreme weather events were made worse by fossil fuel pollution<\/a>, and how much damage that pollution caused.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

DiPaola continued: \u201cThe fossil fuel industry understands exactly what this means. That\u2019s why they\u2019ve spent years trying to discredit attribution science as a field, and why they and their allies in Congress and state legislatures are racing right now to pass liability shield laws. They can\u2019t out-argue hundreds of peer-reviewed studies backed by the country\u2019s most respected scientific institution, so instead they\u2019re trying to make the law immune to the science. They know this research doesn\u2019t just describe a hotter world, but draws a line from their products to specific floods, heatwaves, and deaths, and from there to who should pay for the damage.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAttribution science now underpins how cities plan for disaster, how insurers price risk, how public health officials prepare for heat deaths, and how courts weigh accountability,\u201d she concluded. \u201cThe only people with an interest in pretending otherwise are the ones being asked to pay for the damage they caused.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivia Rosane<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Olivia Rosane is the opinion editor and a staff writer for Common Dreams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full Bio ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eduardo Velev cools off in the spray of a fire hydrant during a heatwave on July 1, 2018 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  (Photo by Jessica Kourkounis\/Getty Images) \u201cThe next time your community is hit by a heatwave or flash flood, lay some blame with Big Oil. This report is yet another… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2039],"tags":[520,2219],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49239"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49240,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49239\/revisions\/49240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}