Det fremgår af en række materialer fra 350.org, en kendt verdensomspændende klimaorganisation.
Stifteren, den erfarne klimaktivist Bill McKibben, har rettet en kraftig kritik af olieselskabet ExxonMobile, efter det er kommet frem, at selskabet i årtier har haft kendskab til de grelle konsekvenser af klimaforandringer, som det har holdt skjult.
Han udtaler følgende:
“The world’s biggest oil company, Exxon, knew everything there was to know about climate change by the late 1970s and early 1980s. Its scientists understood how much and how fast it was going to warm, and how much damage that was going to do”.
“And the company knew the scientists were right: that’s why they started “climate-proofing” their own installations, for instance building their drilling rigs to accommodate the sea level rise they knew was coming. What they didn’t do was tell the rest of us.”
Man kan finde en række videoer, hvor aktivister sætter politiafspærringsbånd omkring døende koralrev, her:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ehchmnlepsxngxt/AADalAiWGAbU0Fd9gTbN1-8Ka?dl=0
Pressemeddelelse fra 350.org
Divers from coastal communities wrapped crime-scene tape around dead coral reefs during a series of underwater dives to highlight the catastrophic damage to this valuable ecosystem and the culpability of the fossil fuel industry for its loss.
A new series of underwater photographs collected from Samoa, the Australian Great Barrier Reef and the Andaman Islands showcase the impacts of the worst mass coral bleaching in recorded history and how it is one of the consequences of the reckless behaviour of Exxon and fossil fuel companies hindering global climate action.
Bleaching across 38 countries
Recent research confirms that the above-average sea temperatures causing this bleaching across 38 countries are the result of human-induced global climate change, rather than from local pollution as was previously argued.
The fossil-fuel industry is the main culprit behind these impacts.
Since the past century, companies like Exxon chose to ignore the warnings of their own scientists and instead have been pouring resources to actively deceive the public by funding climate denial groups, recommending against climate shareholder resolutions and obstructing climate action.
What were once bright and colourful coral reefs full of life have turned white then murky brown as they have died and become covered in algae. In places like the Great Barrier Reefup to 50% of previously healthy reef has been bleached and killed.
Reefs support 25% of all species
In North America, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is forecasting that Guam, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, eastern Micronesia and Hainan Island (China) are likely to have the worst bleaching in the coming months, as well as some bleaching going on in Hawaii and various parts of the Caribbean.
The event started in 2014 with bleaching from the western Pacific to Florida. In 2015 the event went fully global but mostly through the impacts of global warming as much of the bleaching occurred before the 2015-16 El Niño developed.
Reefs support approximately 25% of all marine species, so a massive coral die-off may risk the livelihoods of 500 million peopleand goods and services worth $375 billion each year.
