They Knew, They Lied, and We’re Living the Consequences

The Big Oil deliberate strategy to make record profits while destroying our environment, health, and climate future

I genuinely thought it was a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory the first time I heard about this, but as I put on my lawyer’s hat to investigate the facts, the truth is undeniable. Big Oil knew a half century ago what their destructive policies would do—and proceeded anyway. That’s not conspiracy theory, its criminal conspiracy, and it demands consequences.

If you’ve followed my work for any period of time, you know that I have spent more than twenty years responding to climate-fueled disasters. Once in a lifetime fires, once in a century floods, once in a thousand year hurricanes—one theme remains. That is, ordinary people pay the price with their lives, health, and futures, while the corporations responsible walk away untouched. Now, it’s time to make sure they face the music. Here’s how. Let’s Address This.

Volunteering as a first responder for Humanity First USA in 2005 for Hurricane Katrina relief

The Evidence Big Oil Buried

Suspicion is one thing. Documents are another. And the truth revealed in those documents is staggering: the most powerful fossil fuel companies in the world—Exxon, Shell, BP, Chevron—knew exactly what their products were doing to our planet. Their own scientists modeled it with startling accuracy, almost like they were peering through a crystal ball to the future. Then these companies buried the research, fired the scientists, and poured millions into a global misinformation campaign to convince the world that climate change was uncertain, overblown, or political.

This is not hyperbole. It is evidence. And as a human rights lawyer, I want to walk you through the receipts.

How It Started

Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating through the 1980s, Exxon—which operated what insiders called the “Bell Labs of energy”—employed some of the brightest scientific minds in the world. These weren’t fringe researchers. These were MIT-level physicists, chemists, and engineers who built electric car prototypes, tested solar energy systems, and ran climate models to understand where continued fossil fuel use would take humanity.

Those models predicted exactly what we are living through today: super-charged hurricanes; unprecedented flooding; record-breaking heat; megafires; coastal destruction; and rising insurance costs that are pushing families out of their homes. Exxon’s internal memos warned about “catastrophic” impacts. Shell drafted a report in 1988 concluding that “by the time the warming is felt, it will be too late.” Engineers projected the warming curve almost perfectly.

The science was not vague. It was not theoretical. It was not incomplete. It was accurate—and Big Oil knew it.

The Deliberate Campaign to Lie

These companies had a choice—change their approach and potentially lose money. Or double down on profit and bury the truth. They chose the latter—shutting down the research teams. They dismantled electric vehicle programs. And then they executed one of the most well-funded disinformation campaigns in modern history.

For decades, Exxon, Shell, and their allied trade groups funneled tens of millions of dollars into think tanks and manufactured “experts” whose central purpose was to confuse the public. They targeted teachers with misinformation intended to cast doubt on climate science. They cultivated politicians willing to repeat industry talking points. They pushed media outlets to frame climate change as controversial rather than factual.

This deception didn’t just delay action. It stole time we did not have. It robbed humanity of decades in which we could have built a clean energy future. It forced communities across the world to endure disasters that were preventable.

This isn’t politics. This is fraud—on a scale that crosses borders, generations, and ecosystems. Like the opioid crisis, like Big Tobacco, like the lead paint industry, the fossil fuel industry made a calculated choice: profit over truth, profit over public safety, profit over human life.

How It’s Going

Every disaster survivor knows the truth Big Oil hoped we would never see: these events are not natural. They are engineered by decades of deception. Communities across the US now face insurance premiums that have doubled or tripled in just a few years. Some cannot insure their homes at all. States are spending billions to rebuild infrastructure after storms that were stronger and more unpredictable than anything their systems were built to withstand. Climate-driven costs are pricing out and pushing out families who have lived in the same neighborhoods for generations.

I have seen these consequences firsthand for two decades. In Louisiana, in Los Angeles, in Lahaina, and across the globe. The devastation is not abstract to me—it is personal, human, and urgent. And when you connect the lived reality of survivors to the internal documents Big Oil tried to hide, the question becomes unavoidable: Why shouldn’t the people who caused this pay for the damage?

This is not a partisan position. A polluted environment does not check party affiliation when destroying a home or taking a life. Accountability is not political—it is necessary for justice.

Where We Go From Here

This is why I’m asking you to join Extreme Weather Survivors—a community of people who refuse to let this history remain hidden and who demand accountability for the decades of deception that brought us here.

We are working to ensure these documents, these stories, and this evidence reaches the communities who need it most. We are connecting survivors to one another, equipping people with facts, and exposing the corporate misconduct that politicians and media outlets continue to minimize.

This work isn’t about looking backward. It’s about making sure future generations aren’t forced to live in a world shaped by corporate lies. The only way that happens is if we refuse to shrug off extreme weather as “normal” and start calling it what it is: the foreseeable, preventable outcome of decisions Exxon, Shell, BP, and Chevron made decades ago.

Think of it this way. If you knew someone in your neighborhood was distributing illegal narcotics to your children—you’d want them stopped and held accountable, right? Well, we know for a fact that Big Oil has been polluting our air, increasing rates of asthma and respiratory disease, and causing preventative premature death. So why wouldn’t we want them stopped and held accountable? Now is our time to organize and make sure that happens.

Our planet, our communities, and our children deserve better than the world Big Oil sold us. Join Extreme Weather Survivors. Spread the word. Share the evidence. Help us make it impossible for the truth to stay buried. And it starts with refusing to look away now.