Sea level rises of just eight inches produce devastating flooding effects from storms.
Credit: John G Wilbanks/Alamy

The impacts of global warming are here and they are costly. Sea level rise floods towns and erodes shorelines. Frequent and intense heatwaves threaten our workers’ health and damage our infrastructure. Extreme weather ruins our crops and corrodes businesses, factories and homes. In New York City alone, officials estimate that it will cost $19.5 billion dollars to prepare the city for sea level rise. And globally, climate adaptation costs are staggering.

Will top fossil fuel producers help shoulder the costs? They should.

As early as 1977, investor-owned fossil fuel companies knew their business was risky—that the use of their products released dangerous amounts of carbon dioxide and methane emissions that could destabilize our climate.

These companies could have taken steps to reduce the risks. Instead, they chose to misinform the public and their investors, block action to limit carbon emissions and carried on with business […]