Latest news with #JulianaLeon
DW
18-06-2025
- DW
Major oil companies face first 'climate death' lawsuit – DW – 06/18/2025
A US complaint against oil and gas giants including BP and Shell claims they fueled the extreme heat that killed a woman in Seattle. Can the first death by 'climate disaster' claim succeed? On June 28, 2021, a heatwave saw temperatures rise to over 42 degrees Celsius (108-degrees Fahrenheit) in Seattle, the hottest ever recorded in the US coastal city. On that day, Juliana Leon was found unconscious in her car and died soon after from hyperthermia — the overheating of the body. Now her daughter, Misti Leon, is suing seven oil and gas companies for wrongful death in a Washington State court. She alleges that they accelerated the extreme heat that led to her mother's death by manufacturing and marketing fossil fuels. The filing claims the companies — including ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP — had known for decades "that their fossil fuel products were already altering the earth's atmosphere." These defendants willfully created a "fossil fuel-dependent economy" that would result in "more frequent and destructive weather disasters and foreseeable loss of human life," the complaint alleges. Record temperatures continued into the evening on June 28, 2021 in Seattle as some residents, including Juliana Leon, succumbed to severe heat stress Image: Ted S. Warren/AP/picture alliance In the first wrongful death claim of its kind, a win for Leon would "represent a landmark shift in climate litigation," said Maria Antonia Tigre, director of Global Climate Litigation at the New York City-based Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. While very few cases have "awarded damages" in climate litigation, success in Seattle could see individuals seek "compensatory and even punitive damages" from fossil fuel corporations for their role in climate change, Tigre explained. Besides seeking damages, the plaintiff also wants the defendants to fund a "public education" campaign to rectify "decades of misinformation" — which Leon says has fueled "consumer confusion" about the link between burning fossil fuels and planetary heating. Chevron, BP, Shell and ConocoPhillips did not respond to a DW request for comment on the case. What heat waves do to our bodies and brains To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Big Oil rejects claims in case The Chevron Corporation, one the world's largest oil and gas producers, rejects the claims made in the lawsuit. "Exploiting a personal tragedy to promote politicized climate tort litigation is contrary to law, science, and common sense," Chevron spokesperson Theodore Boutrous Jr. said in a statement to US public broadcaster, NPR. "The court should add this far-fetched claim to the growing list of meritless climate lawsuits that state and federal courts have already dismissed," he added. But according to Tigre, the case "could create a novel but plausible basis for liability." The filing is based on tort law as opposed to national statutes such as emission regulations that have underpinned most climate litigation cases. Inside the oil industy's massive lobbying efforts To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Tort law claims seek damages for individuals impacted by climate change, noted Rebekkah Markey-Towler, a research fellow at the Melbourne Climate Futures think tank. In the past, such civil lawsuits have been a vital means for individuals to "seek redress" against big tobacco or asbestos companies, the researcher explained. A Pennsylvania man was awarded $3.8 million (€3.5 million) from his employer in 2024 for contracting mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure. Climate cases are "no different," she added. "Big Oil companies are already facing climate fraud and damages lawsuits from dozens of state and local governments," noted Alyssa Johl, vice president of legal and general counsel at the Center for Climate Integrity, a US-based climate think tank. But as this latest case is "the first filed on behalf of an individual climate victim," she said, it represents "another step toward accountability." Markey-Towler said prior tort law climate cases — even those in other countries — could be "tangentially relevant" to this claim. In 2015, a landmark Dutch climate change lawsuit known as the Urgenda case, employed the tort law principle of "hazardous negligence" to argue that government inaction on climate change constituted a breach of its duty of care towards its citizens. The ruling forced the Dutch government to raise emission reduction targets. A more recent case in Germany where a Peruvian farmer sued energy giant RWE for its contribution to the glacial melt and flood risk posing a danger to his house, was another attempt by an individual to seek climate damages. "While the case did not succeed at the merits stage, the court acknowledged that, in principle, a private emitter could be held liable for a proportion of the damages," Markey-Towler noted of the final judgement in May. Peruvian farmer Saul Luciano Lliuya's lost case against RWE still upheld the principle that a fossil company can be be held liable for climate damage Image: Alexander Luna/Germanwatch e.V. 'Attribution science' key in proving responsibility for heatwave The science of weather attribution, which estimates the probability of climate change making extreme weather events such as wildfires, floods or heatwaves more likely, will "be central to the case," said Tigre. The 2021 heatwave along the US west coast — dubbed the Pacific Northwest Heat Dome — would have been "virtually impossible" without human-made climate change, according to rapid analysis at the time. The record temperatures that continued for three days would have been "at least 150 times rarer" without climate change, the research noted. Estimated to happen only once every 1000 years, such extreme heat would instead occur around every 5 to 10 years if, as predicted, global temperatures rise 2 C (3.6 F) by the early 2040s. Temperatures soar in Pakistan heat wave To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Heat is called a "silent killer" and caused the deaths of 489,000 people annually between 2000-2019, noted a 2024 UN report. The Pacific Northwest Heat Dome event resulted in around 850 deaths related to high temperatures across the US and Canada. But Tigre says the problem for Misti Leon's claim against the oil companies will be convincing the court of the defendants' "specific" contributions to global emissions. "Even if we are able to say that climate change caused an event, how much did one company contribute to this?" asked Markey-Towler. "That's difficult." A potential 'new wave' of litigation Nonetheless, she says "health arguments" are becoming common in climate lawsuits, which now number nearly 3,000 in the US and around the world, according to the Climate Change Litigation Database run by the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law in New York. If the Washington state case is successful, it would establish a landmark precedent "directly connecting the actions of fossil fuel companies to harm suffered by individuals," said Markey-Towler. Evolving legal theories such as "climate homicide or corporate manslaughter," which take the step of seeking a criminal as opposed to a civil conviction, could be helped by a successful trial, noted Maria Antonia Tigre. "Such a precedent would likely spark a new wave of litigation," she added. Edited by: Jennifer Collins
CBC
30-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Oil companies sued over heat dome 'wrongful' death
A U.S. woman is suing seven oil and gas companies, saying they contributed to an extraordinarily hot day that led to her mother's fatal hyperthermia during a heat dome event that also killed more than 600 people in B. C. It's one of the first wrongful-death claims in the U.S. seeking to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for its role in the changing climate. The lawsuit filed in Washington state court this week says the companies knew that their products have altered the climate, including contributing to a 2021 heat wave in the Pacific Northwest that killed 65-year-old Juliana Leon, and that they failed to warn the public of such risks. On June 28, 2021, an unusual heat wave culminated in a 42.2 C day — the hottest ever recorded in the state, according to the filing. Leon had just driven 100 miles from home for an appointment, and she rolled down her windows on the way back because her car's air conditioning wasn't working. Leon pulled over and parked her car in a residential area, according to the lawsuit. She was found unconscious behind the wheel when a bystander called for help. Despite medical interventions, Leon died. The filing names Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66 and BP subsidiary Olympic Pipeline Company. WATCH | Poverty was the biggest risk during B.C.'s deadly heat dome: The biggest risk during B.C.'s deadly heat dome: Poverty 2 years ago Duration 2:07 A new report says that a disproportionate number of financially vulnerable people died in British Columbia during the punishing 2021 heat dome event. Many who died had no air conditioning. "Defendants knew that their fossil fuel products were already altering the earth's atmosphere," when Juliana was born, Thursday's filing said. "By 1968, defendants understood that the fossil fuel-dependent economy they were creating and perpetuating would intensify those atmospheric changes, resulting in more frequent and destructive weather disasters and foreseeable loss of human life." The filing adds: "The extreme heat that killed Julie was directly linked to fossil fuel-driven alteration of the climate." Chevron lawyer accuses woman of 'exploiting a personal tragedy' Chevron Corporation counsel Theodore Boutrous Jr. said in a statement: "Exploiting a personal tragedy to promote politicized climate tort litigation is contrary to law, science and common sense. The court should add this far-fetched claim to the growing list of meritless climate lawsuits that state and federal courts have already dismissed." ConocoPhillips, BP, Shell and BP subsidiary Olympic Pipeline Company declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. The other companies did not respond to requests for comment. The lawsuit accuses the companies of hiding, downplaying and misrepresenting the risks of climate change caused by humans burning oil and gas and obstructing research. International climate researchers said in a peer-reviewed analysis that the 2021 "heat dome" was "virtually impossible without human-caused climate change." WATCH | What factors led to the heat dome over Western Canada and the U.S: What led to the heat dome taking over Western Canada and the U.S. 4 years ago Duration 2:08 CBC meteorologist and science reporter Johanna Wagstaffe breaks down the combination of factors that led to the unprecedented heat in western North America — and how climate change plays a role in these extreme events. Scientists have broadly attributed the record-breaking, more frequent, longer-lasting and increasingly deadly heat waves around the world to climate change that they say is a result of burning fossil fuels. Oil and gas are fossil fuels that, when burned, emit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide. "We've seen a really advanced scientific understanding about the specific effects that climate change can cause in individual extreme weather events," said Korey Silverman-Roati, a senior fellow at the Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. "Scientists today are a lot more confident in saying that but for climate change, this would not have happened." Silverman-Roati said the specificity of the case could clarify for people the consequences of climate change and the potential consequences of company behaviour. The lawsuit was first reported by the New York Times. "Big Oil companies have known for decades that their products would cause catastrophic climate disasters that would become more deadly and destructive if they didn't change their business model," said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement on the case. "But instead of warning the public and taking steps to save lives, Big Oil lied and deliberately accelerated the problem." How it's different from other climate cases States and cities have long gone after fossil fuel industry stakeholders for contributing to the planet's warming. Recently, Hawaii and Michigan announced plans for legal action against fossil fuel companies for harms caused by climate change, though the states have been met by counter lawsuits from the U.S. Justice Department. WATCH | Montana youth win 'game-changer' climate lawsuit: Youth win Montana climate lawsuit, hailed as a 'game-changer' 2 years ago Duration 2:25 The Trump administration has been quick to disregard climate change and has moved against initiatives aimed at combating it. The U.S. withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — an agency whose weather forecasting and research workforce has been gutted — will no longer track the cost of weather disasters fuelled by climate change. And the Environmental Protection Agency has been called on to rewrite its long-standing findings that determined planet-warming greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up support for oil and gas production in the name of an "American energy dominance" agenda, and it rolled back a host of other efforts and projects to address climate change. Around the world, other climate cases are being watched closely as potentially setting unique precedent in the effort to hold major polluters accountable. A German court ruled this week against a Peruvian farmer who claimed an energy company's greenhouse gas emissions fuelled global warming and put his home at risk. Still, a case that looks to argue these companies should be held liable for an individual's death is rare. Misti Leon is seeking unspecified monetary damages. "Looking ahead, it's hard to imagine this will be an isolated incident," said Don Braman, associate professor at George Washington University Law School. "We're facing an escalating climate crisis. It's a sobering thought that this year, the hottest on record, will almost certainly be one of the coolest we'll experience for the foreseeable future. "It is predictable or — to use a legal term, foreseeable — that the loss of life from these climate-fuelled disasters will likely accelerate as climate chaos intensifies," he added. "At the heart of all this is the argument about the culpability of fossil fuel companies, and it rests on a large and growing body of evidence that these companies have understood the dangers of their products for decades."
E&E News
30-05-2025
- Health
- E&E News
Woman sues oil companies after her mother's death in a heat wave
The daughter of an Oregon woman who died during the 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome is suing seven oil and gas companies for wrongful death. Misti Leon alleges that the death of her mother, Juliana, was the 'direct and foreseeable consequence' of the companies' promotion of fossil fuels and their failure to warn the public that burning them could increase global temperatures. 'Defendants knew that continued fossil fuel consumption would lead to a climate crisis and spur deadly events like the 2021 heat dome,' the lawsuit says, adding that the 'deception campaign furthermore limited understanding of the causes and consequences of climate change' and stunted measures to adapt that could have saved lives. Advertisement Juliana 'Julie' Leon, 65, died of heatstroke in June 2021 on what was the hottest day ever recorded in Seattle, Washington. That morning, she had driven 100 miles from her home to a doctor's appointment for a follow-up visit related to a voluntary bariatric surgery she had undergone a few weeks before. Leon's doctors cleared her to eat solid foods and took her vitals, finding no issue.
New Indian Express
30-05-2025
- Health
- New Indian Express
Wrongful death lawsuit says Big Oil contributed to heat wave and woman's death
In one of the nation's first wrongful-death claims seeking to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for its role in the changing climate, a Washington state woman is suing seven oil and gas companies, saying they contributed to an extraordinarily hot day that led to her mother's fatal hyperthermia. The lawsuit filed in state court this week says the companies knew that their products have altered the climate, including contributing to a 2021 heat wave in the Pacific Northwest that killed 65-year-old Juliana Leon, and that they failed to warn the public of such risks. On June 28, 2021, an unusual heat wave culminated in a 108-degrees Fahrenheit (42.22 degrees Celsius) day — the hottest ever recorded in the state, according to the filing. Leon had just driven 100 miles from home for an appointment, and she rolled down her windows on the way back because her car's air conditioning wasn't working. Leon pulled over and parked her car in a residential area, according to the lawsuit. She was found unconscious behind the wheel when a bystander called for help. Despite medical interventions, Leon died. The filing names Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66 and BP subsidiary Olympic Pipeline Company. 'Defendants knew that their fossil fuel products were already altering the earth's atmosphere,' when Juliana was born, Thursday's filing said. 'By 1968, Defendants understood that the fossil fuel-dependent economy they were creating and perpetuating would intensify those atmospheric changes, resulting in more frequent and destructive weather disasters and foreseeable loss of human life.' The filing adds: 'The extreme heat that killed Julie was directly linked to fossil fuel-driven alteration of the climate.' Chevron Corporation counsel Theodore Boutrous Jr. said in a statement: 'Exploiting a personal tragedy to promote politicized climate tort litigation is contrary to law, science, and common sense. The court should add this far-fetched claim to the growing list of meritless climate lawsuits that state and federal courts have already dismissed.' ConocoPhillips, BP, Shell and BP subsidiary Olympic Pipeline Company declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. The other companies did not respond to requests for comment.
30-05-2025
- Health
Wrongful death lawsuit says Big Oil contributed to heat wave and woman's death
In one of the nation's first wrongful-death claims seeking to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for its role in the changing climate, a Washington state woman is suing seven oil and gas companies, saying they contributed to an extraordinarily hot day that led to her mother's fatal hyperthermia. The lawsuit filed in state court this week says the companies knew that their products have altered the climate, including contributing to a 2021 heat wave in the Pacific Northwest that killed 65-year-old Juliana Leon, and that they failed to warn the public of such risks. On June 28, 2021, an unusual heat wave culminated in a 108-degrees Fahrenheit (42.22 degrees Celsius) day — the hottest ever recorded in the state, according to the filing. Leon had just driven 100 miles from home for an appointment, and she rolled down her windows on the way back because her car's air conditioning wasn't working. Leon pulled over and parked her car in a residential area, according to the lawsuit. She was found unconscious behind the wheel when a bystander called for help. Despite medical interventions, Leon died. The filing names Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66 and BP subsidiary Olympic Pipeline Company. 'Defendants knew that their fossil fuel products were already altering the earth's atmosphere,' when Juliana was born, Thursday's filing said. 'By 1968, Defendants understood that the fossil fuel-dependent economy they were creating and perpetuating would intensify those atmospheric changes, resulting in more frequent and destructive weather disasters and foreseeable loss of human life.' The filing adds: 'The extreme heat that killed Julie was directly linked to fossil fuel-driven alteration of the climate.' Chevron Corporation counsel Theodore Boutrous Jr. said in a statement: 'Exploiting a personal tragedy to promote politicized climate tort litigation is contrary to law, science, and common sense. The court should add this far-fetched claim to the growing list of meritless climate lawsuits that state and federal courts have already dismissed.' ConocoPhillips, BP, Shell and BP subsidiary Olympic Pipeline Company declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press. The other companies did not respond to requests for comment. The lawsuit accuses the companies of hiding, downplaying and misrepresenting the risks of climate change caused by humans burning oil and gas and obstructing research. International climate researchers said in a peer-reviewed analysis that the 2021 'heat dome' was 'virtually impossible without human-caused climate change.' Scientists have broadly attributed the record-breaking, more frequent, longer-lasting and increasingly deadly heat waves around the world to climate change that they say is a result of burning fossil fuels. Oil and gas are fossil fuels that, when burned, emit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon dioxide. 'We've seen a really advanced scientific understanding about the specific effects that climate change can cause in individual extreme weather events,' said Korey Silverman-Roati, a senior fellow at the Columbia Law School's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law. 'Scientists today are a lot more confident in saying that but for climate change, this would not have happened." Silverman-Roati said the specificity of the case could clarify for people the consequences of climate change and the potential consequences of company behavior. The lawsuit was first reported by The New York Times. 'Big Oil companies have known for decades that their products would cause catastrophic climate disasters that would become more deadly and destructive if they didn't change their business model,' said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, said in a statement on the case. 'But instead of warning the public and taking steps to save lives, Big Oil lied and deliberately accelerated the problem.' States and cities have long gone after fossil fuel industry stakeholders for contributing to the planet's warming. Recently, Hawaii and Michigan announced plans for legal action against fossil fuel companies for harms caused by climate change, though the states have been met by counter lawsuits from the U.S. Justice Department. The Trump administration has been quick to disregard climate change and has moved against initiatives aimed at combating it. The U.S. withdrew from the Paris climate agreement. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — an agency whose weather forecasting and research workforce has been gutted — will no longer track the cost of weather disasters fueled by climate change. And the Environmental Protection Agency has been called on to a rewrite its long-standing findings that determined planet-warming greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. Meanwhile, the federal government has ramped up support for oil and gas production in the name of an 'American energy dominance' agenda, and it rolled back a host of other efforts and projects to address climate change. Around the world, other climate cases are being watched closely as potentially setting unique precedent in the effort to hold major polluters accountable. A German court ruled this week against a Peruvian farmer who claimed an energy company's greenhouse gas emissions fueled global warming and put his home at risk. Still, a case that looks to argue these companies should be held liable for an individual's death is rare. Misti Leon is seeking unspecified monetary damages. 'Looking ahead, it's hard to imagine this will be an isolated incident,' said Don Braman, associate professor at George Washington University Law School. "We're facing an escalating climate crisis. It's a sobering thought that this year, the hottest on record, will almost certainly be one of the coolest we'll experience for the foreseeable future. 'It is predictable or — to use a legal term, foreseeable — that the loss of life from these climate-fueled disasters will likely accelerate as climate chaos intensifies,' he added. 'At the heart of all this is the argument about the culpability of fossil fuel companies, and it rests on a large and growing body of evidence that these companies have understood the dangers of their products for decades.' ___ @alexa_stjohn. Reach her at ___ ___
