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Comment by Edmond | Hacker News Reader

In the future when the effect of climate change is fully realized and there is no more denying it I do hope retro-active action can be taken perhaps in the form of lawsuits that would lead to the seizure of assets of any business entity that willfully engaged in misinformation on the subject...think fossil fuel industry and assorted politicians who helped them.

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Edmund -- that would be a "climate change denier" position.

Since climate is always changing, the effect of climate change cannot be, and will never be, fully realized.

The question then becomes "when will that retro-active action be allowed"? What triggers that certainty?

You are right, except clearly the effects of human caused change is still being denied by many. I am guessing/hoping there would come a time when such people will lose their influence.

Lying for profit - and "PR" which uses that MO - should be criminalised.

They're effectively another form of corporate pollution.

In the past being honorable was important because of unwritten social rules. Today those rules have to be written down because there is no longer any consequence for exploiting people as long as you are within the letter (not the spirit) of the law.

Not only that but we have accepted this lying into our society. When a businessman lies about something or does something shady, we say "he said what he had to say" or "he did what he had to do." Lawyers likewise are socially excused. And by socially excused I'm referring particularly to the neighborhoods and communities and clubs in which they live and recreate.

Not everybody gives them a pass of course, but many do.

I'm curious about something: were any of those bankers from the 2007/8 crisis and scandal booted out of their country clubs?

Like we did with e.g. the tobacco industry?

Yes but likely much more economically costly...Philip Morris is still around and quite healthy...if whole city waterfronts end up under water around the world, the liabilities could be enough to make Exxon et al disappear.

i don't see this happening. Right now exxon can explore for gas in the Great Australian Bite and if there is an oil spill as a result of this drilling, its on the taxpayers because it exploratory drilling!

One can hope that we wise up in the future and don't repeat our mistakes. It's naive, but sometimes hope is all we have left.

And that is indeed what it's always been about, back to the days of Margaret Thatcher, when the British government first incentivized researchers to produce evidence showing carbon caused global warming, and not the reverse[1]. It's always been about taking out Thatcher's political enemies in the fossil fuel industry.

AGW is a terrific example of how political campaigns can go viral and become their own self-sustaining anti-fill-in-the-blank movements, given the right mix of ingredients.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-m09lKtYT4

Exactly. Somehow we humans are built in a way it is very easy to plant ideologies and make them spread in the society. If you somehow get a group to feel collective guilt for something, you are already halfway of achieving your goals. Groupthink takes care of the rest.

I suppose it is the same mechanism in work as for religions in general.

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