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Issue link: https://digital.miamilivingmagazine.com/i/1528579
In this insightful interview, Miami Living Magazine speaks with Jeffrey B. Simon (jeffreybsimon.com/), a prominent attorney leading the charge against Big Oil in landmark climate change lawsuits. Simon discusses the severe consequences of fossil fuel pollution, focusing on heat dome events like the catastrophic one in Oregon, and the scientific evidence linking such extreme weather events to carbon emissions. He sheds light on the accountability of the fossil fuel industry, his legal battles, and the potential implications for Florida, particularly as residents face rising climate threats. Miami Living: Can you explain what a heat dome event is and how it affects the environment, human health, and particularly the residents of Florida? Jeffrey B. Simon: Our planet is hotter now than it has been in human history. Over the last 40 years, we have seen the steepest increase in surface temperature of the Earth than in any other 40-year period ever. The ten hottest years in recorded history are the last ten. That’s no coincidence; it’s because we are continuing to pollute our atmosphere with carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels. That pollution traps heat and pushes it downward upon all of us. Carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels isn’t just warming our planet; it’s boiling it, like an egg in a stove pot. In June 2021, Multnomah County, Oregon, was scorched by the most extreme heat event in its history. For several consecutive days and nights, a “heat dome,” sometimes called an “extreme heat event,” boiled the county. Over three consecutive days, county temperatures reached highs of 108°, 112°, and 116° Fahrenheit. Inner-city Portland reached temperatures of 124° Fahrenheit. All those high temperatures exceeded those of any day in any previous year in the county, ever. The average high temperature in this county in June is in the 70s. 40% of the county’s residents had no cooling systems in their homes because they never needed them. 69 people died of heat stroke, most of them inside their homes. It was so hot that the metal cables of cable cars literally melted. This was not a natural weather event. In the aftermath of this catastrophe, several scientific studies were conducted, all of which reached the same conclusion: this heat dome was caused by fossil fuel pollution that superheated the Earth’s surface, dried out the region’s soil, and intensified a high-pressure system to turn this county into a convection oven. Miami Living: How can heat dome events be scientifically linked to the activities of fossil fuel companies? Jeffrey B. Simon: In the aftermath of devastating 2021 Pacific Northwest heat dome, climate scientists from around the world conducted research to determine if that event was caused carbon pollution or a naturally occurring anomaly. Their published work was unanimous that carbon pollution caused extreme heat event and/or made it significantly worse. The scientific consensus that links this extreme heat event to carbon pollution spewed into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels is very clear. Making matters worse, Exxon climate scientists accurately predicted in the 1980s that fossil fuel burning would cause very harmful climate changes in the 21 st century, but the company expended enormous efforts and resources to sew doubt in the public mind about that truth in the years that followed. Miami Living: Why is the blame being placed on Big Oil and not other major industry pollutants such as agriculture or even the fashion industry? Besides the obvious CO2 emissions, what else are they being held accountable for?