Declaring a climate emergency means holding Big Oil accountable

Last week MinnPost published an op/ed piece by MN350 Communications Manager Jessie Roelofs linking the climate emergencies declared by cities like St. Paul, Northfield, Grand Rapids, and 13 to others to the fossil fuel accountability lawsuit by Attorney General Keith Ellison. The piece takes on a personal note as the author discusses her decision on whether or not to start a family in light of the climate reality facing this state, elucidating the difficult choices that a generation of Minnesotans are grappling with when it comes to their futures.

From the op/ed:

In a coordinated campaign, St. Paul, Northfield, Grand Rapids and 13 other Minnesota cities stepped up last month to declare climate emergencies. They’re asking for state and federal funding to slow the effects of climate change. This effort, which is both symbolic and concrete, marks an important step toward more action on climate change. But the question remains, who will foot the bill?

To explain why this is important to me, I need to go back to 2018.

My then-fiance and I are sitting on an overstuffed couch in a small room, facing a premarital counselor. We’re in our third of five sessions and feeling like we are ready for anything. We’ve talked about our family histories, our approaches to money, our thoughts on religion, politics and end of life.

But then the question comes that we knew, of course, was going to come. “Do you want to have children?”

We look helplessly at one another. It’s something we’d talked about at length, but how do you plan for a future when the world is on fire?

In 2020, Attorney General Keith Ellison filed a landmark suit against the fossil fuel industry, modeled after the Big Tobacco litigation of the ‘90s, suing for damages stemming from a long-running fraud perpetrated against the people of Minnesota. As early as the 1960s fossil fuel companies knew full well the damage their products were doing to the planet, yet nonetheless engaged in widespread marketing campaigns to push the lie that fossil fuels were safe. Over the past two years Big Oil has used various legal tactics to slow the case, and the suit is currently stayed while an appeal is pending before the federal 8th Circuit Court. However if an appeals court decision is not reached by August, the district court will reevaluate the stay.

For the past year, MN350 has been educating Minnesotans about the Attorney General’s lawsuit and its importance in holding the fossil fuel industry accountable for its decades of deception. MN350’s Big Deception campaign features a research report and video detailing how Big Oil deceived Minnesotans and other Americans for decades.