For decades, corporations across abusive, extractive, and polluting industries have evaded scrutiny for their wrongdoings.
But you make sure that the world knows the truth. From Veolia’s role in the Flint water crisis to Exxon’s decades of deception, you did not let stories of corporate abuse stray from the main pages of prominent media outlets across the globe, like the Guardian, The New York Times, and Reuters.
And people are taking note. Communities are mobilizing to protect their public water systems. Attorneys general are investigating and launching lawsuits against fossil fuel companies for intentionally deceiving the public on climate change. The calls for corporate accountability are steadily getting louder.
Here are just a few of the stories you’ve helped bring to light over the past year:
The Guardian reveals internal Veolia emails discussing lead before declaring water safe in Flint
Water privatization giant Veolia has tried to downplay its role in Flint’s water crisis. But documents obtained through public records requests by Corporate Accountability and detailed by the Guardian and MLive in December 2019 show the truth – that corporate executives were discussing the potential for lead in Flint’s water more than one month before telling city officials that the water was safe.
The Intercept spotlights the obstructive tactics of the U.S. and Global North governments
At the most recent U.N. climate treaty negotiations in Madrid last December, Big Polluters unleashed the full weight of the U.S. and other Global North governments to try and ram through rules that would have torpedoed the Paris Agreement and worsened the climate crisis. This article details the ways in which rich nations attending the talks attempted to block progress on climate justice – and how climate justice activists from around the world, led by communities most impacted by the climate crisis, fought back.
In Common Dreams, we introduce the Big Polluters sponsoring the climate talks
Writing on the corporate capture of the U.N.’s climate treaty negotiations, Deputy Campaigns Director Sriram Madhusoodanan, our allies at the Observatory of Multinationals in Latin America (OMAL), and Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) argue that meetings like COP25 will keep falling short at seriously addressing the climate crisis if they continue to be bankrolled and influenced by those most responsible for it.
BBC’s key takeaways from COP25: People are fed up the lack of climate action and Big Polluters
At the conclusion of the U.N. climate talks in Madrid last December, the BBC published this list of five key lessons from the negotiations – one of which was the growing disconnect in the demands made by climate justice activists and the actions of those at the negotiation tables. In the article, Deputy Campaigns Director Sriram Madhusoodanan was quoted: “If these talks are ever going to deliver, governments have to take a long serious look at why its failed for 25 years, and start by kicking polluters out.”
Patti Lynn makes the case for the fossil fuel industry fronting the bill for the Green New Deal in The Hill
In this op-ed published by The Hill, Executive Director Patti Lynn makes the case for advancing fossil fuel industry liability to help provide for the drastic changes needed in our energy sources and infrastructure, as outlined under visions for a Green New Deal.
In Truthout, we highlight how Massachusetts’ Attorney General is setting precedent for fossil fuel industry liability
There’s no doubt that the investigations into the role of the fossil fuel industry in knowingly fueling the climate crisis will have important ramifications on the fight for climate justice – particularly as these investigations gain steam across the United States. Evidence uncovered in the course of these investigations has the potential to spark climate action not only in the U.S., but also at the U.N. climate negotiations, where necessary action has been stymied for decades under the influence of the fossil fuel industry and other big polluters.
Patti Lynn on the structural change we need to prevent another Trump in Alternet
At the height of the impeachment proceedings of Donald Trump last November, Executive Director Patti Lynn wrote this op-ed to remind us that it’s important to keep in mind that Trump is neither an anomaly nor an accident when it comes to the forces that landed him in the White House.
These articles are just a sample of the ways we’ve been featured in publications and programs around the globe, with more headlines featured in the media section of our website. Earning hard-hitting media coverage is a critical way we shift power away from corporations and back to people. That’s why abusive corporations hate when the media spotlight shines on their abuses. Slick corporate PR just won’t cut it anymore: By publicly exposing the truth, you are shifting public opinion on the urgent need to check corporate power and reclaim our democracy.
