Jeffrey B. Simon: Battling Big Oil & the Rising Threat of Extreme Heat Events
Updated: 5 days ago
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?
Jeffrey B. Simon: While it’s true that carbon pollution is created by several sources, the burning of fossil fuels is the predominant one. Moreover, no industry has worked harder to distort the truth about the causes, breadth, and magnitude of climate harm than the fossil fuel producing Industry.
Miami Living: Can you tell us more about your recent lawsuit against Big Oil?
Jeffrey B. Simon: Multnomah County, Oregon filed suit against several members of the fossil fuel industry alleging that those companies, individually and in concerted action with other companies, misrepresented and/or concealed from the public their awareness that atmospheric pollution from the use of their fossil fuel products would result in extreme weather events, such as the heat dome that devastated the County in 2021. As a result, the County could not reasonably foresee nor prepare for the never-before kind of extreme heat that destroyed so much life and treasure. The case is currently pending in state court, where several substantial motions are expected to be litigated before the trial judge in February 2025.
Miami Living: What makes this case so significant?
Jeffrey B. Simon: While there are approximately two dozen climate accountability cases pending around the U.S., this case is unique because it’s focused upon an extreme heat event rather than harmful climate changes in general. There are a couple of other cases that focus upon a particular weather event, such as hurricanes, but I believe the Multnomah case is the only one related to a catastrophic heat event. That’s important, because of all the climate changes wrought by carbon pollution, extreme heat is the most deadly worldwide. And extreme heat events in historically temperate climates like America’s Pacific Northwest are the easiest for scientists to reliably link to carbon pollution. While there’s no doubt that carbon pollution causes and/or worsens hurricanes in the Caribbean, hurricanes occurred there before the fossil fuel burning era. But never in human history did places like Portland, Oregon reach temperatures like 124 degrees Fahrenheit, so models that compared climatic and atmospheric conditions to those that existed before the Industrial Age made the link to carbon pollution highly scientifically reliable.
Holding wrongdoers accountable for the harm they cause is an essential use of the civil justice system. Those who break things should pay for them. This case will affirm that legal and moral imperative.
Miami Living: In your view, what specific climate events in Florida could be linked to the activities of fossil fuel companies?
Jeffrey B. Simon: The heating of the Earth’s surface temperature from fossil fuel burning has caused increases in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. These events have included, not exhaustively, heat domes, wildfires, drought, hurricanes, floods, and freezing. Generally speaking, when those events occur in regions that have never or rarely experienced them, the more likely that carbon pollution is a driving factor.
Miami Living: How can the legal and environmental communities in Florida, including in Miami, benefit from your research and approach to holding Big Oil accountable?
Jeffrey B. Simon: Communities in Florida, including Miami, are compelled to expend large amounts of taxpayer dollars for emergency healthcare, social services, and infrastructure repairs due to climate-related impacts. Who should continue to pay for the destruction that fossil fuel burning causes: taxpayers or the companies that reaped enormous profits from the sale of fossil fuel products, several of whom may have deliberately misled the taxpaying public about how much harm those products would do to communities and their environment? I think the answer is straightforward, but at the very least, let’s allow juries to decide the matter. That’s the purpose and promise of the civil justice system and the right to trial by jury, which is enshrined as the 7 th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Miami Living: What lessons from your previous legal work, including your Oregon heat dome lawsuit, can be applied to possible future legal actions in Florida?
Jeffrey B. Simon: Experts in the science of climate attribution study whether and where particular weather events are caused or worsened by carbon pollution rather than by natural climate variations. When Floridians experience extreme weather events that cause great harm, which unfortunately they have and will again, climate scientists will look to determine whether those events were human-made versus natural phenomenon. If human-made, governmental entities that are charged with duties to protect public safety and to conserve taxpayer money should consider whether the use of the civil justice system to hold carbon polluters financially accountable is an appropriate option for fulfilling those duties.
Miami Living: What actions do you think regular folks, like Miami residents, can take to support legal actions against fossil fuel companies?
Jeffrey B. Simon: Only support and vote for political candidates who tell the truth about human-made climate change and advocate for corrective action. Human-made climate change, sometimes called anthropogenic climate change, is demonstrable scientific fact, as certain as gravity. If I step off a roof, I will fall to the ground, irrespective of how I “feel” about gravity, or whether some PhD has been paid by a front group or lobbyist to deny its existence. The same is true about the fact that the burning of fossil fuels has caused a near doubling of the amount of carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere, which in turn blocks the dispersion of solar heat that’s reflected from the planet’s surface. That heat is then pushed down upon all of us, thus warming the planet surface and causing a heat-energy imbalance that yields radical and extreme weather patterns. And the problem is growing worse because we continue to burn fossil fuel products at a high rate and the carbon pollution that’s spewed from those products remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. DEMAND from your lawmakers that they pursue corrective action through legislation and that they oppose any “tort reform” or other legislation that’s calculated to immunize corporate wrongdoers from being held financially accountable in the civil justice system.
Miami Living: On a personal note, can you share some of your personal passions and your thoughts about Miami? What do you enjoy doing the most when you are not working?
Jeffrey B. Simon: My wife and I love Miami, especially South Beach, and have vacationed there many times. In addition to its great beauty, Miami is a cultural melting pot that exemplifies and edifies the best of the American experience. We find that Miami is an incredible place to live or visit only for those who like any of the following: sun, beaches, boating, fishing, sports, art, kindness, culture, music, rum, cigars, fashion, or fine cuisine.
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