LETTER: Oil companies should be forced to pay reparations

SooToday received the following letter to the editor about this summer's wildfires and climate change.

If there ever were any doubt about climate change, this summer has proven the case, which science has been warning about for decades. It is unfortunate that most of us were not listening.

Now that we are in the thick of it, one has to wonder about what the future might look like. All the carbon released by the fires will only add to the problem, which is what the scientists call a positive feedback loop. In other words, it is only going to get worse, not better.

Does this mean that in the distant future Canada will have no forests at all? Does this mean that we will have to cut down the trees next to our homes, in an attempt to save ourselves in the event a fire comes our way?

And the saddest thing about this is we are going to spend billions and billions of dollars and untold people will lose their lives, all of which did not need to happen if we had listened to the scientists all those years ago.

However, Big Oil spent billions on a disinformation program to persuade us that no harm would be caused. They did this in spite of the fact that, for example, Exxon Mobile Oil, formerly Standard Oil, knew in the 1950s exactly what would happen if we continued to burn fossil fuels.

Bernie Sanders along with several American senators have asked the Department of Justice to charge Exxon Mobile with defrauding the American people.

The claims of the fossil fuel companies are fraudulent. These companies deserve to receive the same consequences as any con artist.

In my view, they should be made to pay reparations to compensate the world for the tremendous losses that have been and will be engendered.

And do not think this is impossible. They have been making exorbitant profits for at least a century. It is time for them to pay for the mess they made.

You say this is too radical? Well maybe when the fire comes to your doorstep, you will change your mind.

Bruce Lenton