Did These 24 Companies Cause Global Warming?

Kivalina is disappearing into the sea, as the tiny island the village calls home is swamped by the Chukchi Sea in the remote Northwest Arctic.

So it's suing.

According to the Anchorage Daily News, the village is suing the world's largest and most profitable company, Exxon Mobil, and 23 other oil, coal and power companies, alleging that they profited on the pollution that caused global warming and the attendant sea level rise swamping their homes.

The suit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, and seeks a jury trial on this issue: Should the companies pay to relocate the village and its 400 Inupiat Eskimo residents to safer ground, at a cost of $95 million to $400 million.

The lawsuit also particularly singles out Exxon and other companies for conspiring to create "a false scientific debate" about global warming, according to portions of the suit quoted by the Anchorage Daily News.

These are the 24 companies named in the suit:

• Exxon Mobil
• BP
• Conoco
• Chevron Corp.
• Shell Oil Co.
• Peabody Energy Corp.
• AES Corp.
• American Electric Power Co.
• DTE Energy Co.
• Duke Energy Corp.
• Dynegy Holdings Inc.
• Edison International
• MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co.
• Mirant Corp.
• NRG Energy
• Pinnacle West Capital Corp.
• Reliant Energy Inc.
• Southern Co.
• Xcel Energy Inc.
• Other affiliated companies

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