WISCONSIN FACT SHEET

What is Wisconsin for Environmental Justice?

We are a group of concerned citizens dedicated to seeking accountability for climate change in WI.
This year we will be working with other partners and organizations in WI to build grassroots support for holding the fossil fuel industry liable for deception regarding the climate crisis in WI.
We have already met with the Wisconsin Attorney General to urge him to take legal action to hold the fossil fuel industry responsible for climate change in WI.

Wisconsin is facing an accelerating climate crisis-with inequitable impacts

Wisconsin is experiencing climate change, including warming temperatures, more hot and humid days, increasing precipitation, and more frequent extreme precipitation events.
Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by climate change.
In Wisconsin, working-class communities are subject to pipelines, and low-income communities are exposed to fracking, mining, and hazardous waste industries. In addition, residents of these communities are more likely to experience more exposure to polluted air.

A crisis fueled by Big Polluters

This climate crisis was fueled by the increased burning of fossil fuels. It wasn’t inevitable.
Big polluting fossil fuel corporations like Chevron, Shell, Exxon, and others have spent billions fueling and denying climate change.
They have delayed or blocked progress on climate change for decades and endorsed false “solutions” like self-regulation in addition to funding climate denial.
Meanwhile, they continue to earn billions from the increased use of fossil fuels globally.

The crisis is costly and growing costlier

Wisconsin alone spends $44 billion annually to import fossil fuel energy.
The impacts of the extreme weather events, flooding, tornados, and drought, over the past 20 years have had approximate costs of $100 billion to the citizens of WI.
The unpredictable swings in weather, both temperature, and precipitation are adversely affecting the agricultural and livestock sectors which depend on predictable weather patterns.

Polluters, not people, must pay for damage and to implement just solutions

Wisconsin communities and taxpayers should not have to be burdened with the costs needed to implement solutions to a problem they did not cause.
It’s time to make the polluting industries that have knowingly fueled climate destruction pay for the damage they cause.
Just and equitable solutions to address the climate crisis already exist. These solutions are grounded in science as well as the experience, leadership, and expertise of frontline communities that have been hardest hit by the crisis.
Big polluters should be held criminally and financially responsible for their role in climate change, and be made to end the practices that have driven this crisis in the first place.

Liability: A solution for equity, justice, and funding

Liability actions against polluters could generate billions of dollars to fund the swift and necessary changes and investments we need toward a just and equitable energy transition.
Liability actions can advance justice if it’s ensured that the financing goes to the communities and cities in Wisconsin that have been most impacted by the climate crisis and environmental racism.
Now is the time to transform our systems and chart the path for a new, equitable, and just world.
And a critical first step is to make polluting industries pay—to help bring justice for the damage they have wrought and to fund the solutions our communities need.

WISCONSINITES CAN LEAD THE WAY.

Elected officials in Wisconsin have a critical role as leaders in securing funding for real climate solutions, holding polluters liable, and advancing climate justice.

That’s why it is crucial to demand that the Wisconsin Attorney General, City, and County elected officials take action to hold polluters liable.

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