Repeatedly Bad Timing?

Decades ago, oil giant company scientists warned their employers, that the increased carbon dioxide emissions from burning their products would intensify the 'greenhouse effect'. This would, in turn, increase average global temperatures, disrupting the planet's climate systems. The executive response? Launching multi-billion dollar campaigns, attacking the very concept of human-mediated (anthropogenic) climate change. In 2020, officials from the City and County of Honolulu (Hawaii) sued eight fossil fuel giants. The officials noted that, the coal, oil and gas companies had misinformed both consumers and investors. This, they said, inevitably contributed to Honolulu incurring steep costs to deal with consequently, more frequent and powerful, extreme weather events (like hurricanes). Last week, Hawaii's Supreme Court heard attempts by the fossil fuel folk, to dismiss Honolulu's climate accountability lawsuit (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/17/hawaii-fossil-fuel-companies-dismiss-lawsuit-honolulu). The timing of the legal attempt couldn't be much worse. The Maui fire's aftermath still dominated the news. Profits over people, rarely goes down well?