Who is responsible, the companies that extract the fossil fuels, or the consumers that burn them? It is the companies that extract the fossil fuels, here is why: Since 1965, they KNEW that what they were doing was endangering everyone and destroying the ecosphere. For most of those decades while they hooked us consumers on their deadly products, we did not know. Why didn't we know? Because the producers hid it from us and lied to us about it. That is why they are morally responsible, and why they should be held criminally responsible for mass slaughter on a scale that Stalin or Mao could never dream of on their worst days.