ON JAN. 25, 2019, Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, then 16 years old, famously called on the adults of the world to panic over climate change, saying “I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house is on fire, because it is.”

If the pace of litigation over the responsibility of big oil companies for their role in causing climate change is any measure, the American judicial system has not gotten Thunberg’s message.

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Joe Dworetzky is a second career journalist. He practiced law in Philadelphia for more than 35 years, representing private and governmental clients in commercial litigation and insolvency proceedings. Joe served as City Solicitor for the City of Philadelphia under Mayor Ed Rendell and from 2009 to 2013 was one of five members of the Philadelphia School Reform Commission with responsibility for managing the city’s 250 public schools. He moved to San Francisco in 2011 and began writing fiction and pursuing a lifelong interest in editorial cartooning. Joe earned a Master’s in Journalism from Stanford University in 2020. He covers Legal Affairs and writes long form Investigative stories. His occasional cartooning can be seen in Bay Area Sketchbook. Joe encourages readers to email him story ideas and leads at joe.dworetzky@baycitynews.com.