Climate-change denial has been compared to Big Tobacco’s 50-year-campaign to deny the dangers of cigarettes.

Both attempted to muddy the waters of the public discussion by claiming there is still “scientific debate” on an issue where the science is known and settled.

Both attempted to muddy the waters of the public discussion by claiming there is still “scientific debate” on an issue where the science is known and settled. Both took funding from big industries (Big Tobacco, Big Oil) with a huge financial interest in muddying those waters.

Both paid scientists to gin up research favorable to their point of view.

Some of the same PR players have been involved in both campaigns and have used the same tactics.

Now, there may be one more parallel. It’s not widely known, but what ended the Big Tobacco campaign was actual prosecution under the RICO racketeering statute. As Senator Sheldon Whitehouse wrote earlier this year,

The Big Tobacco playbook looked something like this: (1) pay scientists to produce studies defending your product; (2) develop an intricate web of PR experts and front groups to spread doubt about the real science; (3) relentlessly attack your opponents. Thankfully, the government had a playbook, too: the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO. In 1999, the Justice Department filed a civil RICO lawsuit against the major tobacco companies and their associated industry groups, alleging thatthe companies “engaged in and executed — and continue to engage in and execute — a massive 50-year scheme to defraud the public, including consumers of cigarettes, in violation of RICO.”

Now, a group of scientists are picking up on Whitehouse’s idea and are urging the Justice Department to break out the big guns again, against climate denial:

A RICO investigation (1999 to 2006) played an important role in stopping the tobacco industry from continuing to deceive the American people about the dangers of smoking. If corporations in the fossil fuel industry and their supporters are guilty of the misdeeds that have been documented in books and journal articles, it is imperative that these misdeeds be stopped as soon as possible so that America and the world can get on with the critically important business of finding effective ways to restabilize the Earth’s climate, before even more lasting damage is done.

Here’s the complete text of the letter: