Support the Arctic Sea Ice Forum and Blog

Author Topic: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions  (Read 86931 times)

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #150 on: September 21, 2017, 12:11:37 AM »
San Francisco, Oakland sue major oil companies over rising seas
Quote
The cities of San Francisco and Oakland are suing some of the world’s largest oil companies over climate change, joining an emerging legal effort to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for the damages wrought by rising seas.

The suits, filed separately in Superior Court in San Francisco and Alameda County and announced Wednesday, claim that a slate of oil, gas and coal producers not only caused the heat-trapping gases that drove sea-level rise but knowingly did so, a challenge akin to litigation against big tobacco companies in the 1990s.

Both cities are asking the companies, which include Bay Area-based Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell and BP, to pay billions in compensation for past and future flooding, coastal erosion and property damage resulting from climate change.

“The bill has come due,” said San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera. “It’s time for these companies to take responsibility.”

The lawsuits, filed Tuesday, come two months after the counties of Marin and San Mateo as well as the San Diego County city of Imperial Beach filed similar challenges amid a growing push to use the courts to go after individual corporations for their contribution to global warming.

Prior legal attempts to tie specific companies to the problem have been scant and largely ineffective. But as scientific advancements make it increasingly possible to pinpoint the causes of climate change, and with the Trump administration sidelining the issue, law experts say both the number of suits against the fossil fuel industry and their chances of success are bound to grow.
...
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/San-Francisco-Oakland-sue-major-oil-companies-12215044.php
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #151 on: October 21, 2017, 12:47:44 AM »
Portuguese kids hit climate lawsuit crowdfunding milestone

Following the second bout of deadly forest fires this year, seven children are preparing to sue for stronger climate action through the European Court of Human Rights
http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/10/19/portuguese-kids-hit-climate-lawsuit-crowdfunding-milestone/
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #152 on: November 08, 2017, 08:24:29 PM »
Green group, children sue Trump over climate change policies
Quote
An environmental group and two Pennsylvania children have sued the Trump administration over the federal government’s approach to climate change.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Pennsylvania, alleges the U.S. is using “junk science” to roll back policies designed to limit the impact of climate change.

It comes from the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council and two “child plaintiffs who have been personally impacted by climate change,” because one has asthma and another lived through Superstorm Sandy and Hurricane Irene.

They ask the court to stop the government from pushing “any rollbacks that increase the frequency and/or intensity of the life-threatening effects of climate change.”

“We will not stand idly by while President Trump and his agencies raze crucial environmental protections, ignore climate science, dispute well-documented facts and force future generations of Americans to suffer the consequences of this administration’s reckless choices and ignorant policies,” said Clean Air Council Executive Director and Chief Counsel Joseph Minott. ...
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/359015-green-group-children-sue-trump-over-climate-change-policies
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Tor Bejnar

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 4606
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 879
  • Likes Given: 826
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #153 on: November 14, 2017, 03:57:56 PM »
From the Cat 6 blog:
Quote
BarbaraGermany  • 3 hours ago
Peruvian farmer sues German energy giant for contributing to climate change
Saul Luciano Lliuya wants damages from RWE to protect hometown of
Huaraz from a swollen glacier lake at risk of overflowing from melting
snow and ice
Nov 14: https://www.theguardian.com...
Quote
A Peruvian farmer won a small but significant legal victory on Monday
 when a German court said his appeal against energy giant RWE, which he
accuses of contributing to climate change that is threatening his Andean
 home, had merit.
After hearing oral arguments from both sides, the higher regional
court in the western city of Hamm said Saul Luciano Lliuya’s demand for
damages from RWE was “admissible”, paving the way for the case to
proceed. ...
Arctic ice is healthy for children and other living things because "we cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice"

sesyf

  • New ice
  • Posts: 61
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 8
  • Likes Given: 85
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #154 on: November 14, 2017, 08:17:12 PM »

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #155 on: November 17, 2017, 06:17:03 PM »
On Dec 11 2017 a federal appeals court will hear arguments as to whether to allow the Youth Climate Change Lawsuit to proceed to trial.

Title: "Appeals Court Takes Up Youth Climate Change Lawsuit Against Trump"

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17112017/climate-change-lawsuit-kids-donald-trump-administration-our-childrens-trust

Extract: "A federal appeals court announced that it will hear oral arguments on December 11 on whether a groundbreaking climate change lawsuit brought by 21 children and young adults against the Trump administration can proceed to trial.

The country's most powerful fossil fuel lobbies, which had voluntarily intervened in the case and fought to have it dismissed, took the unusual step earlier this year of asking a federal judge for permission to withdraw from the lawsuit. A judge granted their request.

The Justice Department declined to comment on the latest development.

The plaintiffs in Juliana argue that the federal government has known for at least 50 years that combustion of fossil fuels adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere and changes the climate. Because it chose not to limit fossil fuel use and cut greenhouse gases, the government violated the plaintiffs' right to protection from environmental degradation under the trust doctrine, the suit alleges.

Federal Judge Ann Aiken of the Oregon District will hear the case if the appeals court allows it to go to trial. Aiken and a colleague filed a letter with the appeals court that said they do not believe the federal government would be "irreversibly damaged" by the discovery process, and that the lawsuit is "a complex case involving vital interests on both sides.""
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #156 on: December 11, 2017, 06:16:46 PM »
More on the Juliana case:

“The Trump Administration argues that the government could actually render the climate incapable of sustaining human life without violating the Constitution. It’s a claim as chilling as it is extraordinary; and it should be rejected.”

Here’s what’s at stake for the 21 kids suing the Trump administration over climate change
https://thinkprogress.org/youth-climate-trial-ninth-circuit-preview-2b2979cbb7ed/

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #157 on: December 11, 2017, 08:09:19 PM »
Video of the oral arguments for Juliana vs. The United States is here:

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #158 on: December 12, 2017, 05:57:48 PM »
More on the Juliana case:

“The Trump Administration argues that the government could actually render the climate incapable of sustaining human life without violating the Constitution. It’s a claim as chilling as it is extraordinary; and it should be rejected.”

As noted, the Trump Administration says that young people do not have a constitutional right to protection from climate change impacts and has request a halt to Juliana v. United States.  To me that is like saying that withholding medical treatment does not violate prisoner's constitutional right (Eighth Amendment) to freedom from 'cruel and unusual punishment'.

Title: "21 young Americans may score the biggest climate action victory in years"

http://mashable.com/2017/12/11/youth-climate-case-appeals-court/#e6l2PToHkOqS

Extract: "The case, known as Juliana v. United States, was  scheduled to go to trial in Oregon beginning on Feb. 5. That court date has been postponed due to a rare request from the federal government to have an Appeals Court step in and halt the proceedings.

However, questions from the three-judge Appeals Court panel to the Justice Department indicated they are skeptical of the need to review the District Court's decision. The Justice Department argued that this case, which seeks a remedy involving government action to address global warming, is "unprecedented" for its claims and broad scope, among other factors.   

Among the issues to be determined at trial is whether the government's actions — including its use of federal lands for energy extraction over the past several decades (the years when scientists' understanding of global warming solidified) — violated the plaintiff's constitutional rights."
“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #159 on: December 26, 2017, 09:00:30 PM »
The attorney who won a $200 billion settlement from tobacco companies in the 90s has set his sights on an even bigger target.
Quote
[Steve] Berman is best known, though, for suing big tobacco in the 1990s. At the end of that fight, he helped negotiate a $206 billion settlement from cigarette makers like Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, and Brown & Williamson for causing cancer. It remains the largest legal settlement of its kind in history.

But Berman is now working on a lawsuit that could be even bigger: He is suing five of the world’s most powerful oil companies for causing climate change. He represents Oakland and San Francisco in a lawsuit filed last September demanding that Exxon, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and BP pay billions for sea walls and other defenses against ocean rise. ...
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/43qw3j/meet-the-lawyer-trying-to-make-big-oil-pay-for-climate-change
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #160 on: February 14, 2018, 06:32:34 PM »
‘I’m Just More Afraid of Climate Change Than I Am of Prison’
How a group of five activists called the Valve Turners decided to fight global warming by doing whatever it takes.
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/02/13/magazine/afraid-climate-change-prison-valve-turners-global-warming.html
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #161 on: February 15, 2018, 04:57:11 PM »
U.S. Court Sides with Arctic Seals Losing Their Sea Ice Habitat to Climate Change
Quote
A federal appeals court ruled on Monday that Arctic ringed seals must be protected under the Endangered Species Act because of their reliance on the sea ice, which is rapidly disappearing as the planet warms.

The seals—named for the light-colored circles that dot their coats—build lairs on the surface of the sea ice to birth and protect their young. That puts them, like other species that rely on the ice, in a precarious position as it vanishes.

"This major victory gives ringed seals vital protections in the face of climate change and melting sea ice," said Kristen Monsell, an attorney from the Center for Biological Diversity who argued the case.

Protecting the seals means guarding their habitat, and that could impinge on oil and gas operations along Alaska's waters, which the state relies on for revenue. The protected status comes with a requirement that the federal government designate areas as "critical habitat" for the seals. That could complicate efforts by the industry—and by the state and federal government—to increase development in the area. ...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13022018/climate-change-arctic-ringed-seal-endangered-species-act-court-ruling-sea-ice-habitat-alaska
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #162 on: March 07, 2018, 06:51:47 PM »
“This will be the closest that we have seen to a trial on climate science in the United States, to date.”

U.S. Federal court will hold first-ever hearing on climate change science
Quote
“At the core of the plaintiff’s lawsuit is the idea that these companies have long known about risks of their products ... yet they took a course of action that resisted regulation and sought to keep them on the market as long as possible,” said Burger, the Columbia climate law expert.

By contrast, the fossil fuels companies will likely emphasize the uncertainty that existed as climate science evolved, and how they needed “to act in the best interests of their shareholders,” given the uncertainty, he added.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/national/article203842084.html
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Archimid

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 3511
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 899
  • Likes Given: 206
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #163 on: March 13, 2018, 02:41:13 AM »

Alsup (the judge in one of the lawsuits against fossil fuel companies) asks for answers

http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2018/03/alsup-asks-for-answers/

Quote
Some of you might have read about the lawsuit by a number of municipalities (including San Francisco and Oakland) against the major oil companies for damages (related primarily to sea level rise) caused by anthropogenic climate change. The legal details on standing, jurisdiction, etc. are all very interesting (follow @ColumbiaClimate for those details), but somewhat uniquely, the judge (William Alsup) has asked for a tutorial on climate science (2 hours of evidence from the plaintiffs and the defendents). Furthermore, he has posted a list of eight questions that he’d like the teams to answer.


Alsup’s Questions:(Great proposed answers in the article)

What caused the various ice ages (including the “little ice age” and prolonged cool periods) and what caused the ice to melt? When they melted, by how much did sea level rise?

What is the molecular difference by which CO2 absorbs infrared radiation but oxygen and nitrogen do not?

What is the mechanism by which infrared radiation trapped by CO2 in the atmosphere is turned into heat and finds its way back to sea level?

Does CO2 in the atmosphere reflect any sunlight back into space such that the reflected sunlight never penetrates the atmosphere in the first place?

Apart from CO2, what happens to the collective heat from tail pipe exhausts, engine radiators, and all other heat from combustion of fossil fuels? How, if at all, does this collective heat contribute to warming of the atmosphere?

In grade school, many of us were taught that humans exhale CO2 but plants absorb CO2 and return oxygen to the air (keeping the carbon for fiber). Is this still valid? If so, why hasn’t plant life turned the higher levels of CO2 back into oxygen? Given the increase in human population on Earth (four billion), is human respiration a contributing factor to the buildup of CO2?

What are the main sources of CO2 that account for the incremental buildup of CO2 in the atmosphere?

What are the main sources of heat that account for the incremental rise in temperature on Earth?
I am an energy reservoir seemingly intent on lowering entropy for self preservation.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #164 on: March 20, 2018, 05:11:43 PM »
California cases:

Climate Legal Paradox: Judges Issue Dueling Rulings for Cities Suing Fossil Fuel Companies
One federal judge ruled three city cases belong in state court. Another, in the same California courthouse, says federal court is the proper home for two others.
Quote
There's no apparent legal reason the conflict between the rulings will have to be resolved.

"For the time being, it appears the two sets of cases will proceed on different tracks," said Vic Sher, one of the lead attorneys for the law firm of Sher Edling representing Marin and San Mateo counties and the City of Imperial Beach. "Both sets of cases could succeed—or fail—for many different reasons."
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/19032018/california-climate-change-cities-lawsuits-sea-level-rise-exxon-chevron-shell-chhabria-alsup-rulings
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #165 on: March 21, 2018, 03:48:00 PM »
“.@grist’s own @SavorTooth is live-tweeting from the San Francisco courtroom where climate science is on trial today:”   https://twitter.com/SavorTooth/status/976465790739206147.

https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/status/976467267956498432

Edit:
“Others live tweeting at this court hearing on climate science: @AlyssaJohl @amywestervelt @debmoore_UCS @debra_kahn “
https://twitter.com/HunterCutting/status/976472157805948928
« Last Edit: March 21, 2018, 05:15:59 PM by Sigmetnow »
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #166 on: March 22, 2018, 02:27:47 PM »
Review of the San Francisco judicial presentations.

In the Courtroom, Climate Science Needs Substance—and Style
Quote
Chevron would like you to know that it believes in climate change. It also believes people cause it by burning carbon-based fuel—the kind Chevron extracts from the ground, refines, and sells. In fact, Chevron believes all this so hard that today its lawyer said so, in a federal court in San Francisco. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change? Yup. They’re right.

That’s not as up-is-down as it might sound; Chevron representatives have said as much before. The follow-up questions, though, will be the tricky part. Because what was at stake in that courtroom was not whether the effects of climate change—sea level rise, ocean acidification, weather extremes, wildfires, disease outbreaks—are people’s fault. It was whether a lawsuit could show that specific effects (floods) are specific people’s fault. Specifically, the people at Chevron.

...and BP and ExxonMobil, because San Francisco and Oakland are suing those companies for money to build seawalls and other protective infrastructure. The idea isn’t just that petrochemical transnationals extract, produce, and sell the fuel that puts carbon into the atmosphere. It’s that they knew that was bad, kept doing it anyway, and cut ads and marketing that tried to convince people it wasn’t a problem. ...
https://www.wired.com/story/courtroom-climate-science/


Style... ;D
“Judge Alsup ends the climate science tutorial showing off his ‘science tie’ with images of earth, sun, galaxies.
I ❤️ Science”
https://twitter.com/debmoore_UCS/status/976561338129440768
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Rob Dekker

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 2386
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 120
  • Likes Given: 119
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #167 on: March 25, 2018, 09:36:32 AM »
Chevron’s lawyer, speaking for major oil companies, says climate change is real and it’s your fault
...
Anthropogenic emissions are driven by things like population size, economic activities, lifestyle, energy use, land use patterns, and technology and climate policy, according to the IPCC. “The IPCC does not say it’s the extraction and production of oil,” Boutrous said. “It’s economic activity that creates the demand for energy and that leads to emissions.”
....
There is a thing known as systemic causation that's worth knowing about and seeing how that fits or doesn't fit this legal case.

And where Boutrous and you go wrong is that emissions are not "systemic" to economic activity.
Emissions are caused by fossil fuel burning (and a bit of land use).
Stop the fossil fuel burning and you stop the emissions. Plain and simple.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2018, 09:42:26 AM by Rob Dekker »
This is our planet. This is our time.
Let's not waste either.

Rob Dekker

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 2386
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 120
  • Likes Given: 119
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #168 on: March 26, 2018, 09:29:09 AM »
Rob. And where Boutrous and you go wrong is that emissions are not "systemic" to economic activity.

How sure are you of that statement?

It's called physics.
Quote
Emissions are caused by fossil fuel burning (and a bit of land use).
Stop the fossil fuel burning and you stop the emissions. Plain and simple.
This is our planet. This is our time.
Let's not waste either.

Archimid

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 3511
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 899
  • Likes Given: 206
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #169 on: March 26, 2018, 03:33:57 PM »
Quote
“The IPCC does not say it’s the extraction and production of oil,” Boutrous said. “It’s economic activity that creates the demand for energy and that leads to emissions.”


That is true, but only because the lies of Fossil Fuel interests made it so. If 30 years ago we would've listen to the great minds that tried to warn us about global warming, emissions would no longer be tied to economic development.

If all our energy came from non emitting sources the economy could grow without increasing emissions. That was already proven by the growth of the economy from 2014-1016 that was not matched by emission growth.

Please remember, Fossil Fuel companies have known of the dangers of CO2 from day one. So from day one they have deceived the citizens of the world, but have been careful to retain plausible deniability of their fraud. They had to because they knew that eventually the rate of disaster might come back to bite them.

The whole "economic activity leads to emissions" thing is a fallacy. A fallacy design on purpose and with fake evidence to back it up.

In fact a truthful argument can be made that the reason climate change science has advanced to the levels it has to day is because of fossil fuel backing of good climate science through out the years. Their fallacious argument in court will be that they advanced climate science, but that's only half the truth.

They knew they could fund research that favored climate change because there are more powerful forces than research, like propaganda. With the weak hand they fund AGU and other legitimate science. With the strong hand they wield the propaganda machine and political influence. One hand provides them the legal cover they need to retain their blood ridden profits, and with the other they ensure their blood ridden profits keep coming in.
I am an energy reservoir seemingly intent on lowering entropy for self preservation.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #170 on: March 28, 2018, 04:51:04 PM »
U.S.:  Powder River Basin

Quote
GREAT FALLS, Mont. – On Friday, a federal court found a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) plan allowing coal mining and oil and gas drilling on over 15 million acres of public land and mineral rights in Montana and Wyoming to be unlawful. The court found that BLM failed to consider alternatives to BLM’s unfettered coal, oil, and gas leasing that would reduce impacts to air, land, water, wildlife, and the global climate. The case was brought by a coalition of conservation groups in Montana and Wyoming. ...
https://westernlaw.org/court-rejects-blm-plans-mine-10-billion-tons-coal-install-thousands-oil-gas-wells-15-million-acres-powder-river-basin/
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #171 on: March 28, 2018, 06:40:15 PM »
A Boston judge just acquitted 13 pipeline protesters on the grounds that the climate crisis made it necessary for them to commit civil disobedience.

The Boston climate trial that might have been
Climate activist Marla Marcum and others were poised to test a 'necessity defense'
Quote
The prospect of a jury trial was rendered moot when prosecutors reduced the defendants’ charges from criminal misdemeanors to civil infractions (like a parking violation). Interestingly, the decision came after the prosecutors saw the list of expert witnesses prepared to testify for the defense—folks like world-renowned climate scientist James Hansen, former head of NASA’s Goddard Institute, and [Bill] McKibben.

Not to be dissuaded, Judge Driscoll went ahead and found the defendants “not responsible” for the infractions—“by reason of necessity.” That decision in itself may be unprecedented, but it hardly carries the same weight as a jury’s verdict in a criminal trial.
...

“The community that was fighting this pipeline jumped through all the regulatory hoops. The Boston City Council unanimously opposed this pipeline. The city of Boston is still in federal court, having sued FERC, asking them to reconsider the permit. Congressman Lynch was out in the streets with us a number of times. Senator Markey and Senator Warren have been vocally opposed to the construction of this pipeline. The state senator and the state representative for the folks in West Roxbury were actively opposed. Every elected official representing West Roxbury—except for Charlie Baker, the governor—was in active, ongoing opposition to this pipeline for years, and it didn’t matter. The community was against it. It didn’t matter.” ...
https://commonwealthmagazine.org/opinion/the-boston-climate-trial-that-might-have-been/
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #172 on: April 01, 2018, 06:23:10 PM »
California Bans Climate-Warming HFCs in New Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration
The state’s move follows a court ruling that EPA lacks authority to regulate the potent greenhouse gases. Industry leaders had supported an HFCs phase-out.
Quote
The federal government may be walking back regulations on the climate-warming chemicals used in refrigeration and air conditioning, but the state of California isn't.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) adopted a regulation last week that prohibits the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), chemicals that are between 1,000 and 3,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The decision follows a federal court ruling in August 2017 that found the EPA did not have the authority to regulate HFCs.

"The Board's action today preserves the federal limits on the use of these powerful chemicals and refrigerants and provides more certainty to industry," said CARB Chair Mary D. Nichols. "We applaud the actions of many industries, which already have made significant investments in developing and using more climate-friendly alternatives to the high-global warming HFCs." ...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/30032018/california-hfc-ban-short-lived-climate-pollutants-global-warming-refrigerators-air-conditioners
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #173 on: April 01, 2018, 06:25:52 PM »
Federal judge rejects Exxon challenge to two state climate fraud probes
Quote
A federal judge dismissed Exxon’s lawsuit attempting to stop investigations by two state attorneys general into potential climate fraud by the company, which the company claimed are politically motivated and in violation of its Constitutional rights.

Ruling that Exxon’s allegations against Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman are “implausible” and brought “on the basis of extremely thin allegations and speculative inferences,” U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni dismissed the suit with prejudice on Thursday.

In the suit, Exxon claimed the investigations are an abuse of the AGs’ political positions and violated the oil giant’s First, Fourth and Fourteenth amendment rights. The case was first filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in June 2016, but was transferred to New York last year.

In Thursday’s decision, Caproni called Exxon’s allegations that the investigations are politically motivated a “wild stretch of logic.”

She wrote that the company’s claims all centered around a single press conference and a handful of meetings with climate activists. Caproni said the company relied on a narrative that was “the result of cherry-picking snippets from the transcript of the press conference.”
...
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/03/29/exxon-climate-fraud-lawsuit-ny-mass-schneiderman-healey/
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #174 on: April 05, 2018, 10:00:19 PM »
BREAKING NEWS! Colombia's Supreme Court has issued a historic decision in the landmark #climaterights lawsuit brought by 25 youth. Court has ordered the Colombian govt to protect the Amazon from deforestation. Decision in Spanish below @ClimateLawNews @youthvgov @CJ_Greenpeace
https://twitter.com/AlyssaJohl/status/981966598738235392
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #175 on: April 08, 2018, 01:12:12 AM »
“Following is a summary of the major legal battles pitting Exxon and the oil and gas industry against American states and cities, and environmentally inspired young people against the government.

This timeline will be updated as events unfold.

Fossil Fuels on Trial: Where the Major Climate Change Lawsuits Stand Today
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04042018/climate-change-fossil-fuel-company-lawsuits-timeline-exxon-children-california-cities-attorney-general
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sleepy

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1202
  • Retired, again...
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 120
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #176 on: April 13, 2018, 09:31:57 AM »
Haven't followed this thread but this should fit in here.
Environmental laws does not protect nature, they give us the right to consume it.

Kira Allmann from the University of Oxford, interviewing Mari Margil from CELDF.
When Human Rights Are Not Enough: Defending the Rights of Nature.
https://soundcloud.com/oxhrh/rightsup-rightnow-defending-the-rights-of-nature
Omnia mirari, etiam tritissima.
-
Science is a jealous mistress and takes little account of a man's feelings.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #177 on: April 15, 2018, 01:02:10 AM »
“Now Exxon must come forward with the truth, what it knew about climate change, when, and what it told the world. The people of Massachusetts—and people everywhere—deserve answers.”

Massachusetts climate investigation of Exxon can proceed, court rules
Quote
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has cleared the way for state Attorney General Maura Healey’s investigation against Exxon to proceed, rejecting the company’s challenge to her probe into possible climate change-related deception.

In a 32-page decision issued Friday, the court affirmed a lower court decision compelling Exxon to comply with the investigation and turn over documents related to the impact of its products on climate change. The court also rejected a petition by Exxon asserting that Healey does not have jurisdiction over the company.

During oral arguments in December, an attorney for the oil giant claimed it did not sell gasoline in Massachusetts and said that individual franchises, not Exxon, are responsible for local advertising. Exxon also claimed its advertisements target a nationwide audience and don’t specifically target Massachusetts residents.

The court didn’t buy either argument, ruling that “through its control over franchisee advertising, Exxon communicates directly with Massachusetts consumers about its fossil fuel products.” ...
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/04/13/exxon-climate-maura-healey-massachusetts/
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Ranman99

  • Frazil ice
  • Posts: 117
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 26
  • Likes Given: 8
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #178 on: April 15, 2018, 11:30:41 PM »


Lots of this stuff around. I noted some time ago a vid from Chevron. In that vid it mentioned a certain number for cars globally. I noted at the time there are the same number of cars today in China alone as the number that was quoted.

From the 100KM view it is all over the cliff. The one topic of conversation. Too many people. Concerned more about their stuff than life. This species has amused itself to death!!! (Great Album BTW glad to have shared these years with Roger Waters ;-)

Ciao,
😎

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #179 on: April 16, 2018, 11:59:43 PM »
Kids are suing Gov. Rick Scott to force Florida to take action on climate change
Quote
Florida Gov. Rick Scott doesn't talk about climate change.

He notoriously declared "I'm not a scientist" when asked his thoughts on humanity's well-documented impact on the warming planet, banned the phrase in his administration (a charge he denies) and backed up President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris accord.

On Monday, an unusual group sued Scott for ignoring the climate threat: Kids.

Eight young Florida residents — the youngest is 10, the oldest is 20, and one is a University of Miami marine science student— are the named plaintiffs in a lawsuit that seeks to force a state extremely vulnerable to climate-driven sea rise to start work on a court-ordered, science-based "Climate Recovery Plan."
...
In the suit, Reynolds and her lawyers accuse Scott and his administration of rolling back or failing to implement any legislation aimed at measuring or cutting back on carbon emissions, as well as ignoring the threat of rising seas on the state's coasts, which provide the economic engine for the tourism-dependent state. ...
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/environment/article208967284.html
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #180 on: April 24, 2018, 03:07:06 PM »
Re: the California federal cases.

Republican AGs File Brief Opposing Climate Liability Suits
Quote
More than a dozen Republican state attorneys general filed a brief urging a federal court to dismiss two California cities’ climate change liability suits.

The officials filed a friend-of-the-court brief last week in support of dismissing San Francisco and Oakland’s case against five oil companies in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Among the attorneys general signing the brief was Cynthia Coffman of Colorado, where the nation’s first inland climate liability cases were filed last week in state court.

Coffman and the other attorneys general are part of a group that has repeatedly sued the Environmental Protection Agency over enforcement and climate-related actions. That group included Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt until he became EPA chief last year. ...
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/04/23/climate-liability-suits-republican-ags/
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #181 on: April 25, 2018, 01:31:37 AM »
U.S.:
Pipeline protesters can mount unusual ‘necessity defense’ based on climate change, judge rules
Quote
Four protesters can present an unusual “necessity defense” against criminal charges stemming from efforts to shut down two Enbridge Energy oil pipelines, the Minnesota Court of Appeals ruled Monday.

Emily Johnston and Annette Klapstein acknowledge that they turned the emergency shut-off valves on two pipelines on Oct. 11, 2016, in Clearwater County of northwestern Minnesota. It was part of a coordinated action by Climate Direct Action activists to shut down five pipelines that carry tar sands crude from Canada to the Unites States in Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana and Washington state. A total of 11 activists were charged.

But the two Seattle-area women, as well as two defendants who filmed them, are the only ones who have been given permission to present a full necessity defense. They want to tell jurors that the threat of climate change from Canadian tar sands crude — which contains more climate-damaging carbon than other forms of oil — is so imminent that they were justified and had no legal alternatives. They plan to call expert witnesses who will back them up. ...
https://www.twincities.com/2018/04/23/minnesota-court-allows-pipeline-protesters-to-mount-unusual-defense/
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #182 on: May 02, 2018, 02:18:32 AM »
The Case for Climate Reparations
Who should pay the costs for climate-change-related disasters?
Quote
After Superstorm Sandy walloped New York City in 2012, many people were careful not to attribute the storm's strength to human actions. That uncertainty is evaporating under the glare of a hot new sky. Climatologists report that record-breaking heat and strong winds intensified the disastrous 2017 Northern California wildfires. A few weeks before, San Francisco had posted an unprecedented September high of 106°F. On the first night of the fires, the Diablo winds were clocked at a hurricane-force 79 miles per hour. The record rainfall during Hurricane Harvey (one Texas community measured 51 inches) was three times more likely to occur than it would have been during a storm a century earlier. In December, the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society issued a first-ever report linking extreme weather events to climate change.

Quote
The Carbon Barons are guilty not only of fraud but also of reckless negligence, of failing to use their early knowledge about climate change risks to shift the direction of human affairs. You can decide not to indulge in luxury emissions like a trip to Europe, but such abstinence will do almost nothing to reduce global warming. The Carbon Barons are in a different position. When they learned that their products could be catastrophic, they had the ability to intervene in the course of history. They possessed the scientific awareness, the economic might, and the political influence to have avoided climate chaos.

And they chose not to. ...
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2018-3-may-june/feature/the-case-for-climate-reparations
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

ivica

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1475
  • Kelele
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 99
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #183 on: May 24, 2018, 09:36:08 PM »
"People's Climate Case": Families Sue EU Demanding More Ambitious Action to Combat Climate Crisis

"If it is recognized by the court that climate protection is a human rights issue, then climate protection can be activated in the courts of all other jurisdictions in the world."

From the comment section: "We need a class action suit."

< Corp Democrats prostituted democracy and betrayed humanity. >

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #184 on: May 28, 2018, 03:19:59 PM »
More on the case in the EU:

'We can't see a future': group takes EU to court over climate change
Litigants from eight countries claim EU institutions are not protecting fundamental rights
Quote
Lawyers acting for a group including a French lavender farmer and members of the indigenous Sami community in Sweden have launched legal action against the EU’s institutions for failing to adequately protect them against climate change.

A case is being pursued in the Luxembourg-based general court, Europe’s second highest, against the European parliament and the council of the European Union for allowing overly high greenhouse gas emissions to continue until 2030.

The families, including young children, claim their lives have been blighted by the policy decisions in Brussels, and that the EU’s inadequate emissions targets will cause more suffering.

The legal complaint asserts that the EU’s existing climate target to reduce domestic greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030, compared with 1990 levels, does not protect their fundamental rights of life, health, occupation and property.

The litigants, from Portugal, Germany, France, Italy, Romania, Kenya, Fiji, and the Swedish Sami Youth Association Sáminuorra, say the EU should define a higher reduction target. ...
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/24/families-take-eu-court-climate-change-emissions
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #185 on: June 06, 2018, 04:26:28 PM »
U.S.:  Judge Orders EPA to Produce Science behind Pruitt’s Warming Claims
The EPA head has suggested humans are not the main cause of climate change
Quote
Not long after he took over as EPA administrator, Pruitt appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” where he was asked about carbon dioxide and climate change. He said, “I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see.”

The next day, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking the studies Pruitt used to make his claims. Specifically, the group requested “EPA documents that support the conclusion that human activity is not the largest factor driving global climate change.”

On Friday, the chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Beryl Howell, ordered the agency to comply. ...
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/judge-orders-epa-to-produce-science-behind-pruitts-warming-claims/
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #186 on: June 20, 2018, 03:55:38 AM »
Colorado lawsuit says oil companies conspired to deceive public on climate
Quote
The three Colorado communities that filed a climate liability lawsuit against ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy have added a conspiracy allegation to the complaint, which describes attempts by the two companies to deceive the public about the impact of fossil fuels on the climate.

The amendment came two months after the city and county of Boulder, along with the County of San Miguel, first filed suit to seek a yet-specified amount of money to compensate for the damage caused by climate change. The communities are demanding the oil companies pay for efforts to adapt to and minimize the impact of climate change, which includes more severe wildfires, drought, floods, loss of mountain snowpack and pest-infested forests. The communities contend that Exxon and Suncor deliberately misled the public by failing to disclose the climate impact of fossil fuels. According to the lawsuit, both companies knew in the 1960s that they were selling goods that are the major drivers of global warming and cause public harm.

The added conspiracy claim is meant to highlight company actions that were already in the initial complaint, said Marco Simons, legal counsel for EarthRights International, an advocacy group that is providing legal support for the communities. If the new allegation is found true in court, it can make each company liable for the other’s conduct, he said. ...
https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/06/19/colorado-climate-lawsuit-exxon-suncor/
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #187 on: June 27, 2018, 01:21:40 PM »
San Francisco and Oakland, California

2 Cities’ Climate Cases Over Fossil Fuels Dismissed, But That’s Not the End of It
The federal judge called the dangers of climate change 'very real', but said the issue should be solved by Congress. State judges may see things differently.
Quote
A federal judge in California has dismissed lawsuits by San Francisco and Oakland that sought to hold the fossil fuel industry financially responsible for the global warming damages related to rising sea levels.

Even though he called the dangers of climate change "very real" and noted that fossil fuel companies did not dispute that the burning of their products causes it, U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup said the issue should be handled by Congress and by treaty, not in a federal liability lawsuit.

"The problem deserves a solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a district judge or jury in a public nuisance case," Alsup wrote in a 16-page opinion issued Monday.

While the ruling gave the fossil fuel companies what they wanted in this case, it's just one of several similar lawsuits brought by U.S. cities and counties. Alsup's ruling put the other cases in the spotlight, especially those before  California state courts, where the law is friendlier to municipal plaintiffs. ...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26062018/california-cities-climate-change-lawsuits-dismissed-fossil-fuels-industry-rising-sea-levels
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #188 on: July 03, 2018, 03:04:55 AM »
U.S.:  Rhode Island Sues Oil Companies Over Climate Change, First State to Do So
The lawsuit blames the burning of fossil fuels for contributing to sea level rise, extreme weather and warming oceans. The state's already seeing coastal damage.
Quote
Rhode Island on Monday became the first state to sue oil companies over the effects of climate change, filing a complaint seeking damages for the costs associated with protecting the state from rising seas and severe weather.

Standing atop a seawall in Narragansett, state Attorney General Peter F. Kilmartin compared the case to the lawsuits filed decades ago against tobacco companies and said it would hold the companies—including ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP and Royal Dutch Shell—accountable for harm they have caused.

"Big oil knew for decades that greenhouse gas pollution from their operations and their products were having a significant and detrimental impact on the earth's climate," he said. "Instead of working to reduce that harm, these companies chose to conceal the dangers, undermine public support for greenhouse gas regulation and engage in massive campaigns to promote the ever increasing use of their products and ever increasing revenues in their pockets."
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02072018/rhode-island-climate-change-lawsuit-fossil-fuel-industry-rising-sea-levels-heat-waves-storms
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Tor Bejnar

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 4606
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 879
  • Likes Given: 826
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #189 on: July 20, 2018, 08:34:34 PM »
[US Supreme Court nominee] Kavanaugh and the environment 

Quote
As in many other areas, [just retired] Justice Anthony Kennedy was the swing vote in environmental cases, lining up in the middle of his more reliably conservative and liberal peers. His proposed replacement, Judge Brett Kavanaugh, has exhibited a very clear track record of relative solicitousness to regulated industry and skepticism to environmental interests. These instincts will likely place him to the right of Chief Justice John Roberts in environmental cases, shifting Roberts to the center of the court. As a consequence, we can expect that a Kavanaugh confirmation would usher in a court that is considerably less sympathetic to environmental protections. This new alignment may have particularly profound effects in the coming years in litigation involving greenhouse gas emissions and federal jurisdiction over water pollution.

When the Supreme Court decides environmental cases, its primary role is in defining the scope of agency authority under one of the major environmental statutes (such as the Clean Water Act) or passing on the legality of an agency action. Because of the specificity of many environmental cases — interpreting the language in one provision of a long and complex statute or examining the administrative record that supports a particular agency decision — the doctrines that arise in environmental cases are typically fairly contained. Where they have more general applicability, it is often because they are intertwined with other questions, such as administrative law issues.
...
This is why I vote
  • environment first
  • supreme court second
  • social concerns third
Arctic ice is healthy for children and other living things because "we cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice"

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #190 on: July 20, 2018, 09:45:19 PM »
“BREAKING: A district court just dismissed New York's climate lawsuit against five big oil companies.
"Global warming and solutions thereto must be addressed by the two other branches of government."
https://mobile.twitter.com/zhirji28/status/1020041565874647058
Images below.

People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #191 on: July 24, 2018, 12:27:20 AM »
U.S.:  Baltimore, Maryland

Baltimore Sues 26 Fossil Fuels Companies Over Climate Change
The city’s waterfront revitalization has become a model for urban development, but sea level rise and extreme weather are putting its future at risk.
Quote
Baltimore has brought billions of dollars of investment to its waterfront, transforming the Inner Harbor into a model of urban revitalization over the past half century. But rising seas are now putting that investment at risk, and the city wants to hold the fossil fuel industry responsible.

On Friday, the city sued 26 fossil fuel companies, seeking to hold them financially accountable for the threats posed by climate change. Baltimore Solicitor Andre M. Davis said that the companies knew for decades that the use of their products was warming the atmosphere and could have grave consequences, but that they failed to take steps to reduce that harm.

"Baltimore's residents, workers and businesses shouldn't have to pay for the damage knowingly caused by these companies," he said at a news conference with Mayor Catherine Pugh.

Baltimore is seeking compensation for protecting the city from the impacts of climate change, as well as punitive damages and an order that the companies relinquish some of their profits for allegedly misleading the public and policymakers about the harms posed by their products. It asks that the amount of damages be determined in a trial.

What's Different from NYC's Dismissed Case?
Baltimore is the latest in a growing list of more than a dozen cities, counties and states that have sued fossil fuel companies over climate change in the past year. Its lawsuit also comes less than 24 hours after a federal judge dismissed a similar case in New York City.

Davis said a key difference is that, unlike New York's case, Baltimore's is in state court.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/20072018/baltimore-climate-change-lawsuit-inner-harbor-coastal-flooding-sea-level-rise-urban-waterfront-revitalization
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #192 on: July 31, 2018, 12:14:10 AM »
U.S.:  the kids’ climate case

Supreme Court refuses Trump administration’s request to have climate lawsuit thrown out
Quote
A landmark climate case brought against the federal government by 21 children and young adults has survived the highest-level attempt by the Trump administration to block the lawsuit.

On Monday, the Supreme Court unanimously refused to throw out the case, saying it can go ahead as planned. The decision comes after the Justice Department went to the high court earlier this month in a last-ditch effort to have the case thrown out.

The landmark lawsuit, which seeks to compel the government to preserve a clean atmosphere, argues that the government is violating its obligation to future generations by not doing so.

In Monday’s decision — which came less than two weeks after the administration filed its request — the court rejected the administration’s attempt to block any further legal action, stating, “the government’s request for relief is premature and is denied without prejudice.”

In what legal experts have called groundbreaking climate litigation, the lawsuit seeks to hold the federal government accountable for its role in perpetuating climate change. A final decision could shape the future of climate litigation for years to come.

The case can now proceed to trial. It is currently scheduled for October 29 but this date could be pushed depending on how discovery goes. ...
https://thinkprogress.org/supreme-court-landmark-climate-lawsuit-against-trump-administration-can-go-forward-97f20d2f4696/amp/
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

sidd

  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 6774
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1047
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #193 on: October 20, 2018, 05:24:49 AM »
US Supreme  Court Chief Justice holds Oregon case:

"On Friday, October 19, Chief Justice John Roberts put discovery and the trial on hold until the plaintiffs respond to the government’s request and the justices can rule on that request. The plaintiffs’ response is due on Wednesday, October 24, at 3 p.m."

Order was in response to US government motion:

"The government is now back at the court, telling the justices that earlier this week the district court “declined to meaningfully narrow” the plaintiffs’ claims, instead rejecting various government motions that would have ended the case. The government is now asking the court to order the district court to “end this profoundly misguided suit” or, at the very least, review the district court’s rulings allowing the case to go forward; moreover, the government again urges, the Supreme Court should put discovery and the trial on hold while it considers these requests. There would be no real harm to the plaintiffs from doing so, the government stresses, because the plaintiffs are claiming that they have been harmed by the cumulative effects of carbon dioxide emissions over several decades."

Now plaintiffs must respond by 24th, and await Supreme's ruling.


http://www.scotusblog.com/2018/10/government-returns-in-climate-change-lawsuit/#more-276399

sidd


Sleepy

  • Nilas ice
  • Posts: 1202
  • Retired, again...
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 120
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #194 on: October 20, 2018, 07:55:04 AM »
Let's put climate change on hold.
Omnia mirari, etiam tritissima.
-
Science is a jealous mistress and takes little account of a man's feelings.

sidd

  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 6774
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1047
  • Likes Given: 0

Sigmetnow

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 25753
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1153
  • Likes Given: 430
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #196 on: October 29, 2018, 06:05:53 PM »
Fossil Fuels on Trial: Where the Major Climate Change Lawsuits Stand Today
Updated Oct. 24 with New York's attorney general suing Exxon. 
Quote
A wave of legal challenges that is washing over the oil and gas industry, demanding accountability for climate change, started as a ripple after revelations that ExxonMobil had long recognized the threat fossil fuels pose to the world.

Over the past few years: Two states launched fraud investigations into Exxon over climate change, and one has followed with a lawsuit. Nine cities and counties, from New York to San Francisco, have sued major fossil fuel companies, seeking compensation for climate change damages. And determined children have filed lawsuits against the federal government and various state governments, claiming the governments have an obligation to safeguard the environment.

The litigation, reinforced by science, has the potential to reshape the way the world thinks about energy production and the consequences of global warming. It advocates a shift from fossil fuels to sustainable energy and draws attention to the vulnerability of coastal communities and infrastructure to extreme weather and sea level rise. ...
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04042018/climate-change-fossil-fuel-company-lawsuits-timeline-exxon-children-california-cities-attorney-general
People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.

Juan C. García

  • Young ice
  • Posts: 3359
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1279
  • Likes Given: 1127
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #197 on: November 03, 2018, 01:50:04 AM »
Supreme Court refuses to block young people’s climate lawsuit against U.S. government

Quote
The Supreme Court Friday night refused to halt a novel lawsuit filed by young Americans that attempts to force the federal government to take action on climate change, turning down a request from the Trump administration to stop it before trial.
The suit, filed in 2015 by 21 young people who argue that the failure of government leaders to combat climate change violates their constitutional right to a clean environment, is before a federal judge in Oregon. It had been delayed while the Supreme Court considered the emergency request from the government.

Quote
“We’ve been confident throughout this case that we would get to trial, and I believe we will get to trial,” Julia Olson, the attorney for the youths and executive director of Our Children’s Trust, said in an interview with The Washington Post on Friday evening. “We have overcome everything the government has thrown at us. It is not luck. It is the strength of the case and the strength of the evidence and the strength of the legal arguments we are making.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-refuses-to-block-kids-climate-lawsuit-against-us-government/2018/11/02/34bd7ee6-d7af-11e8-83a2-d1c3da28d6b6_story.html?utm_term=.a1b6cc55ee4f
« Last Edit: November 03, 2018, 01:58:28 AM by Juan C. García »
Which is the best answer to Sep-2012 ASI lost (compared to 1979-2000)?
50% [NSIDC Extent] or
73% [PIOMAS Volume]

Volume is harder to measure than extent, but 3-dimensional space is real, 2D's hide ~50% thickness gone.
-> IPCC/NSIDC trends [based on extent] underestimate the real speed of ASI lost.

sidd

  • First-year ice
  • Posts: 6774
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 1047
  • Likes Given: 0
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #198 on: November 03, 2018, 04:29:41 AM »
scotusblog: supremes think the case might return, Thomas, Gorsuch wanna burn coal, no surprise.

http://www.scotusblog.com/2018/11/justices-refuse-to-block-climate-change-trial/

sidd

AbruptSLR

  • Multi-year ice
  • Posts: 19703
    • View Profile
  • Liked: 2268
  • Likes Given: 286
Re: Legal Approach to Climate Change Resolutions
« Reply #199 on: November 05, 2018, 10:02:28 PM »
Supreme Court refuses to block young people’s climate lawsuit against U.S. government

See also:

Title: " US Supreme Court allows historic kids' climate lawsuit to go forward:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07214-2?utm_source=briefing-dy&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=briefing&utm_content=20181105

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.”
― Leon C. Megginson