Flood Report: 3/17/17 - The Kids vs. U.S. Government

National Geographic profiles the "Kids vs. Climate Change" court case which is attempting to use the courts to force the U.S. government to take action on climate change. Some legal experts have called it a potentially historic court case, possibly the best chance to get the government to take drastic action.
"the federal government’s promotion of fossil fuel production and its indifference to the risks posed by greenhouse gas emissions have resulted in “a dangerous destabilizing climate system” that threatens the survival of future generations. That lapse violates, the court papers argue, their fundamental constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property. The lawsuit also argues that the government violated the public trust doctrine, a legal concept grounded in ancient law that holds the government is responsible for protecting public resources, such as land and water—or in this case, the climate system—for public use."
There are a number of interesting aspects to the court case. It was originally filed against the Obama Administration and is now proceeding under the Drumpf administration. The case won in a U.S. District Court. Interestingly, while the Obama Administration opposed it saying that climate change should be a matter resolved by the Executive branch and Congress (because it is a global problem requiring global solutions, thus beyond the scope of U.S. federal courts to resolve), it did not dispute any of the facts about climate change. In fact, it almost helped the plaintiffs' case by adding to the evidence that climate change was a problem. Thus it established no dispute on those grounds. It will be interesting to see how this lack of dispute might help the kids in court against Drumpf, who may try to take the dispute into the "is climate change a problem" realm. The court case may also attempt to force the Drumpf administration to retain previous information held by the U.S. government about climate change, because it relates to facts of the case.


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