As an American, I (and you) have a legal system for redress of grievances, both public and private. At its inception, such an excellent system was never before seen.
These days, however, its weaknesses are showing.
Take this case, filed by The Center on Race, Poverty and the Environment and the Native American Rights Fund
A tiny Alaska village eroding into the Chukchi Sea sued oil, power and coal companies Tuesday, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to global warming that threatens the community’s existence.
The city of Kivalina and a federally recognized tribe, the Alaska Native village of Kivalina, sued Exxon Mobil Corp. and eight other oil companies, plus 14 power companies and one coal company in a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco.
Kivalina is a traditional Inupiat Eskimo village of 391 about 625 miles northwest of Anchorage. It’s built on an 8-mile barrier reef between the Chukchi Sea and Kivalina River.
Sea ice traditionally protected the community, whose economy is based in part on salmon fishing plus subsistence hunting of whale, seal, walrus, and caribou. But sea ice that forms later and melts sooner because of higher temperatures has left the community unprotected from fall and winter storm waves and surges that lash coastal communities.
“We are seeing accelerated erosion because of the loss of sea ice,” City Administrator Janet Mitchell said in a statement. “We normally have ice starting in October, but now we have open water even into December so our island is not protected from the storms.”
Relocation costs have been estimated at $400 million or more.
They live on a sand bar and are wondering if that might be a “Bad Idea” only now?
No, they’ve lived on various sections of the bar for years and had to be previously relocated before
The tiny village of Kivalina, population 383, has been suffering the effects of storm related ocean erosion damage for many decades. Since the early 1990’s various state and federal agencies have been funding studies on how and where to best relocate the village. This is not the first relocation of the village though. In 1900, Kivalina was forced to pull up stakes and move to its current imperiled location.
Kivalina is not the only village in the area forced to move because of erosion and flooding. The nearby village of Shungnak, founded in 1899 was forced to move during the 1920s because of erosion and flooding. In May 1973, a flood inundated the entire village. The village of Buckland has moved its location at least five times and the village of Noorvik’s name literally translates as “a place that is moved to”.
The same cause to move last happened in 1900? I guess that their last excuse was probably all the Buffalo farts.
Frivolous lawsuits such as this can always be filed, but rarely do they get the laughing at they deserve from the bench. This one especially so, because the plaintiffs are accusing the corporations of “conspiring to create a false scientific debate about global warming to deceive the public”.
Always with the conspiracy theories. It couldn’t be that someone might not be convinced by the same flawed evidence that convinced the plaintiffs. No, it must that they believe in it but are so greedy as to not care. At least, common sense tells me that that is what would have to be proven before the accusations of conspiracy could go forward, though I’ll let those more legally inclined decipher it properly.
This case deserves to not only be laughed out of the courtroom, but to have the plaintiff’s legal team disbarred for bringing not evidence, but simple politically motivated opinion into the judicial system in order to extort money from a corporation.
Part Two tomorrow.
