Global warming has hit the courts: Victims of Hurricane Katrina have filed a class action lawsuit against large oil companies claiming that Big Oil’s “operation of energy, fossil fuels, and chemical industries in the U.S. caused the emission of greenhouse gasses that contributed to global warming,” according to documents reviewed by the AFP. The plaintiffs are residents of southern Mississippi, which was pretty much destroyed when Katrina came through.
The lawsuit isn’t new — the plaintiffs first first filed suit a couple weeks after the storm hit in August 2005, likely to avoid any statute of limitations issues — and when it was first filed, the district court tossed it out, ruling that the issue was “a debate which simply has no place in the court.” Three federal appeals court judges held in October of 2009 that the case could be heard — but now the court is demanding a new hearing, this time with nine judges.
These plaintiffs might have a case. They certainly have clear and provable damages — the storm annihilated entire towns in Mississippi. But the massive gaping IF in this lawsuit is the plaintiffs’ ability to draw a direct link between the damage caused to their lives and property, and the actions of Big Oil. Doing this involves decisively linking a load of other very difficult and full-of-variables items, including:
1) Proving that the storm was caused/exacerbated by global warming;
2) Proving that the damage was a direct result of this increase in the storm’s severity, and not the negligence of city, state, and federal officials who failed to build and maintain adequate infrastructure;
3) Proving that, if the storm WAS caused by global warming, Big Oil’s actions were a primary cause of said warming, as opposed to the myriad other causes of carbon emissions.
And on and on — you get the idea. Picture years of depositions, entire warehouses of documents, and utterly befuddled jurors who can’t really be expected to parse the nuances of climate science and politics (the two are hopelessly intertwined at this point - they can’t be separated). All of which adds up to collective time, money, and resources that might be better spent focused on rebuilding efforts and initiatives for alternative energy and emissions reduction.
There’s also the long-term effects to consider if the plaintiffs actually win — would it open the doors for every storm victim in the country to sue Shell and Chevron?
March 8th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Freedman makes an interesting point quoting the INTEL guy. (Oddly enough, LAX didn’t actually have anything to do with his article.) But he makes one big mistake. Semiconductors are last centuries news. We have just about squeezed every ounce of power out of silicone that we can. There is quite a bit of growth left in portable devices, but not 20 years of more growth. I hate to see any industry move to cheaper labour over seas, but that’s the way the global markets work.
On the other hand, what America DOES need to do, is follow the guys advice for another industry. Clean Energy. That is going to be the growth economy of the next 50 years as nations around the world turn off their dirty fossil fuel plants and look for alternatives. And that is a place where America desperately needs to get its act together, start investing, and start developing before we’re buying all of our clean energy tech from Europe and China as well. I’ld much rather them buy the tech from us.
But that won’t happen if we continue to prop up oil and coal with artificial, tax payer supported, cheap prices.
March 8th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
sorry, wrong article for the above post. Moderator: can I have a little help?
March 8th, 2010 at 1:31 pm
Sometimes one wishes we could unilaterally close American Law Schools for 20 years and let the overpopulation of the legal population work itself out, and having the ‘best and the brightest’ who are drawn to the legal field like moths to a bug zapper actually have to do something positive for society (same goes for the math PhDs who came up with derivatives!)
Could not these people go after all of the farmers in the Mississippi valley who have helped straighten the river and removed the ability of the Delta to replenish itself and keep from sinking into the Gulf? Sue the original land owners of the Ninth Ward who decided to sell the land as housing? The French for originally picking New Orleans position in the first place….why not the Saudis and Chavez for selling us the oil in teh first place.
Stupidity knows no bounds
March 8th, 2010 at 1:47 pm
While global warming is certainly anthropogenic in origin, there is no way to attribute individual events to global warming. It seems somewhat likely that global warming will increase both the frequency and intensity of hurricanes but the science is far from settled on this matter. The plaintiffs will have difficulty finding a reputable climate scientist to back up the theory that Katrina was definitively linked to global warming.
March 8th, 2010 at 1:49 pm
Can I sue the plaintiffs in the suit themselves for driving, breathing, etc., thus emiting CO2 which is supposedly causing me all kinds of trouble?
March 8th, 2010 at 4:03 pm
CJ: yes, it’s kind of a Hail Mary. On the other hand, just imagine the treasures we’ll find if the oil companies start getting subpoenas. How long do you think it will take to find the emails recommending hacking and burglarizing climate scientists?
March 9th, 2010 at 10:34 am
This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard and highlights the many problems with the legal system in America. People will sue for just about anything (one of the many reasons for high healthcare costs). Even if it can be proven that Big oil was directly responsible for actions to cause global warming to have intensified the storm (a difficult enough task to prove) its impossible to directly link it to hurricane Katrina and the path it took. Global warming doesn’t make storms hit cities built under sea level with levies that are not at full strength as opposed to other cities more able to withstand a hurricane of that magnitude.
This is a ridiculous waste of time and money and is a terrible example of “lawyers” exploiting a natural disaster for personal gain.
In the words of the Shakespeare “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”
March 10th, 2010 at 5:03 pm
The scientific malpractice is so complete I wouldn’t take judicial notice of global warming, anthropogenic or otherwise. I’m not trying to hijack the thread but at some point even Al Gore will realize it was all a crock. And anyway, I thought George Bush personally detonated the levees because he hates black people? Let’s keep our stories straight, people.
March 19th, 2010 at 2:29 am
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