This is quite something. Darn those Canucks. As we saw with his defense of eco-vandals in England, I wonder if Dr. James Hansen will rush to The Hague to testify for this one? And if by some furthest stretch of the imagination, this lawsuit is successful, what then? Will Pachauri use the spoils to whittle down the number of lifetimes if will take to erase his own carbon footprint? I wonder if Danny Bloom is related to omnipresent blog commenter, and Sierra Club representative, Steve Bloom? BTW Steve, we are still waiting, over a year now for your answer.
NOTE: The article below is reposted in entirety from the blog Northward Ho(t) The opinions are those of the author of that blog, Mitchel Anderson, not of myself nor of any WUWT contributor. – Anthony
Ballsy.
That is perhaps best word to describe a class action lawsuit filed this week in the International Criminal Court in The Hague in Holland against national governments refusing to act on reducing carbon emissions.
The suit was filed by climate activist Danny Bloom who is asking for “US$1 billion dollars in damages on behalf of future generations of human beings on Earth – if there are any”
No Joke
The lawsuit is specifically seeking damages from “all world leaders for intent to commit manslaughter against future generations of human beings by allowing murderous amounts of fossil fuels to be harvested, burned and sent into the atmosphere as CO2, causing possible apocalyptic harm to the Earth’s ecosystem and the very future of the human species.
The point of the suit of course is not to wring money out of carbon emitters, but to embarrass the legions of laggard governments in advance of upcoming international climate negotiations next month in Poland. According to Bloom, the legal action “is about trying to protect future generations of mankind, humankind, and a positive judgment in this case will help prod more people to take the issues of climate change and global warming more seriously. We fully intend to make all world leaders of today responsible for their actions in the present day and age.”
This case is a legal long shot no doubt, but Bloom’s team said “”it’s up to the court to decide whether this case has any merit. We fully expect the court to agree to at least hear the case and make a responsible and measured decision later.”
It would also be the first case of its kind to seek to act on behalf of future generations for the irresponsibility of their ancestors. The need to put world leaders on the hot seat is very real. International climate talks like the one happening next month in Poland have happening for over a decade yet global emissions just keep climbing. A recent report showed that in spite of international commitments, carbon emissions of 40 industrialized countries rose by 2.3 percent between 2000 and 2006.
That said, those countries that signed Kyoto saw their overall emissions fall by 17% below 1990. The disgraceful outlier among those nations is Canada, whose emissions ballooned by over 20% in spite of having ratifying Kyoto. Canada’s Prime Minister Harper has called Kyoto a “mistake” and he seems openly contemptuous of such international efforts to reduce greenhouse gases. Mr. Harper is of course not alone in the responsibility for Canada’ terrible climate change record. The Canadian public recently handed him another mandate in a general election.
Back to Mr. Bloom. His lawsuit seems directly targeted towards such irresponsible nations like Canada that have refused to take this issue seriously. If he wins, Bloom is planning to donate the $1 billion in damages to the Nobel winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Godspeed Mr. Bloom.
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Oh, goodie, can I depose Bloom?
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O! Canada!
Godspeed Mr. Bloom.
I willingly second that based on the assumption that no human body will remain whole at such a velocity…
Perhaps someone should file an amicus curiae brief and tell them what’s really happening.
This could be the opportunity of the decade. At long last, the Hollywood AGW hype-pothesis can come under the detailed scrutiny of litigation. Perhaps, Nobel Laureate Al Gore should be called upon as an expert witness…by the defense!
One would hope that the defendants would have the courage to vigorously and aggressively take full advantage of this foolhardy challenge as the modern day equivalent of the Scopes Trial.
Handled properly this is a no-win situation for the AGW hypothesis, which relies on the opacity of the “science” to conceal the vacuity of its claims.
The defendants only need prove that the AGW hypothesis is speculative at best, fraudulent in part and utterly genocidal as a limiting parameter policy in regards to global gross production.
Once the AGW hypothesis has been shown to be more faith and politically motivated intrigue than rational scientific inquiry, the stage will be set for a counter-suit worth the trillions of dollars in damages that the AGW lobby seeks to perpetuate upon economies of the free world and the following quite literal holocaust of lives carbon dioxide suppression would have on the developing world, ie Africa, the sub-continent and Sur de America.
I take it that Bloom has few scientific credentials, little understanding of cause and effect, and a desire to make a little bread on the side.
Mike
I’m a Canadian and I resemble that.
“intent to commit manslaughter against future generations . . . murderous amounts . . . causing possible apocalyptic harm . . .”
Is there any legal precedent for an uninjured party to bring suit against multiple governments for “intent” with no basis to commit “possible” harm to unspecified unborn from a by-product of a common commodity used by regular citizens in a legal manner?
The level of stupid exercised by some of these fanatics continues to amaze and impress. It remains that the worst case scenario postulated by the IPCC will almost reach the average condition (as measured by sea level) during the past 6,000 years.
Unlucky for him, CO2 is plant food and does humans no harm. We exhale over 40,000 ppm CO2, so just how exactly is this going to exterminate us? By making plants grow faster, with more efficient water and nitrogen use? By extending the growing season in the large, northern continental areas of the northern hemisphere? If we want to do something good for the world, we can start with the real problems – land degradation and population growth. Furthermore, most of the warming seems to have been due to solar activity one way or the other, and temperatures seem to have peaked a few years ago. It’s a publicity stunt.
Taking the yearly worldwide output of greenhouse gases, including water vapour, methane, CO2 etc., how does the 0.27% of the man made contribution to the total have any measurable effect whatsoever?
What happen to logic and reason and Occam’s Razor???
Carbon footprint? Bloom-ing madness!
Mike said: “I take it that Mr. Bloom has few scientific credentials, little understanding of cause and effect, and a desire to make a little bread on the side.”
Mike,
Hi. Danny Bloom here. I am almost a Canadian, I don’t resemble that, re Rick Sharpe, above. Re your comment: Yes, Mike, I have zero scientific cred, very little understand of C & E,. but hey, man, Mike, why does everything have to be about money? There is zero desire to make a little bread on the side. Come on! This is a guerilla theater PR mock lawsuit to try prod people and wake up people who are still sleeping walking toward the Apoca. You don’t have to agree with everything I say, or anything, but please, pay attention to the Earth’s atmosphere. If you don’t believe we as a species are in big trouble, then that’s okay, I respect your POV, and you might be right, yes, but let’s see how things play out in the next few years. We are in this together, all of us, pro and con, so let’s try to understand each other. There’s a method to me madness. Read the language of the lawsuit again. NOT about money. Jeez. It’s about the FUTURE. Maybe there’s nothing to worry about? If so, then I drop my case.
Cheers
Danny
P Folkens (23:52:41) : , you are right, there is no legal precedent for this. Now there is. — Danny
RE:
“intent to commit manslaughter against future generations . . . murderous amounts . . . causing possible apocalyptic harm . . .”
Is there any legal precedent for an uninjured party to bring suit against multiple governments for “intent” with no basis to commit “possible” harm to unspecified unborn from a by-product of a common commodity used by regular citizens in a legal manner?
Dear WUWT blogger above, sir.
Thanks for giving your readers a good chuckle and something to smile about. For the record, Steve Bloom is not related to me, although I know of him and we have corresponded by email over the past year. A good man.
And yes, I do hope Dr Hansen will testify for this lawsuit, and also Dr Lovelock and Fred Pearce and Tim Flannery and George Monbiot and Mark Lynas.
Calling this “Litigous Lunacy” is a good headline and a good start. I like it. But all this is really more like “litigous guerilla theatre” — it’s all a symbolic action to make a point. I doubt Dr Pauchuri will get anything from it other than another headache.
Cheers,
— Danny
And THANKS for picking the story up. Reuters contaced me today and they are planning a wire story on their international wire soon. Get ready.
Brian Johnson,
0.27% sounds small, but it accumulates over the years. Indeed CO2 concentrations have gone up from 280 ppm to about 387 ppm over the last 100 years or so. A good part is probably due to human emissions, but also due to CO2 released by oceans from natural warming. Almost all scientists agree that manmade CO2 causes warming. The dispute is how much of the warming over the last 100 years is manmade, and what part is natural?
Looking at the La Ninas (El Nino effects, PDO oscillations, etc., many scientists are now saying the bulk of the warming is due to natural causes.
The challenge will be to argue this in Court before possibly unscientific and activist judges and jurors.
IMHO opinion, I think it’s just a question of time before these zealots go to far and really tee off the public. Then there will be a major backlash, and in such case, I’m not for reconciliation, moreover in favour of running these quacks out of town (to a foreign country like Canada, Venezuela or Russia).
A nation cutting CO2 emissions is a STUPID STANDARD.
Canada has and ill have a strongly growing population due to open immigration. Of course it is very difficult to cut CO2 emissions when people are piling into your contry.
Europe on the other hand has a dying population. Europe’s population is expected to go from approx. 500 million today to about 450 million by 2050. So how tough is it to cut CO2 emissions with such bleak population growth? Clearly Kyoto is designed to punish growth.
Could we lodge a suit against so called environmentalists who have deliberately removed the focus from genuine environmental issues such as habitat destruction and plastic in the ocean to the insignificant issue of anthropogenic global warming? Millions of animals dying and destined to die because these frauds are ideological people haters and use the environmental movement to promote their GAIA cult?
Lubos Motl
characterises it precisely:
“(Desmogblog) propagandistic blog about the climate funded by JOHN LEFEBVRE, A CRMINAL ARRESTED FOR MONEY LAUNDERING, informs us about a lawsuit filed by Danny Bloom, a radical environmentalist activist.”
Send that to The Hague.
This makes me feel physically sick. I never thought I would live to witness a new Inquisition (they would,you know) and the development of a new religion of intolerance based yet again on a lie.
It truly has me feeling I should apologise for ever being Green.
“If you don’t believe we as a species are in big trouble, then that’s okay, I respect your POV, and you might be right, yes…… Maybe there’s nothing to worry about? If so, then I drop my case.”
And pick up the tab for the legal expenses?
If I believed in Divine Retribution, I would think Dr. Hansen’s plane would go down in a remote, frosty part of the world and his supporters on the trip would be forced to eat him to stay alive. Same with the other Blood Sucking Vampires and assorted Vultures that prey on us.
Hi Danny. If I were a mother of young children in a remote part of an African nation whose government sold pollution credits to the United States as part of a cap-and-trade scheme espoused by Al Gore, and my children were thereby sentenced to a lifetime of heating their home and food with charcoal and having no light in our home after dark because of this sale, I might not consider your “guerrilla theater” to be lighthearted in the least.
I have another, slightly different cap-and-trade plan for you: How about if you go live the life of one of the poor villagers whose governments sell their pollution credits, forbidding the nation to develop a modern electric grid and generally modernize?
Something tells me that, even if we run the experiment for only a year or two, that you won’t be doing your hilarious “guerrilla theater” when you get back.
On the surface, this appears to be one of the venues many of us has been waiting for, that being an open, unfettered scientific debate on C02/ACC.
But I think we need some understanding of the workings of this particular court before we start opening the bubbly in anticipation of a fair, honest, open debate.
JimB
If the CO2=AGW paradigm can’t be successfully defended in open public debate, how does Bloom expect it to stand up in court?
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So this would be something like an pedestrian claiming money from me for damages i might cause in the future because i recently recived a ticket for a slight speed violation? But if kept to the speedlimit there would no cause to claim those possible future damages?
That would be the day.
Canada seems to be becoming a centre of silly lawsuits–last week, it was a ‘wal-mart brain scanning’ case, and before that cases attempting to censor journalists via the human rights tribunal whilst putting the CIA on trial were advancing. What is happening? Fairly soon, the destiny of Alaska will be revealed–to make Canada look less mad.
I blame tar sands and shale oil. They must be leaking something into the water….