Guest essay by Eric Worrall
The Ninth Circuit is currently hearing an attempt by the Juliana v. United States plaintiffs to halt all fossil fuel extraction in the United States.
The kids suing the government over climate change want to halt fossil fuel extraction
The plaintiffs in Juliana v. United States say they’ve been denied their right to a safe and stable climate.
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If the injunction is granted, it would lead to a nationwide moratorium on new fossil fuel permitting and leasing on federal lands and waters until the lawsuit is resolved. No small matter. However, existing mining and drilling projects would still proceed.
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Philip Gregory, one of the lead attorneys representing the children filing suit, explained that the injunction request is meant to address the urgency of limiting climate change by reducing emissions from fossil fuels immediately. With the case currently tied up in appeals, the plaintiffs wanted to make sure the current state of affairs with respect to climate change doesn’t get worse as the wheels of justice slowly turn.
“We would have preferred to go to trial, submit our extensive evidence, and have the judge require the defendants to come up with a plan, a national climate recovery plan, for how they’re going to go about doing this,” Gregory said.
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In response, the federal government argued this week that the injunction maneuver is a ploy to bypass proper legal proceedings. “Indeed, Plaintiffs by their present motion are essentially making a bid in this Court for a substitute mini-trial or ‘trial lite’ — which is premature until the pure issues of law now being briefed in this interlocutory appeal are appropriately resolved as a threshold matter,” wrote attorneys for the US Department of Justice. They described the injunction request as an “ambitious attempt to throttle important government functions superintending broad swaths of the national economy.”
The government also noted that the Juliana lawsuit was filed more than three years ago but the plaintiffs hadn’t asked to block fossil fuel leasing until now, which undermines the plaintiffs’ argument that without immediate action, they would suffer irreparable harm.
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Read more: https://www.vox.com/2019/2/23/18234721/childrens-climate-lawsuit-juliana-injunction
A copy of the injunction is available here.
Even President Obama did not support this case – when James Hansen urged Obama to tie President Trump’s hands on climate policy. by settling the case in the plaintiff’s favour, President Obama refused.
I feel sorry for the kids, whom I see as victims of callous green political manipulation. This court case will almost certainly eventually be tossed out, and those poor kids will likely have to live with the crushing disappointment of being tossed aside by their former green friends once they are no longer any immediate use to the green movement.
well, it guarantees them admission into harvard, so there’s that.
Ultimately this seems to be a political issue and not a legal one.
For example if this succeeds, they could sue to stop all trade with China and India because such trade grows their economies which leads to even more co2 being released. China and India are the ones producing the most co2.
the trade would stop due to no more fuel for the cargo carriers..
Coming Soon
District 9 becomes District 1
This message brought to you by the Green Agenda, Sponsor of YOUR Hunger Games!
We will continue to get these attacks on civilization from baby barbarians until we end the charade of government “education.”
Three years ago those kids believed in Santa Claus and the tooth fairy. They look like they would still go Halloweening. Eventually their mental growth will lead them to the conclusion that they shouldn’t blindly trust what other people try to force onto them….
The children feel entitled to be in charge, and they’re super cereal. “I’m the boss! How about that?!”
https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1099458921901613056
Billy Bob McKibben was using public school kindergarteners over a decade ago to further the Church of Climate so this is nothing new and in fact it has only increased since then. As demographics is destiny, I’d be interested to know the age of WUWT commenters (and lurkers). I’m 64.
I’m 54
I’m Spartacus
Funny you look nothing like Cory Booker.
68, but inside of me is a twenty year old screaming, “What the hell happened?”
56
29 (once removed).
Aka “58”.
36
Almost the same age as that current New Zealand PM. But I’ve never screwed with a sovereign nation’s economy on an ideological whim and I’m sure we all agree that’s admirable.
Here is another picture of kids being used to promote left wing ideology:
http://laurenream.github.io/culturalrevolution/images/chineserevolutionaries-2000×817.jpg
Estimated cost in human lives 20 to 45 million.
I thought our problems here with EU energy policy inflicted on us by our political “elite” were bad enough, but this is madness in the extreme. Hopefully someone will remind these children about this in twelve years time, meanwhile perhaps they could gen up on cycles of solar activity, effect of magnetosphere on cosmic radiation, changes in the ellipse of the earth’s orbit, variations in earth’s rotational axis, the greenhouse effect of water vapour, and ocean currents which change over hundreds, even thousands of years. Just a few of the many factors which influence climate on earth to a greater extent than an increase in concentration of that life-giving “pollutant”, carbon dioxide.
Fossil fuels , for energy and as a petrochemical source, help to make the quality of life for most of us the most satisfactory and pleasant for all of human history. I wonder if there is not an assumption by these youngsters that this quality of life, underpinned by a US – wide democratic system and rule of law, would be unaffected or only slightly affected by the loss of these resources .
Something similar happened in Roman Britain when the greatest period of its prosperity , the 4th Century , was suddenly disrupted by the removal, partly through Imperial ambitions , partly through invasions on the Continent and the English coast , of the force that underpinned this peaceful and prosperous life, namely the Roman garrison.
According to J N L Myres (“The English Settlements”) what followed was 2 centuries in which, to judge from the archaeology , life reverted to the most basic existence (trade, industry and agriculture being severely constrained) and the province split into separate British, and then Anglo- Saxon, areas , “kingdoms”, frequently at war with each other.
If it came to the point where Federal US Govt banned fossil fuel use , areas of the US with ready access to this resource might decide that the choice is : stick with the US system and live with a much reduced lifestyle or abandon the Govt and set up your separate republic and continue to enjoy the resources that you have.
It would depend on the strength of Federal military might and with no fuel and the knock- on effect on equipment that strength would be reduced and perhaps quite non effective .
Is this what the billionaire backers of these youngsters want?
States’ Rights…!!?
I would expect them to declare themselves ‘sanctuary states’ and exempt from any federal laws limiting the use of fossil fuels. Just dare the federal government to send in people to enforce the law.
If the socialists ever got the presidency and did something as radical as prohibiting the production of coal, oil and gas, I think Texas would not follow this path and would leave the Union if it came to that. Lots of other states could do the same thing. If Oklahoma, my state, didn’t follow Texas, I would have to move to Texas, which, fortunately, is not a big move for me either in distance or culture. I like Texans. The only time we don’t get along is during the Oklahoma-Texas football game. 🙂
We need some new ideas, a different approach to stopping the cult of CAGW. Fighting is not working,
This crazy lawsuit and dozens and dozens of lawsuits worldwide is a natural consequence of fake news, political parties, and activists groups amplifying the fake CAGW paradigm.
There are now true CAGW believers, at all levels of government, in the legal system, and in almost all news outlets.
There are well funded activists’ groups in every G20 country pushing CAGW and working to block (pipelines, drilling, fracking, permit issuing, and so on) anything to do with hydrocarbon energy and working to push the green scam energy.
Ignoring the fact that there is no AGW, the spending on green scams has accomplished almost nothing besides increasing the cost of electricity and making our countries less competitive.
CAGW is a fake problem which we are throwing money which we do not have at.
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/02/23/delingpole-the-five-best-arguments-against-climate-alarmism/
“Vast sums of public money — in excess of $1.5 trillion per year — are being squandered on the chimaera of “climate change.” Yet despite all this spending, using the alarmists’ own calculations, it will offset “global warming” by the end of the century by 0.048°C (0.086°F).”
This is Ralph Nader’s legacy — that public policy could be directed by such lawsuits.
Nice plan for a high-speed railroad you had there in California.
Here’s an idea, but most likely only new to me: co-opt the movement. Take their own words, and change the narrative. Here’s how to re-frame their arguments:
1. We only have twelve years before serious changes in climate.
2. Much of the heat is already ‘baked in’ by the existing CO2 in the air.
3. Even if the US went to extremes to eliminate all its CO2 emissions, there would still be climate change because of other countries, primarily India and China, over whom we have no control.
4. Renewables have not yet reached the technological maturity to be a replacement for existing fossil-fueled power plants, and even if were possible, they could not be installed in twelve years.
**Therefore, we need to initiate Plan B** Living in a Warmer World
Instead of a crash program getting rid of fossil fuels and belching cattle, we need to develop technologies to help us adapt to a warming world:
Since we can’t stop global warming there is no point eliminating the use of fossil fuels.
Re-direct funds from wind turbines, and develop better desalination technology to cope with droughts.
Re-direct money from solar plants to fund research in improved flood control methods to better cope with increased floods.
Re-direct money from improving climate modeling to improving meteorology models to better warn people of impending severe weather.
Instead of trying to stop sea level rise, incentivize people to relocate further from the shoreline.
You get the picture. Those in position to get new funding for the above projects would be onboard immediately. Those at risk of getting their existing funding cut would be adamantly opposed. Pop some popcorn and watch the two groups fight each other.
All the children in the picture look healthy and comfortable. Those stylish T-shirts with printed logos look nice too. The kids are well groomed, in a safe photo setting, willing to have their picture taken by the latest photo equipment and displayed for all to see on the latest media.
Mmmm, I wonder how all this is possible. Could it be? That fossil fuels enable ALL this?
So, we are proud in America to train our kids to be extremely short-sighted, ignorant idealists, so out of touch with their own realities that they cannot see what little liars they all are, … AND they don’t even know it, because their adult leaders don’t want them to know it.
Yay, for the village of tribal leaders — good job at being responsible adults! …………….. NOT.
All the above posters are missing the key result. Each of these children can now add this to their resume for college entrance application. No school in the US could deny their application.
Who pays for the lawyers?
The children’s “climate crusade” a sad and thinly veiled case of child abuse , manipulation and far fetched ideology from radical far leftists. Very sad it could ever get this far.
What makes these kids think they have a right to a safe and stable climate? In what court will children plead for their right to escape the next ice age? Will they sue the Earth for too much wobbling or the Sun for minimum radiation output or extreme sunspot activity? What court has jurisdiction over volcanic eruptions? The perspective is outrageous.
The way to defeat this particular injunction is to simply point out what a tiny fraction of worldwide total hydrocarbon extraction these new projects represent. Then ask the children’s lawyers, in light of this fact, to quantify how much warming will be avoided if the injunction is granted, given that supposedly all of the last 1 degree of warming was caused by the entirety of all extractions to date. Of course they can’t answer that, but it is obvious it would have to be meaninglessly small. This obviates the need for an emergency injunction since no possible harm can occur in the short time (relative to climate timescales) while the case is decided.
This young lady is going to go long way ….
https://youtu.be/LIPepvcUGMc
to make a fool of herself.
They look like the kids from that old movie, The Village of the Damned…
There are no white males in the picture. This is the new diversity.
If they wish to plead for a ‘stable climate’, their plea woud be better expressed in a church (or temple, mosque, gurdwara etc) than in a court of law.
Are they suing their parents if they don’t like what’s for dinner ?
If their parents are militant vegans, they may have to sue to get sufficient vitamin b12 in their diets…
It looks like some of the kids in the above picture have militant vegan parents.
Here in the US when some kids from Covington Catholic HS didn’t respond in kind to verbal abuses, some on the left demanded the names and addresses of the kids so they be “addressed”.
No one here at WUWT has demanded that I saw. I won’t either.
“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
They have been denied the right to a full and proper education more like it. Having to go to school in cold, wet, snowy, or hot conditions is what is known as ‘weather’.
So if the school buses do not pick up those kids, are we making progress? We have to cut fossil fuel consumption somewhere.
If as a child I have ever said anything so ignorant and stupid, my parents would have sent me to my room to live a limited-carbon existence. Little food, none of it processed, no heat or cooling, and certainly no electronic amusements. I would have learned the lesson.
And yet I am certain that these kids are denied nothing.