Climate Change Attorney Blog

A report released by the United Nations yesterday entitled "Climate Change Science Compendium 2009" finds that many predicted effects of global warming on climate change are occurring much more rapidly than originally predicted. A press release which summarizes the report notes in part: "the newly emerging science points to some events thought likely to occur in longer-term time horizons, as already happening or set to happen far sooner than had previously been thought."

Among those predicted events the report finds:

"growing concern among some scientists that thresholds or tipping points may now be reached in a matter of years or a few decades including dramatic changes to the Indian sub-continent's monsoon, the Sahara and West Africa monsoons, and climate systems affecting a critical ecosystem like the Amazon rainforest.

The report also underlines concern by scientists that the planet is now committed to some damaging and irreversible impacts as a result of the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.

Losses of tropical and temperate mountain glaciers affecting perhaps 20 percent to 25 percent of the human population in terms of drinking water, irrigation and hydro-power."

The findings are summarized in the statement that "it may still be possible to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change. However, this will only happen if there is immediate, cohesive and decisive action to both cut emissions and assist vulnerable countries adapt."

Calling for a "coordinated and strategic response" to climate change resulting from global warming, on Wednesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a proposed plan to address the impacts of climate change on fish and wildlife. In a statement released by the Director of the Service, he stated: "the plan lays the foundation for the Service’s role in national efforts to conserve fish and wildlife in a rapidly changing climate but the plan is not yet complete. It needs constructive input from our most powerful partners—the American public. The public’s involvement is critical, because climate change is bigger than any one agency, department, or government.”

The proposed plan includes:

"* Targeting conservation by working with partners to develop science-based methods to identify the most vulnerable species.
* Prioritizing existing challenges that will be made more difficult as a result of changing climate, including water scarcity and habitat fragmentation.
* Leading efforts to develop a National Fish and Wildlife Adaptation Strategy, as outlined in pending climate change legislation in the U.S. Congress, to serve as the conservation community’s shared blueprint to guide wildlife adaptation partnerships during the next 50 years.
* Creating a National Biological Inventory and Monitoring Partnership that strategically deploys the conservation community’s monitoring resources. Working with DOI’s Regional Climate Change Response Centers, the Partnership would generate scientific data needed to understand climate change effects on the distribution and abundance of fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats; model predicted population and habitat change; and help us determine if we are achieving our goals.
* Building Landscape Conservation Cooperatives that develop regional and field technical capacity by working with partners to provide cutting edge science and information. These cooperatives, guided by DOI’s newly created Climate Response Council, will be the primary vehicle through which the Service and partners acquire and apply the best climate change science to inform fish and wildlife management decisions and actions."

Comments by the public can be submitted through November 23, 2009 at the the Service's climate change site.

On Monday the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated an action by eight states, the City of New York and three land trusts challenging the levels of carbon dioxide emissions by coal burning power plants under a theory of nuisance. In State of Connecticut v. American Electric Power Company, Inc. the plaintiffs claim that the carbon dioxide emissions from these coal burning plants contribute to global warming and should be ultimately reduced.

The basis for the claims was stated by the Court as:

"Plaintiffs claim that global warming, to which Defendants contribute as the “five largest emitters of carbon dioxide in the United States and . . . among the largest in the world,” Connecticut v. Am. Elec. Power Co., 406 F. Supp. 2d 265, 268 (S.D.N.Y.2005), by emitting 650 million tons per year of carbon dioxide, is causing and will continue to cause serious harms affecting human health and natural resources. They explain that carbon dioxide acts as a greenhouse gas that traps heat in the earth’s atmosphere, and that as a result of this trapped heat, the earth’s temperature has risen over the years and will continue to rise in the future."

Reversing the lower court the Circuit Court found:

" We hold that: (1) Plaintiffs-Appellants’claims do not present non-justiciable political questions; (2) Plaintiffs-Appellants have standing to bring their claims; (3) Plaintiffs-Appellants state claims under the federal common law of nuisance; (4) Plaintiffs-Appellants’ claims are not displaced; and (5) the discretionary function exception does not provide Defendant-Appellee Tennessee Valley Authority with immunity from suit. Accordingly, we VACATE the judgment of the district court and REMAND for further proceedings."

A bipartisan group of former government and military officials has declared climate change to be a threat to U.S. security. In a statement released on September 8, 2009 the group stated in part:

"if we fail to take action now, we will have little hope of influencing other countries to reduce their own harmful contributions to climate change, or of forging a coordinated international response.

We must also help less developed countries adapt to the realities and consequences of a drastically changed climate. Doing so now will help avoid humanitarian disasters and political instability in the future that could ultimately threaten the security of the U.S. and our allies."