The Conservative Cave
Current Events => General Discussion => Topic started by: thundley4 on October 19, 2009, 07:38:38 PM
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For years, leading plaintiffs’ lawyers have promised a legal assault on industrial America for contributing to global warming.
So far, the trial bar has had limited success. The hurdles to such suits are pretty obvious: How do you apportion fault and link particular plaintiffs’ injuries to the pollution emitted by a particular group of defendants?
Today, though, plaintiffs’ lawyers may be a gloating a bit, after a favorable ruling Friday from the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans, which is regarded as one of the more conservative circuit courts in the country. Here’s a link to the ruling.
The suit was brought by landowners in Mississippi, who claim that oil and coal companies emitted greenhouse gasses that contributed to global warming that, in turn, caused a rise in sea levels, adding to Hurricane Katrina’s ferocity. (See photo of Bay St. Louis, Miss., after the storm.)
For a nice overview of the ruling, and its significance in the climate change battle, check out this blog post (http://www.consumerclassactionsmasstorts.com/2009/10/articles/standing/fifth-circuit-reverses-dismissal-of-climate-change-class-action-brought-by-private-plaintiffs-who-blame-hurricane-katrina-on-global-warming/) by J. Russell Jackson, a Skadden Arps partner who specializes in mass tort litigation. The post likens the Katrina plaintiffs’ claims, which set out a chain of causation, to the litigation equivalent of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.â€
WSJ LawBlog (http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/10/19/hurricane-katrina-victims-have-standing-to-sue-over-global-warming/)
FFS, if this goes through and the plaintiffs when, we are totally screwed.
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they'll win. They have to. It defied common sense, therefore, it's the logical choice. :uhsure:
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The suit was brought by landowners in Mississippi, who claim that oil and coal companies emitted greenhouse gasses that contributed to global warming that, in turn, caused a rise in sea levels, adding to Hurricane Katrina’s ferocity
Prove it.
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Prove it.
This is the part I look forward to.
If this goes to trial everything Algore and the other enviro-fascists have runaway from for the last 20 years becomes admissable evidence in a court of law and the burden of proof falls on the plaintiffs.
Allowing a suit to go forward is very different from having a hearing of evidence. We should welcome this moment.
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This is the part I look forward to.
If this goes to trial everything Algore and the other enviro-fascists have runaway from for the last 20 years becomes admissable evidence in a court of law and the burden of proof falls on the plaintiffs.
Allowing a suit to go forward is very different from having a hearing of evidence. We should welcome this moment.
We've learned recently that truth doesn't matter - facts can be fabricated and taken as Gospel Truth. I would like to believe that this is an opportunity for real science to prove global warming is not man-caused... but I fear it will result in just the opposite... and that will mean the death of freedom.
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If the corporations lose this suit or others, then by necessity they'll have to raise prices to cover the losses, and to have set asides for future lawsuits.
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We've learned recently that truth doesn't matter - facts can be fabricated and taken as Gospel Truth. I would like to believe that this is an opportunity for real science to prove global warming is not man-caused... but I fear it will result in just the opposite... and that will mean the death of freedom.
You're talking about in the political arena where poll-dancer and lobby whores rule.
This will be 12 people defense counsel must consent to required to determine that a preponderence of the evidence demonstrates a link.
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You're talking about in the political arena where poll-dancer and lobby whores rule.
This will be 12 people defense counsel must consent to required to determine that a preponderence of the evidence demonstrates a link.
Philisophically, I concur. But fawk... we've had years of indoctrination of global warming; a new religion around it, and a gov't movement.... I just don't see you getting 12 people with enough common sense to provide a good ruling. Hell, if a guy can get $9M for abusing Viagra and suffering the consequences why wouldn't 12 people vote against the companies? My cynicism won't allow me to see this as a cup half full opportunity. :(
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Philisophically, I concur. But fawk... we've had years of indoctrination of global warming; a new religion around it, and a gov't movement.... I just don't see you getting 12 people with enough common sense to provide a good ruling. Hell, if a guy can get $9M for abusing Viagra and suffering the consequences why wouldn't 12 people vote against the companies? My cynicism won't allow me to see this as a cup half full opportunity. :(
Then you're free to leave the issue to 535 money-grubbing egomaniacal retards.
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This is a pretty ridiculous Law suit, I mean how can they prove that. Hurricanes have occured throughout all of recorded history and they built New Orleans in a basin, those people were just stupid who did not leave, if anything those people should be sued for not leaving and wasting governement funds. It is sad that so much distruction came from nature, but thats just what it is NATURE and we can't really control NATURE.
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This is a pretty ridiculous Law suit, I mean how can they prove that. Hurricanes have occured throughout all of recorded history and they built New Orleans in a basin, those people were just stupid who did not leave, if anything those people should be sued for not leaving and wasting governement funds. It is sad that so much distruction came from nature, but thats just what it is NATURE and we can't really control NATURE.
Actually, ATV, it is partially the people's fault who did not leave, but a lot of the blame can be laid at the feet of the local and state government, both for ineffective evacuation and for slow response. Mayor Nagin had hundreds of school buses he could have used to ferry people out of town, but they ended up underwater because his office wouldn't allow them to be used for this purpose. Gov. Blanco didn't declare a state of emergency until well after the storm hit, which means the state couldn't request assistance from FEMA, which prohibited, by law, any action from FEMA.
Had they done their jobs, the loss of life would have been lower and recovery work begun sooner. For evidence, I point to the response to Hurricane Gustav(IIRC), that, while not as powerful as Katrina, hit NO more directly, but caused a much lower death toll, if any, and little flooding.
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...Mayor Nagin had hundreds of school buses he could have used to ferry people out of town, but they ended up underwater because his office wouldn't allow them to be used for this purpose...
Yet, amazingly, the NAACP found plenty of busses to get people back into NO after the hurricane so they could keep the city chocolate.
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Yet, amazingly, the NAACP found plenty of busses to get people back into NO after the hurricane so they could keep the city chocolate.
There were plenty of buses available to get people in and out of Washington D.C. in the middle of winter for a certain inauguration recently.
:fuelfire: