Kivalina, Alaska Launches Global Warming Lawsuit

If cigarette companies are to be held accountable for the negative health effects of their products - should big carbon energy companies also be responsible for the negative consequences of using their energy? Perhaps that example is not totally analogous, but it does set the table for a new era of environmental law and accountability.

Kivalina, a small Alaskan native community of approx. 390 residents is trailblazing on this issue with the launch of a lawsuit aimed at big oil, coal and power companies. The coastal town's future is being threatened by the onset of global warming as winter ice which had historically protected the town from vicious winter storms is no longer shielding the town as it once did. The ice season has shortened dramatically to the point where the town is now taking the full brunt of the winter storms and the town will either have to be re-located and/or abandoned and the cost of re-location is estimated at $400 million.

"We are seeing accelerated erosion because of the loss of sea ice," City administrator Janet Mitchell said. "We normally have ice starting in October, but now we have open water even into December so our island is not protected from the storms." ...

"An increase in the frequency and intensity of sea storms, degradation and melting of permafrost, and accelerated erosion of the shoreline have recently forced the village into a state of emergency," according to a 2006 Relocation Master Plan written by the US Army Corps of Engineers. "Sea storms have eroded the shoreline out from underneath several structures and threatens the airstrip. Emergency erosion control measures are in place, but will only slow the sea's inevitable reclamation of the island,"

Named in the lawsuit are BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Peabody Energy, and several power companies, inclding AES, American Electric Power, American Electric Power Services, DTE Energy, Duke Energy, Dynegy Holdings, Edison International, MidAmerican Energy Holdings, Mirant Corp, NRG Energy, Pinnacle West Capital, Reliant Energy and Xcel Energy Inc..

Global warming is not only destabilizing many small coastal communities in the North, but as the ice continues to thaw and recede throughout the North, oil companies are anxiously eyeing the region as Earth's last bastion of undiscovered oil reserves. None of this bodes well for the natives.

via [ww4report]

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Kivalina, Alaska Launches Global Warming Lawsuit

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