[ad_1]
Wood said the failure to act for decades shows that many existing environmental laws are “made in response to very old problems.” In the Nixon era, Americans worried about smog, acid rain, and shrinking landfill space. Some of these problems still exist, but “the oil and gas industry’s attacks on planetary systems have completely overshadowed them,” Wood added. Although it is theoretically possible to modify the 20th-century legislation again to cope with soaring atmospheric carbon levels, these laws often end up hindering efforts to reduce emissions.
Take the Clean Air Act as an example: In 2007, the Supreme Court rule The EPA can include carbon, methane, and other greenhouse gases in the legislative definition of “pollutants,” although it depends on whether the agency will do so.Only three years later, the same logic led to the Supreme Court ruling People cannot sue companies for excessive greenhouse gas emissions under federal common law, simply because the EPA has the statutory power to regulate such emissions. EPA facts no Regulating such emissions is not important-just because they Can It is enough to stop the lawsuit. Although similar litigation may still be successful under state regulations, the Supreme Court’s decision at least temporarily closed another litigation avenue.
Just as “environment” refers to people, animals, plants, and their surroundings here and now, environmental law often refers to the rather dispersed efforts to manage personal natural resources-here is the water bill, there is the forest law. But just as “climate” refers to changes in regional and even global weather patterns and the consequences over time, the vision of climate law is a discipline that promotes bold, rapid, and comprehensive emissions reductions.New tools-used to monitor all carbon emissions, to redistribute the wealth of the fossil fuel industry to fund carbon removal, and more-need to be addressed There is a risk We are facing now.
If there is one It hasn’t happened yet in the seminal year of American climate law.Although the United States and other countries have debated domestic and international actions since at least the early 1990s, this is a history Full of false starts and broken promises. Recently, the United States joined, left, and rejoined the 2016 Paris Agreement, which aims to keep global warming within 2 degrees Celsius below pre-industrial levels.But the treaty does not contain real Execution mechanism.
Fortunately, the tide seems to be changing. At least internationally, new laws are being passed. For example, in 2020, Denmark passed a law requiring the country to be climate neutral by 2050 — and, most importantly, stipulate (at least in theory) Forcing elected officials to step down If they can’t get the country on track. In May, a court in the Netherlands order Compared with 2019 levels, Royal Dutch Shell will reduce its emissions by 45% by 2030, which basically requires the company to reduce its oil and gas investment portfolio.
hope, according to Reporter Amy Westervelt, Great progress in attribution science (Helps to link individual extreme weather events with larger climate trends), investigative news clearly shows that the fossil fuel industry is aware of the hazards of its business practices with Efforts to hide them and new legal theories, the United States will soon achieve some success.
Although Wood is a legal scholar, not a practicing lawyer, her ideas are at the core of these efforts.Shocked by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, Wood developed a new method called Atmosphere Trust Litigation, It believes that the court should force government agencies to protect and maintain the earth’s atmosphere for use by the public now and in the future.
[ad_2]
Source link
