Interesting stuff.  What has been used thus far as a political football to   
   advance a party's fortunes or their own agenda, the Courts are being asked to   
   consider the larger picture:  our environment as it is affecting our safety   
   and health and future.     
      
   Time to sue the corporations that have put profit before the environment.  If   
   our politicians can be used as their pawns, then we can fight back using the   
   Courts - and not just wait for the next ballot box.   
   _________________________________   
   CBC - Jun 21, 2019   
      
   Why environmentalists are taking their climate fight to Canadian courtrooms   
      
   As a band of young environmental activists crowded into a courtroom at   
   Montreal's Palais de justice earlier this month, Zy St-Pierre-Bourdelais   
   admitted to being nervous.   
      
   "It's the first time in my life I'm going to court," he said.   
      
   No stranger to climate activism, the 20-year-old college student is part of a   
   Quebec environmental group asking the courts to declare that the Canadian   
   government is violating the rights of an entire generation by depriving them   
   of a right to a healthy    
   environment.   
      
   "The justice system is supposed to be based on laws, on fact, on science,"   
   says St-Pierre-Bourdelais.   
      
   "Climate change is based on science. Politics are not."   
      
   The case is unprecedented in Canada, but it's part of a growing wave of   
   climate litigation worldwide. It's led by environmentalists and communities   
   aiming to force cuts to carbon emissions, and win damages to pay for the costs   
   of adapting to climate    
   change.   
      
   "If we had taken [climate] action when I was a kid, things would be much   
   different than they are right now," says 29-year-old Catherine Gauthier,   
   executive director of ENvironnement JEUnesse, the non-profit behind the Quebec   
   lawsuit.   
      
   "Perhaps we wouldn't need legal actions to make sure our rights and the lives   
   of future generations would not be at stake right now."   
      
   A global movement   
      
   More than 1,000 climate-change-related lawsuits are winding through courts   
   around the world, according to a database compiled by the Sabin Centre for   
   Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School in New York.   
      
   The flurry of cases follows a groundbreaking decision in the Netherlands in   
   2015, in which the government was found to be disregarding its constitutional   
   duty to protect citizens from climate change. The decision forced the Dutch   
   government to reduce    
   greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25 per cent compared to 1990 levels.   
      
   Similar legal actions are underway in Belgium, Ireland, New Zealand,   
   Switzerland, Colombia, the United States, and the United Kingdom.   
      
   "The courts are where politicians sometimes fear to tread," says Keith   
   Stewart, senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada.   
      
   "Whether you're looking at women's rights, civil rights, equality in marriage,   
   it was often the courts that pushed the politicians … the courts can blaze   
   that path."   
      
   But it's not only policy makers who are being held to account for lack of   
   climate action.   
      
   In the U.S., the world's most litigious country, lawsuits against fossil-fuel   
   companies are also on the rise.   
      
   Cities such as New York, San Francisco and Oakland are seeking to hold dozens   
   of oil and gas companies to account for their contributions to climate change,   
   including BP, Chevron, Exxon and Royal Dutch Shell.   
      
   Stewart, a longtime environmental activist, used to think environmentalists   
   should avoid court actions, considering them too slow and expensive, with slim   
   chances for success.   
      
   But that thinking has changed, and now Greenpeace is lobbying councillors in   
   several Canadian cities, including Toronto and Vancouver, encouraging them to   
   sue fossil-fuel companies.   
      
   Stewart compares climate litigation against "Big Oil" to class-action suits   
   against "Big Tobacco."   
      
   "These are some of the richest corporations in the history of the world. They   
   have made billions of dollars in profits while knowing their product was   
   causing these harms," says Stewart, who argues that courts can force   
   corporations to share the costs of    
   adapting to climate change.   
      
   "This [the awards for damages] would go back to communities to help them with   
   adaptation, whether it's building seawalls or bike paths or …  be prepared   
   for extreme weather that we can't avoid."   
      
      
   The future of climate litigation   
      
   While Greenpeace's Stewart agrees lawsuits are rarely speedy, he feels the   
   slow march through the justice system can itself bring about change, as   
   corporations face pressure from shareholders and politicians are forced to   
   defend their climate policies.   
      
   "Even before you get a final judgment, you get changes in the politics, you   
   get changes in the investment regime, which push us in the right direction,"   
   Stewart says.   
      
   The number of lawsuits related to climate change will keep increasing, Stewart   
   predicts, as "tough-minded class-action lawyers" see improved prospects for   
   success.   
      
   He believes the risk of billion-dollar payouts is also forcing fossil-fuel   
   companies to explore sustainable energy alternatives.   
      
   "We see [oil and gas] corporations actually jumping in to support things like   
   carbon pricing, saying 'Maybe if [we] support that then [we] can get a waiver   
   on liability from lawsuits.'"   
      
   Back in Quebec, lawyer Anne-Julie Asselin says the ENvironnement JEUnesse   
   lawsuit has been moving surprisingly quickly. It started last November, and a   
   decision is expected soon on whether the case is approved to proceed as a   
   class action on behalf of 3.   
   5 million Quebeckers aged 35 and younger.   
      
   "We cannot debate anymore whether economic measures are better than political   
   or judicial measures … we need to act on all fronts," Asselin says.   
      
   Lawyers for the federal government have acknowledged climate change is a major   
   global challenge, but are taking the position that the case should not   
   proceed, arguing that courts should not interfere with the executive powers of   
   government.   
      
   St-Pierre-Bourdelais says the Quebec youths behind the lawsuit hope the case   
   will raise climate awareness and force Canada to reduce emissions, but adds   
   that he understands it will be a long battle.   
      
   "It's just the start of a bigger fight.  Climate change is going to impact me   
   for the rest of my life."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)