Most people reading this know me, but in case you don't, here's the lowdown so far: I'm Elaine - I'm an Asian American expat brat who first moved out of the States at 4 & first hit up China at 13. Since then, I've been in & out of New York & Shanghai, mostly blogging.

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Climate blame: send for the lawyers - There's a way to curb carbon emissions without having to wait for governments to forge a global climate deal →

“Evidence that links climate change to the deaths of tens of thousands of people and billions of dollars in damage would concentrate minds. But it might be a game changer in other ways. In the absence of a global deal by governments, private litigants may take up cudgels. Just as people with cancer led the charge against tobacco companies, so the victims of climate disasters might assail big oil and big coal, provided their claims rest on sound science.

As long ago as 2005, Allen told New Scientist that the legal route would have more impact on climate change than governments: “Just the possibility of legal action would have a big effect… in boardrooms.”

The truth is that we know little about how climate change will pan out - still less how it will influence climate disasters. The Stern Review, published for the UK government in 2006, argued that super-hurricanes, mega heatwaves and the like will cause trillions of dollars in damage annually by 2100.

As one measure of the uncertainties, the review’s arch critic, Yale University economist Robert Mendelsohn, now says it will be more like tens of billions of dollars in a study that the World Bank has been dithering about publishing. An Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on extreme climate events due out later this month won’t take us much further.

By trying to peer into the future, we are ignoring the here and now. Allen is right. Today is what matters most to people. If, as many suspect, our fingerprints are all over recent climate disasters, then we have a crime scene. But before the lawyers can do their stuff, we have to send for forensics.

So, you guys asked what good being an environmental lawyer will do with climate change….

(via mohandasgandhi)

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