Supreme Court hears arguments on emissions

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Posted on November 30, 2006
Filed Under Global warming/Climate change, Deep ecology, Greenhouse gas emissions, Ecological hope, Consumer culture, Fossil fuel dependency, Environmental disasters, Earth spirituality

Fostering Ecological Hope

Today from Margaret Swedish:

So, yesterday the Supreme Court heard arguments in the suit brought by 12 states against the federal government to try to force new rules to reduce the carbon emissions that have a predominant role in global warming.  I will link to 3 mainstream newspaper stories if you would like to read a summary of the arguments: the Washington Post, the NY Times, and the LA Times.

As I read these summaries, I was struck by how limited the law is to address our looming crisis.  If one must prove specific harm, we have a problem, though the harm is all around us.  Yes, if my car runs you over, you can show that my actions caused your injuries.  But how does one prove that Katrina was made worse by global warming?  How do you ‘prove,’ in the case of Seattle and the surrounding area, that recent deluges and floods are caused by this specific reality of excessive C02 in the atmosphere?

Yet these scenarios follow the predictions of scientists, with more to come

– coastal flooding, more violent weather.  An unstable atmopshere will produce crazy weather.  Anyone notice any crazy weather lately?

The reality of climate change, along with that other inconvenient crisis of ‘overshoot,’ consuming beyond the Earth’s capacity to sustain life, including us, is going to require a new kind of global governance and a very high level of international cooperation.   In this country, it also requires rethinking how we do business here.  For example, it is time we eliminate that Constitutional fiction that corporations have the same rights under that Constitution as we human beings.  It is time we change the economic/corporate culture that insists that any controls on development, or the behavior of businesses in regard to the land, the air, the oceans, lakes, rivers, and wetlands, is a threat to ‘economic growth’ and therefore un-American.

We have a far greater priority here that outweighs all corporate profit and economic growth put together — saving this planet for future generations.

Meanwhile, as the Supreme Court ‘deliberates,’ the Earth keeps warming.  And here is another story in the long list of stories that puts this ‘due deliberation’ into perspective.  Can we finally stop deliberating and start taking action?

Comments

3 Responses to “Supreme Court hears arguments on emissions”

  1. Bernie the Bunny on November 30th, 2006 9:32 pm

    Hi Margaret!
    Nice Blog posting. I agree and wrote my own Blog posting about this issue at my Blog: http://www.annies.com/blog/

    Wanna be friends?

    Bye for now,
    Bernie

  2. ecologicalhope on December 1st, 2006 1:33 pm

    Bernie,

    Thanks for the comment and support. Of course, we can be friends. Do visit again. This earth needs all the friends it can get to be friends with each other.

    Margaret

  3. Supreme Court rebukes Bush administration on carbon emissions, as pressure from Europe grows : Spirituality and Ecological Hope on April 2nd, 2007 12:29 pm

    […] We posted about this last November when the court heard arguments in the case. There are links to articles there that will provide more background on the legal issues involved. […]

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