Contours of Global Order – Professor Noam Chomsky Lecture

David Mclauchlan

Published on Feb 4, 2014

Professor Noam Chomsky talks at the UCL Rickman Godlee Lecture – Contours of Global Order: Domination, stability, security in a changing world.

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

A Conversation with Noam Chomsky

University of California Television (UCTV)

Published on Apr 28, 2014

(Visit: http://www.uctv.tv/) Jan Nederveen Pieterse in conversation with Noam Chomsky, linguist, philosopher and political commentator. Chomsky is Emeritus professor of linguistics at MIT. Jan Nederveen Pieterse is professor of Global Studies and Sociology at University of California, Santa Barbara. Series: “Carsey-Wolf Center” [5/2014] [Humanities] [Show ID: 28120]

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

Noam Chomsky (2014) “Declining US Hegemony” FULL SPEECH

The Chomsky Videos

Published on May 17, 2014

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

If We Remain Predators, the Planet Will Cast Us Off – Lawrence Wilkerson on RAI

Part 2

Part 3

TheRealNews

Published on May 12, 2014

Col. Wilkerson says the United States and China must stop the arms buildup and solve the climate change crisis or humans may not have a future on this planet

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

TRNN Debate: Should The Internet Be Regulated Like A Utility?

TheRealNews

Published on May 16, 2014

Ryan Radia and Christopher Mitchell discuss the recent FCC proposal and how the internet should be owned and regulated

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

Who Owns What Where?

TheRealNews

Published on May 14, 2014

Thomas Piketty, author of Capital in the 21st Century, tells us about his study of the history of income and wealth since the 18th century

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

Antibiotics Are Becoming Useless All Over the World, Why?

TheRealNews

Published on May 17, 2014

A major threat to global security explained by Martin Khor

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

The War on Climate Scientists

Moyers & Company

Published on May 16, 2014

Corporations and some governments seem recklessly determined to deny the reality of global warming. In part two of his interview, environmentalist David Suzuki says killing the messenger is a strategy ripped straight from big tobacco’s old playbook.

Vimeo edition:

See more: http://bit.ly/1nRF0Jy

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

Young People Are Taking the Government to Court Over Its Failure to Address Climate Change | Activism | BillMoyers.com

Updated May 7, 2014
by Simon Davis-Cohen
This post first appeared in The Nation.

Masses of ice up to 120 feet above the water level are seen floating near the Southern Shetlands archipelago in Antarctica during the southern hemisphere’s summer season. Scientists researching the effects of global warming on the frozen continent say the phenomenon is causing the giant icebergs to loosen and eventually melt. (AP Photo/Antonio Larrea)

In an unprecedented federal court case that has made it to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, young people from California are suing the Environmental Protection Agency and Departments of Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Energy and Defense under the historic “public trust doctrine” for failing to devise a climate change recovery plan. In their legal brief, they argue, “Failure to rapidly reduce CO2 emissions and protect and restore the balance of the atmosphere is a violation of Youth’s constitutionally protected rights and is redressable by the Courts.”

The public trust doctrine has its roots in antiquity, deriving from the Roman “Code of Justinian.” Elizabeth Brown of Our Children’s Trust, the group coordinating the legal effort, explains that the doctrine represents a duty for all sovereigns to safeguard public resources that future generations will depend on for survival. It is an “attribute of sovereignty,” “implicit in our constitution,” she says.

The National Association of Manufacturers, which is intervening in support of the government agencies, argues in its brief that “in no case has any court ever invoked the doctrine to compel regulatory action by the federal government, much less adoption of a sweeping new regulatory agenda of the type sought by these plaintiffs.”

That’s true. There is no precedent. But that’s kind of the point. Conventional efforts to harness climate change through litigation have failed. The public’s trust in government to tackle climate change has been squashed. The agencies the youth are suing have come up short on the issue of the millennium. We’re clearly in need of some precedent-setting litigation.

….(read more).

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics

Who will pay for climate change? Not us, insurer says

by Dan Weissmann Wednesday, May 14, 2014 – 16:28

Climate change is shaping up to be really expensive. So who picks up the tab? That’s the issue in a lawsuit filed recently by Farmers Insurance against Chicago and its suburbs.

A big two-day rainstorm hit the Chicago area in April 2013. Sewers backed up into hundreds of homes. Some people had to leave their homes. Clean-up was a nightmare.

The company wants local governments to pay for damages, and experts say this marks the beginning of a trend.

Andrew Logan looks at the insurance industry for Ceres, a non-profit that coordinates private-sector efforts to address climate change.

“I think what the insurers are saying is: ‘We’re in the business of covering unforeseen risks. Things that are basically accidents,’” Logan says. “‘But we’re now at a point with the science where climate change is now a foreseeable risk.’”

That would make local governments liable, in theory, for not upgrading their stormwater-management systems to account for that risk.

Legal experts say this theory faces an uphill fight. Very strong legal doctrines protect governments in these kinds of cases, says attorney James Bruen, a partner at Farella Braun + Martell LLP.

“They can say, ‘You can’t second-guess us on that,’” says Bruen. “‘We have to make a decision politically about where to put our services, and just because you don’t have as many services as you’d like is not a basis to sue us. Sorry.’”

So, why bother filing this kind of suit?

“It’s the lottery,” Bruen says. In other words, the cost of the ticket— filing the suit— is nothing compared to the potential payout: Getting off the hook for climate-related liabilities.

Insurers may also hope lawsuits will influence future government decisions. “They want to put cities on notice that they’re not going to walk away quietly,” says Robert Verchick, who teaches environmental law at Loyola University in New Orleans.

“Even if a city is likely to win a lawsuit, it still is going to have to spend quite a bit in defending itself,” he says. “And it might just be better for everybody involved for cities to take climate change seriously.”

Michael Gerrard, who runs the Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, says he’s been waiting to see a lawsuit like this for a long time.

…(read more)

Global Climate Change
Environmental Justice
Environment Ethics