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<font size="+2"><font face="Calibri"><i><b>June</b></i></font></font><font
size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b> 27, 2023</b></i></font><font
face="Calibri"><br>
</font> <font face="Calibri"> </font> <br>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[ Before you decide to live in the forest --
first check the issues about the Wildland - Urban Interface =
WUI and the Wildfire Treadmill ] </i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font><font face="Calibri"><b>To prevent
devastating wildfires, manage people — not just forests</b></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><i><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://kuow.org/stories/to-prevent-devastating-wildfires-manage-people-not-just-forests">https://kuow.org/stories/to-prevent-devastating-wildfires-manage-people-not-just-forests</a></i><b><br>
</b></font><font face="Calibri">Libby Denkmann</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Hans Anderson</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">June 26, 2023</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">Experts are warning that Washington state will
be extra vulnerable to wildfire this year, thanks to a combination
of a dry spring season and buildup of fuels over last summer’s
relatively quiet fire season.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">Dry conditions helped fuel an 800-acre wildfire
in Yakima County earlier this month, the largest in Washington so
far this year.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">The state has begun taking a more active role
in trying to curb the mega-fires that blot out our blue skies:
once again using prescribed burns, and enacting plans to thin and
treat millions of acres of land over the next decades.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">Some experts argue it’s not enough, though.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">Recent reports from researchers at Headwaters
Economics and the Sightline Institute point to the need to rethink
human development in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), the zone
where flammable, unoccupied land meets man--made communities.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">"With fire, we're constantly in triage mode,
but we're not really looking at those underlying symptoms that may
be causing the illness," said Carl Segerstrom, who wrote about
these reports for Range Media.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">"Both reports recommend a similar mitigation:
keeping new housing out of the WUI. This can take a lot of
different forms, like zoning restrictions and land use planning."</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">Segerstrom added, "We continue to put ourselves
more at risk from fires. From 1990 to 2020, there was a 47%
increase in homes in the wildland urban interface.".</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">To hear the full KUOW audio:</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://kuow.org/stories/to-prevent-devastating-wildfires-manage-people-not-just-forests">https://kuow.org/stories/to-prevent-devastating-wildfires-manage-people-not-just-forests</a>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"></font>
<p><font face="Calibri">- -<br>
</font></p>
<font face="Calibri">[ related ]<br>
</font><b>How to make fires less wild</b><br>
BY CARL SEGERSTROM <br>
JUNE 2, 2023<br>
Local expert offers practical advice and resources to prepare for
fire season in the Inland Northwest.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://rangemedia.co/fire-preparation-spokane-inland-northwest-home-tips/">https://rangemedia.co/fire-preparation-spokane-inland-northwest-home-tips/</a><br>
<p><font face="Calibri">- -</font></p>
<font face="Calibri">[ more related ]<br>
</font><font face="Calibri"><b>Living with [surviving?] climate
change</b><br>
RANGE talks to Brian G. Henning, the Director of Gonzaga Center
for Climate, Society, and the Environment, about the role climate
change plays in driving extreme weather.<br>
BY RANGE JUNE 13, 2023</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://rangemedia.co/living-with-surviving-climate-change-spokane-urban-canopy/">https://rangemedia.co/living-with-surviving-climate-change-spokane-urban-canopy/</a><br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></p>
<font face="Calibri"> <i>[ Mother Jones analysis - of the recent
court case ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> <b>What to Know About the Groundbreaking
Climate Change Lawsuit in Montana</b></font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Climate law expert Michael Gerrard explains the
stakes of Held v. Montana.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">HENRY CARNELL<br>
</font><font face="Calibri">June 26, 2023<br>
</font><font face="Calibri">This was a historic week for climate
litigation. Tuesday marked the closing arguments in Held v.
Montana, a lawsuit brought by sixteen young people arguing that
the state’s fossil fuel friendly legislation is at odds with an
environmental rights clause in the Montana constitution. It’s only
the third climate-related lawsuit to go to trial, and the first
lawsuit focusing on a state’s constitution. <br>
<br>
“There have been hundreds of lawsuits but very few of them go to
trial,” says Michael Gerrard, the founder and faculty director of
the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. <br>
<br>
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2020, hinges on a section of the
state constitution that affirms the right to a clean environment:
“The state and each person shall maintain and improve a clean and
healthful environment in Montana for present and future
generations.” As the trial date neared, lawmakers repealed a
30-year-old pro–fossil fuel law; the state Attorney General Austin
Knudsen followed up by seeking to dismiss the parts of Held that
mention it. In the end, the law’s repeal did little to stop the
case. The Montana Petroleum Executive Director went on record
saying that the repeal “will not have any effect on energy policy
moving forward.” And as the lawyers for the plaintiffs, who were
all under 18 when the lawsuit was filed, pointed out, there are
plenty of other fossil fuel friendly laws on the books, including
one that bars climate change considerations in environmental
assessments of industry projects. The youth plaintiffs are
challenging those pieces of legislation in particular. <br>
<br>
“The world is burning,” testified Claire Vlases, the 20-year-old
plaintiff from Bozeman, Montana. “That sounds like a dystopian
horror film, but it’s not a movie. It’s real life. That’s what us
kids have to deal with.” The plaintiffs’ expert witness Anne Hedge
agrees. In her testimony, the Montana Environmental Information
Center co-director accused the state government of “running in the
wrong direction to address the climate crisis.”<br>
<br>
To better understand the strategy behind the lawsuit and how it
might impact future climate litigation, I talked to Gerrard, a
practicing environmental lawyer with 40 years of experience and 14
books under his belt. You can read our 30-minute conversation,
edited and condensed for clarity, below. <br>
<b><br>
</b><b>So this case hinges on Montana having an environmental
rights clause in the constitution, how common are those?</b><br>
</font><font face="Calibri">Most of them were enacted in the early
1970s, which was the era when most of the US environmental laws
were enacted. New York just added one two years ago, but most of
them are very old, and most of them haven’t been used much. There
was an important decision under Pennsylvania’s environmental
rights clause around 2013 declaring unconstitutional a state law
that barred localities from regulating fracking. That decision
garnered a great deal of attention and revisited interest in state
constitutional environmental rights. These provisions are still
very much the exception, not the rule—only a handful of states
have environmental clauses written into their constitutions.
Though as it happens, in September, a trial is scheduled in Hawaii
based on that state’s environmental clause.<br>
<br>
<b>And how are the Montana and Hawaii cases different than past
climate change lawsuits?</b><br>
A much larger number of cases were brought under something called
the public trust <br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">doctrine. In 1970, a law professor named Joseph
Sax from the University of Michigan wrote a famous article about
how the public trust doctrine [which holds that the state has a
responsibility to protect natural resources for future generation]
could be used for environmental protection. And a law professor at
the University of Oregon, Mary Wood, wrote that the public trust
doctrine applies to the atmosphere and could be used to fight
climate change. A nonprofit group formed in Oregon called Our
Children’s Trust began bringing lawsuits all over the country
based on the public trust doctrine. These lawsuits were dismissed
on various legal grounds, except for the Juliana v. US, which
advanced significantly until it was thrown out by the Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals. But, it may now be coming back.<br>
<br>
That was a suit brought by 21 young people in Oregon against the
federal government, seeking an order that the federal government
prepare and implement a program to passively reduce greenhouse gas
emissions and draw excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The
trial went back and forth several times to the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals. But ultimately in January 2020, by a two-to-one vote,
they dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that it was not the role
of the courts to set climate policy; it should be left to the
elected branches. The court accepted the climate science that had
been presented by the plaintiffs and acknowledged that climate
change is a grave threat. But they said it’s not their job to
address. The plaintiffs then asked the court for permission to
amend their complaint to ask for more mild relief—just a
declaration of rights. And about three weeks ago, the court
granted that motion. We’re now waiting to see what stance the
Biden Department of Justice takes toward that motion.<br>
<br>
Our Children’s Trust also played a central role in the Montana
case. What’s distinctive about this case in Montana is that it’s
brought under the environmental rights clause of a state
constitution. That has given it much more force. <br>
<br>
<b>Wow. There’s a lot going on. In terms of climate law, both the
Montana case and the Juliana case.</b><br>
Let me also mention the degree to live activity internationally. A
group of young law students in the Pacific persuaded Vanuatu, one
of the endangered island states, to ask the United Nations General
Assembly to pose a question about climate change to the
International Court of Justice in the Hague. That led to a very
successful campaign; about two months ago, the UN General Assembly
voted by consensus to send this question to the International
Court of Justice. Also, there are several climate change cases now
pending before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg,
France, and before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in San
Jose, Costa Rica, and a climate petition pending before the
International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea. Our center maintains
a database of all the climate change cases in the world and there
have been 2200 climate change cases that have been brought, of
which about 70 percent are in the US. It’s a rapidly growing
field.<br>
<br>
<b>Jumping back to the Montana case. There’s been a lot of
backlash from lawmakers in Montana against this lawsuit. Is the
potential outcome of this case an inroad into addressing that or
is that just a completely separate legislative fight?</b><br>
That’s a separate legislative and political fight. I don’t know
whether there will be an effort to repeal the environmental rights
clause of the constitution. But that sort of thing is often very
challenging. No environmental rights clause has ever been
repealed. <br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><b>The defense just wrapped up their evidence,
and we’re waiting on the ruling. What would be the ramifications
of potential rulings?</b><br>
Well, as a technical matter, the court would not set a binding
precedent, because it’s just a trial-level court in Montana. But a
successful ruling for the plaintiffs could be very energizing to
young people and climate activists and lawyers around the country
and indeed, around the world. These cases are being closely
followed and success here could lead to similar efforts in other
places. It could embolden other judges to move in similar
directions.<br>
<br>
<b>If the judge strikes down on the case, what do you think will
happen to the larger climate law movement? Do you think that
that will affect future rulings?</b><b><br>
</b>It would depend on the grounds that the court used. If the
court were to reject the lawsuit on fairly narrow issues of
Montana procedural law, that would be very limited in its impact.
If this judge said she didn’t believe the climate science that was
presented by the plaintiffs, that would be more damaging. The
state has raised that emissions from Montana are so small that it
wouldn’t make any difference if they stopped the emissions. If the
court were to agree with that, it would be harmful because most
states and most countries have relatively small emissions. <br>
<br>
<b>Do you have any final takeaways from the case?</b><br>
One is that I thought that the plaintiff’s lawyers did a wonderful
job structuring and presenting the case. The young people were
very moving and convincing when they told their personal stories.
And, most of the expert witnesses were from Montana and were able
to bring the case home. They showed the impacts of climate change
on Montana. I thought that was extremely well done. I was
surprised that [the state of] Montana chose to withdraw its only
scientific witness. They clearly concluded that downplaying the
impacts of climate change would not be a winning strategy in the
face of the overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.<br>
<br>
One other thing I would say is that national governments,
parliaments, and presidents around the world have uniformly failed
to act adequately on climate change, leading many people to resort
to the courts. So I think this trend of more climate litigation is
going to continue. But no one should think that litigation is the
silver bullet. It can be one important tool in the toolkit.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2023/06/held-montana-climate-change-lawsuit-constitution/">https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2023/06/held-montana-climate-change-lawsuit-constitution/</a></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> <i>[ DW media seems calmly unafraid of
examining issues ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font> <font face="Calibri"><b>The climate
crisis: Can smart ideas save the planet? | DW Documentary</b></font><br>
<font face="Calibri">DW Documentary</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Jun 13, 2023 #dwdocumentary #documentary
#climatechange</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Can high-tech solutions help protect the
climate? What would be the side effects of further human
intervention in nature?</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">Attempts are being made to reduce the CO2 in
the atmosphere with technical solutions. For example, new carbon
capture technology that can extract CO2 from air and water, even
if the amount currently captured is minimal and not enough to
prevent the climate crisis and its consequences. </font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Still, there is no shortage of ideas. Adding
basalt rock dust to agricultural fields not only binds carbon
dioxide but keeps the soil fertile. Biochar, made from organic
waste, has a similar effect. </font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Some ideas are bolder: A protective screen of
particles in the upper layers of the atmosphere could filter
sunlight, as seen with the eruption of the Pinatubo volcano in the
Philippines in 1991. The millions of tons of sulfur dioxide spewed
into the stratosphere cooled the earth significantly. </font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Theoretically, aircraft could be used to
deliver the particles. But experts warn that the consequences for
humans and the weather would be felt worldwide and could never be
fully controlled.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afPVy0yiLRw">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afPVy0yiLRw</a></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"></font>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Calibri"><br>
</font> </p>
<font face="Calibri"> <i>[The news archive - looking back -
"could'a, would'a, should'a" in video record 23 years ago. ]</i><br>
<font size="+2"><i><b>June 27, 2000</b></i></font> <br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri"> June 27, 2000: Democratic presidential
candidate Al Gore lays out his energy policy at a campaign
appearance in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.</font></p>
<p><font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.c-span.org/person/?169/AlGoreJr">https://www.c-span.org/person/?169/AlGoreJr</a><br>
</font></p>
<font face="Calibri"><strike><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://c-spanvideo.org/program/GoreEne">http://c-spanvideo.org/program/GoreEne</a>
</strike><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</font>
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