Tiny Eskimo Village Sues 24 Big Energy Companies
by Jesse Fox, Tel Aviv, Israel on 02.27.08
Sandbags hold back the sea in Kivalina, Alaska.
A tiny Alaskan village is suing 24 major energy companies for damages due to global warming. The 390 residents of Kivalina, an Inupiat Eskimo village built on a barrier reef in the Arctic Ocean, have found themselves of the front lines of climate change over the past few years, as melting sea ice has exposed the village to storms and erosion. The cost of eventually relocating the entire village has been estimated at $400 million.
According to the villagers' lawyer, damage caused to the village by global warming has been documented by no less than the Army Corp of Engineers and the General Accounting Office. The villagers' lawsuit is based on the federal common law of public nuisance, as well as a charge of conspiracy on behalf of some of the defendants to mislead the public about the facts of global warming.
The list of defendants reads like a who's who of fossil fuel industry fat cats, including: Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell PLC, ConocoPhillips and a host of power companies. The residents allege that the carbon emissions of these companies are the major factor that led to Kivalina's current predicament.
Whether the suit, filed last week in a California court, will manage to hold the energy sector responsible for one village's struggle with climate change remains to be seen, but it certainly is an important precedent, and perhaps even a hint of things to come.
Via:: msnbc
Much of what has happened to the planet is the result of corporate greed. Passing the results of this onto the backs of the worlds people allows the likes of Exxon, Dow Chemical etc to reap great profit.
Oh I hope they succeed!
Eskimo?!?!?!?!? Doesn't that mean raw meat eater?
Well, considering that it's not really the energy companies fault but everybody consuming that energy (yes, that includes me--sorry), shouldn't they be suing, well, just about everybody, not just the energy companies?
Well, considering that it's not really the energy companies fault but everybody consuming that energy (yes, that includes me--sorry), shouldn't they be suing, well, just about everybody, not just the energy companies?
wow, what a story.
i wish them the best of luck.
what a story!
I wish them the best of luck.
Absolutely absurd. They are just as guilty as anyone else is for global warming. I'm sure their village's generator is diesel and those snowmobiles they run around in certainly aren't electric.
Everyone who drives a vehicle is guilty of contributing to global warming. Period.
Best of luck to them, this could be a bellwether case.
That works out to north of a million dollars each. How much does it cost to move a household in Alaska? I suspect they need to quote more than one mover ...
That's brilliant. I want to see the Public Relations divisions at these power companies try and come out of this NOT looking like the heartless bastards they really are.
That's brilliant. I want to see the Public Relations divisions at these power companies try and come out of this NOT looking like the heartless bastards they really are.
That's brilliant. I want to see the Public Relations divisions at these power companies try and come out of this NOT looking like the heartless bastards they really are.
That's brilliant! I want to see the Public Relations stooges at these companies try to come out of this NOT looking like the heartless bastards they really are.
First off, I'd like to apologize for my "Homer Moment" (i.e. "D'OH!"). Apparently I hit "refresh" a couple too many times.
As far as gnoble's comment, yes, part of eskimo culture involves eating raw meat, but then there are three major eskimo groups, and out of those three, there are at least 9 different subgroups. If you want to make ignorant generalizations about an entire culture, that's your funeral buddy, and I ain't helping you to dig your own grave.
Eating meat is not necessarily evil. It's only when it's provided to consumers under a ton of lies and denial for generations that alternatives must be accepted. However, if you're going to hunt your breakfast, harvest everything off that animal, and pay that creature the respect and reverence it is due, then I as a vegan have no problem with that.
And if energy companies want to rape the environment with little recourse to the people who live there (god forbid that Exxon should care about the Polar Bear), then I'd love to help show these bastards that there's a LOT of people watching this case, and I'd love to help give them nightmares as well.
Sadly, I think we're going to see many more stories like this over the next few years.
I think the courts will be reluctant to set a legal precedent that will make large western companies responsible for the costs of relocating small poor communities around the world.
Would that the courts take a different view...
Finally the external costs of energy consumption made visible!
I think the approved term now is "Inuit", not Eskimo (I know Inuit only technically refers to most of the groups, but I just wiki'd it to be sure...Eskimo is considered to be a perjorative nowadays...)
Agree that we're all to blame...I'm not sure you can pin it solely on the providers of the power. That's like charging gun companies for murders involving firearms...
But it's nice to see a push for more accountability...only good will come from it and the publicity...
400 million? Where is the village moving to? LA?
How about $4,000 and get another whole row of new sandbags?
Our liberal agenda is always set back by these overly reactionary and over the top selfish grabs. If we are to be successful, we need to be persuasive. And we are trying to persuade a large portion of selfish egoists who are convinced already, that all we are dealing with, is a new set of hands in the pie.
The big bad greedy energy companies aren't responsible for the waves licking the village. Not anymore than the local meat man is responsible for the fat guy sitting next to me on the bus.
Energy companies sell energy. To whoever will buy, at the highest profit/price they can muster. Same as you or I do on eBay with our stuff.
In the case of global warming, the perps and the victims are one and the same.
A tiny village has every right to sue the corporations behind global warming, whether they use a few tiny generators or not ... these corporations (and their lobbyists, corrupt legal teams and their political cronies) have prevented us the public from having access to all the alternative energy sources and higher efficiency vehicles we could have had DECADES ago, had they not been so busy making sure that oil tycoons had locked all of those doors. Lord knows how much of global warming could have been prevented, or how much cleaner our skies, beaches and roads would be - - had we not been forced into an oil stranglehold. Now things are finally changing (sad it took a war and dramatically melting arctic to make so many people wake up, and force even the big corporations to realize there was an economy in alternative, greener energy sources.) We all do consume, but some communities consume far less and pay more of the price. I hope this village succeeds.
What I would like to see: (tongue in cheek)
The oil companies lose this case. Then 100000000 other similiar lawsuits are filed, that have just as much merit. This puts the oil companies out of business and then 95% of the worlds population dies of starvation.
Inuit are what the Canadian tribe calls themselves, These people are Yupik.
As a Inupiaq native I can say that Shishmeraf, Barrow, Wainwright and Nome have suffered a blow due to Coastal erosion from global warming.
Most of those towns, except for Nome are part of the Arctic Slope Regional Native corporation, which owns the Alaskan oil fields in Prudho Bay.
This tribe is not a part of that corporation, even though they share the same language and most of their culture with my tribe.
Coastal erosion that is drastically changing the landscape of all these towns.
In 1960, when my mom lived in Barrow, The coastline was actually 1.5 miles further away than it is now. A very dramatic change.
Also In Nome Alaska, all the low bush shrubbary has recently had a growth spurt of 2 to 3 feet in hight!
Its almost like there are Trees growing in the arctic! Its crazy
Its just that all the other towns have a financial intrest in the oil companies so they are less likely to sue the oil companies over the destruction of the historical sites that near the beach,
I know in Barrow, They spent billions of dollars to dredge the coast to try to stave off eroision, when it would of been cheaper and safer to move the entire town house by house 15 miles inland with large tractors.
Oh boy, I hope they win. Then maybe we can get these big companies to shut down and stop giving us the energy we need to run our computers so we can stop leaving comments on subjects that in reality don't exist. There is no global warming it's all about money. If these scientists don't have something for us to be concerned with they get no funding. (remember global cooling in the 70's). I'll bet my comment isn't posted here because they don't want to see the truth in print, they just want you running around like chicken little "the sky is falling the sky is falling".