We’re Alberta so, for the time being, we have a carbon tax, supposedly to fight global warming.
If we were New York City, we’d be suing oil companies over climate change. Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city wants billions in damages for the effects of climate change.
Basically, he is blaming big oil companies for the storms and flooding and power outages and the expenses of recovering from all of that.
I expect the coming high profile trial will feature eminent climate scientists and insurance experts and maybe even victims of the storms. If de Blasio is lucky they might even get a hurricane during the hearing.
The defense will, of course, press for a definite co-relation between fumes and typhoons and show they did all that was required for the environment.
The elephant in the courtroom will be politics. de Blasio had a huge climate change plank in his election platform.
Win or lose in court, he would still be seen as a climate champion, a shoo-in for re-election.
So, how do you see this – is it right to sue big oil over climate change the way big tobacco was sued for cancer, or is it wrong to politicize a deadly storm?
Let me know what you think.
Bob Layton is the news manager of the Corus Edmonton group of radio stations and a commentator for Global News.
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