The battle between some of the world's most powerful energy companies and an Alaska village that's losing ground to climate change heads to federal appeals court on Monday.
Nine Kivalina residents, having survived the recent mega-storm that walloped western Alaska, will be at the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to watch their lawyers argue that ExxonMobil Corp., BP, ConocoPhillips and other corporate Goliaths owe the village at least $95 million in damages.
A key Kivalina argument charges that the energy companies are engaged in a conspiracy to cover up the link between their emissions and the earth's warming temperatures. A similar argument proved pivotal decades ago in helping smokers prevail in court against tobacco giants.
The Northwest Alaska village lost the first round of its lawsuit in 2009, when a U.S. District Court dismissed it, saying climate-change pollution needs to be regulated by Congress and the administration, not courts. The village lacked standing, the court said, because it could not show the companies' emissions caused the erosion threatening the village.
But Kivalina is optimistic this time around.
"What we have going for us is the science is changing by the day," and the causal connection between greenhouse-gas emissions and the climate is clarifying, said Heather Kendall-Miller, an attorney for Kivalina and head of the Alaska office of the Native American Rights Fund.
Alaska spokespeople for ConocoPhillips and BP, and a ConocoPhillips attorney named in the case, would not comment about the companies' arguments.
There are few places on earth that have felt the impact of climate change as acutely as those living in these remote Alaskan villages.
It seems very appropriate for them to be the ones mounting the legal battle that will finally force these energy companies to admit that they have been working for decades to hide the truth about their responsibility, and spending millions of dollars refuting the science that dares to say otherwise.
Now THESE are Alaskans that we can all feel proud to have living in our great state.
Goliath, meet David.
Look, this is a wasted suit. There will always be climate change. Always has been, always will be. Alaska natives were nomadic and moved as seasons and the climate changed. The real problem here is building a permanent village on a spit in the ocean. You're begging for trouble doing that.
ReplyDeleteRick
Whether the suit is ultimately successful or not, the people of Kivalina have done us all a favor by bringing the conversation to the forefront where it must be discussed.
ReplyDeleteAND LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteYeeeeee Hawwwwwww!!!!
Go Get 'em!!!!!
Team Kivalina!
ReplyDeleteThe island looks like a fish.
ReplyDeleteWas it larger at one time, because I don't understand why anyone would live there otherwise, or build.
Jesse wrote:
ReplyDelete"Now THESE are Alaskans that we can all feel proud to have living in our great state.
"Goliath, meet David."
--- indeed! The people of Kivalina (Kivualinagmut) are courageous, fighting big oil.
And so are the people of Point Hope (Tikigaq), as they fight the Obama administration's decision to go ahead with exploratory drilling very close to both communities in the Chukchi Sea. Point Hope is - like Kivalina - suing.
The Obama administration.
David - meet Goliath.
Hope you cover this one too, Gryph. I've been to both communities, have friends in both, and there are a lot of converging ideals represented by the legal actions being put forth by both communities.
http://www.nana.com/regional/about-us/overview-of-region/kivalina/
ReplyDeleteGood reading for anyone wanting to know the history of the location of modern day Kivalina and the people that reside there.
OT
ReplyDeleteThe Uncyclopedia has this staement under "Trig Palin."
"Trig Palin is to retarded babies as Sarah Palin is to retarded adults."
ROFLMAO
This is an excellent local, microcosm of a global problem: WAKE UP!
ReplyDeletehttp://witsendnj.blogspot.com/2011/11/freedoms-just-another-word.html
Does Phillip Munger come here to complain because people don't go to his blog to listen to him?
ReplyDeleteGail @3:59
ReplyDeleteExcellent Post! I passed it onto my bil who's an arborist at Longwood Gardens- hopefully he'll add his observations on your post.
Go Kivalina!, I know it may seem like a small start, but hopefully it'll grow and have ripple effects. Every journey starts with one small step!
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteOT
The Uncyclopedia has this staement under "Trig Palin."
"Trig Palin is to retarded babies as Sarah Palin is to retarded adults."
ROFLMAO
3:48 PM
-------------------
Really, what does this comment have to do with the current conversation?
The Uncyclopedia also says that commenter 3:48pm is just retarded and off topic.
Phil,
ReplyDeleteThere is no documentation available at this time regarding Point Hope suing the Obama administration. Do you have a link you could post?
I am so happy these people are doing this! You GO! I have heard time and time again you can't win against big oil, big pharma, bla,bla, but hit them in the ole feedbag!
ReplyDelete$$$$!
I think all Americans (Ril and REAL) should get bikes and bike one day a week or at least one day a month, Don't use your cars!
Hit those bastards in the feedbag.
Phil have you seen Obama send XL back to be reviewed, peeps think its a goner....don't know if its the same one you are talking about but they all seem to be pipelines to NOWHERE!
"Does Phillip Munger come here to complain because people don't go to his blog to listen to him?"
ReplyDelete--- it was a suggestion, which I'm sure Jesse will consider. I comment here because this forum, uneven as it is (like mine), is important.
I'm a fulltime educator, composer, activist in AK environmental affairs, and other things. I value the relevance of your question very low on scales of importance.
Hopefully, my comment about Point Hope will help you get to know more about the validity of their lawsuit, as Jesse's post here has raised your awareness of the plight of its neighboring town.
Anon @3:59 - great article! As Rick mentioned at 10:15, Alaska natives were nomadic and moved as seasons changed. Unfortunately for the natives of Kavalina, they were forced into making this their permanent home rather than living their original nomadic existence that followed seasons by forces stronger than them. Kudos to them for finally fighting back, even if the fight is based on different criteria. I hope they win!
ReplyDeleteWow, this sounds like the plot of a Michael Crichton novel. Imagine all the billable hours the law firms that are amassing in defending the indefensible.
ReplyDeleteSarah and Bristol, you thought Levi was irksome to your 'perfect' lives? Kivilina has become Big Oil's gnat.
Mr Munger,
ReplyDeletePlease feel free to keep yourself and your giant ego away from my blog.
You are not the the internet's chosen professor, nor do I feel Jesse needs you guidence blogging.
If I want to read your opinion, I go to your blog. When I want to read Jesse, I don't go to your blog looking for Jesse.
You're blogs ego is almost as big as your own ego, though both can come across as equally condensing.
Hey Rick @ 10:15 a.m.
ReplyDeleteIs it better to build million population cities on islands in the American Northeast? Or homes in tornado alley? Or beachfront communities in Hurricane pathways?
Why punish Alaskan villages for forced, energy inefficient community assimilation?
Life was hard before Western contact, but we were self-sufficient and still here after centuries of the best Mother Nature threw at us.
So we are using the public tools the system provides the disadvantaged to fight behemoth interests, how much more American can we be?
We may not win, but at least we struck fear in the Industry's heart.
To Anonymous @ 5:38, of course it's not better to build the places you mentioned. The difference is, people living in those places aren't trying to sue some big company blaming them for a storm or climate change that comes along and wrecks their home.
ReplyDeleteShould the people of Phoenix sue Exxon for the loss of the aquifer that has been supporting them so far? The problem is really too many people living in a marginal area.
As for Kivalina, They might as well be suing nature. land rises and falls with time. The oceans rise and fall with time. Alaska used to be connected to Asia via a land bridge. If that hadn't happened, Alaska natives might not even be here. Alaska used to be in the tropics but it certainly isn't now. You gonna blame British Petroleum for this?
Instead of pissing money down a rat hole on a lawsuit, the people of Kivalina would be better off planning a strategic move to a more suitable location for their village. And instead of making an enemy of the oil companies, a wiser strategy would be approaching them for help. (Logistics, political, grants, fund raising, etc.) Lord knows the oil companies could use some favorable publicity.
There are many villages that have located over the years so don't say it can't be done. A couple that come to mind are Port Lions which used to be a village on Afognak Is and was moved to Kodiak Is after the 64 earthquake (was named Pt Lions after the Lions Club which helped with the move)and Chenega which was also moved after the 64 earthquake.
Rick