Texas judge rules atmosphere, air to be protected like water, may aid climate change lawsuits

Jul 14, 2012 No Comments by

The ruling described in this Washington Post article is based on the idea that the climate is a natural commons which needs to be protected for public use – an approach that ties in with the arguments made in Feasta’s book Sharing for Survival. The lawsuit which brought about this ruling was part of a campaign by the Oregon-based non-profit Our Children’s Trust. It’s carrying out similar lawsuits in a number of other US states. Perhaps a similar approach could be effective in other countries?

Related posts:

  1. Marine Protected Areas and Stock Recovery
  2. Atmosphere as a ‘Public Trust’ Legal Action in the US
  3. New project for addressing climate change
  4. Public Meeting: How thinking about the climate crisis needs to change
  5. Submission to the UK All-Party Committee on Climate Change
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About the author

Caroline Whyte collaborated with Richard Douthwaite on an online update of his book Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies in an Unstable World in 2002-3 and went on to study ecological economics at Mälardalen University in Sweden in 2005-6, writing a masters thesis on the relationship between central banking and sustainability. She compiled the conclusion for Feasta's 2011 book Fleeing Vesuvius and was a contributor to the Feasta Climate Group's book Sharing for Survival in 2012. She lives in central France, from where she edits the Feasta website.

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Feasta is badly in need of funding at present. Early in 2013 we will lose a sizable proportion of our core funding owing to the winding down of a trust fund that has been supporting Feasta for many years. Joining Feasta, making a donation or buying one of our books are much-appreciated gestures of support towards an organisation with a well-established track record of researching, debating and promoting the much-needed switch to a sustainable and just economic paradigm.