Dorothea Mackellar said it best: “I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains”.
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But how long can we continue to love our droughts and flooding rains?
At the end of 2016 and now into the start of 2017, we see members of the farming community continuing to ship hay across the country to support those in Queensland affected by drought and the NSW town of Lismore nearly completely submerged all due to the effects of the climate, and arguably climate change.
What are we going to do about it?
The more I read about it, the more I’m tempted to follow the lead of 21 young Americans and sue our government, as they are suing theirs.
On August 12, 2015, International Youth Day, a group of 21 Americans, ranging in age from nine to 20 opened civil legal proceedings suing the American government for: “Violating Plaintiffs’ fundamental constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property by substantially causing or contributing to a dangerous concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, and that, in so doing, defendants dangerously interfere with a stable climate system required by our nation and Plaintiffs alike”.
After nearly a year, the case is now proceeding to trial with US Magistrate Judge Coffin saying the case should be held in two phases.
The first phase on the issue of liability and asking the questions: “Is climate change happening? Are there levels beyond which it's going to be irreversible or extraordinarily harmful? Is it human induced? Is the government responsible and did the government cause any of it and are the plaintiffs' constitutional rights violated by what's happening in terms of climate change?”
If liability is found, a second, “remedy phase”.
Accountability is the purpose of this trial - accountability for the problem of climate change and accountability for the solutions and actions to fix it.
If the US government is found to be liable, then remediation will be forced on them and the threat that it could happen to other governments will spur them into action.
Climate change is here, it’s affecting us now and it will continue to affect future generations unless we do something about it now. If that means taking the government to court well, then lets sue them.