Green groups hope suit forces U.S. hand on warming

[G_j]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N03333626.htm

Green groups hope suit forces U.S. hand on warming

14 Jan 2005 15:33:20 GMT

Source: Reuters

By Timothy Gardner

NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Green lobbyists and several U.S. cities hope a lawsuit against U.S. development agencies will force the government to act on global warming, even though President George W. Bush has long insisted there's no scientific proof linking human activity to warming.

Environmental lawyers say the suit will be closely watched as lawsuits against utilities and the government tied to global warming increase. Last July, for example, eight U.S. states and New York City sued five U.S. power companies, accusing them of stoking climate change.

"Any court that rules that global warming is a problem that needs to be addressed, just that headline, would be huge for the people trying to do something about global warming," said Pat Parenteau, a professor at Vermont Law School's Environmental Law Center.

The lawsuit, slated to be argued in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in April, seeks to require two U.S. development agencies to conduct environmental assessments on coal, natural gas and petroleum projects they financed in developing nations, including China and Mexico.
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http://www.sustain-online.org/plugins/DocSearch/details.asp?MenuId=1&ClickMenu=&doOpen=1&type=DocDet&ObjectId=MTI1NjE

Small islands take aim at polluting countries over global warming


Agence France Presse, 13 January 2005 - Leaders of the world's smallest islands on Thursday joined UN chief Kofi Annan in calling for action to fight climate change, with the Pacific atoll of Kiribati accusing polluting countries of waging "eco-terrorism."

Kiribati, along with Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and a handful of other low-lying island states, are threatened by the rise in the sea level caused by global warming that could see them entirely submerged.

"Our future looks bleak in the face of climate change, climate variability and sea level rise," Kiribati's President Anote Tong told a UN conference on small islands being held in Mauritius.

"We regard these threats as very real," he said. "And as deliberate acts by some to secure benefits at the cost of others could only be compared to an act of terrorism -- eco-terrorism if you wish."

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Glaciers Melting at Alarming Rate
http://www.truthout.org/docs_05/011505X.shtml

[Vidar]

1. Bon chance to the courageous Greens.

[MasonJar]

2. How can we help? We could send the whole Bush government

to prison.