Should climate change deniers be found liable?

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

In May, papers published by NASA and the University of Washington revealed that the collapse of the West Antarctic ice sheet is "irreversible" and will lead to higher sea level rises than have previously been projected.

Not surprisingly, this is bad news for agriculture. Britain's Guardian newspaper states that a May report by The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the first to factor in the NASA findings, predicts a 25 per cent decline in American corn belt yields by midcentury.

But while these disturbing findings roll out, climate change deniers show no signs of relaxing their position. This is leading Lawrence Torcello, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Rochester, to say that organized climate change denial groups should be found liable for the destruction caused by climate change.

In Torcello's opinion piece in The Conversation, he says that "accurately understanding our natural environment and sharing that information can be a matter of life or death . . . With such high stakes, an organized campaign funding misinformation ought to be considered criminally negligent."

Torcello is careful to make the distinction between free speech and "the funding of a strategically organized campaign to undermine the public's ability to develop and voice informed opinions."

Are climate lawsuits our future? The Washington Examiner reported that Farmers Insurance sued 12 municipal governments for ignoring climate change and failing to plan for the heavy rainfalls and subsequent flooding of April 2013. The suit was later dropped, but Farmers told Insurance Journal they feel they made their point. BF