Lawrence Tribe and the law

A climate change lawsuit is not like a suit in which someone seeks relief on grounds that a polluter has emitted a harmful substance that has traveled to the plaintiff’s property and caused a “nuisance.’’ In such a suit, a judge and jury can rely on established community standards to decide whether the harm the polluter is causing outweighs the economic and other benefits of the polluter’s activities. Says Laurence

He claims nuisance suits don't work in recovering climate change damages.

I claim they work just fine as long a community standards are met. What do I mean community standards? Long Beach surfers cannot complain if global warming makes the waves a bit too big, big waves are within their community standards. But bicycle commuters have a very strong claim that global warming has made their bicycle commute slightly more painful.  I look for two things: 1) Are the plaintiffs emitters within their suit? (Are they part of a preindustrial use of oil) 2) Can they measure the effect in their activities.

The suit filed by Alaskan Eskimos go a little hairy when it was discovered they are great fans of gas operated snow mobiles. When the community standard is to emit based on preindustrial standards, then one has a nuisance suit.