While suits seeking to blame climate events on carbon sources and emitters have gone nowhere in the past, some lawyers claim “scientific advances are making it possible to precisely measure what portion of a disaster such as Harvey can be attributed to the planet’s changing climate.” Another set of targets: “government agencies, companies managing infrastructure or architects and engineers who have been involved in building damaged infrastructure, from sewage-treatment plants to levees,” and municipal planners. [Sebastien Malo, Reuters]
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Well, good luck getting anyone to agree to build infrastructure projects if they can be sued next time there is a “500 year storm”.
Any attorney who claims “…possible to precisely measure what portion of a disaster such as Harvey can be attributed to the planet’s changing climate.” needs to retake their entire science curriculum since kindergarten. Yes, the calculations lead to precise results, calculations always do that if done correctly, but the sources of the numbers in the calculations arise from assumptions that are fair game for strenuous debate. Moreover, some of the numbers have, in the past, been filtered and even falsified to suit particular narratives.
It is equally possible to calculate the precise harm to society done by unscrupulous lawyers and to prorate accurately that damage to particular individuals and firms based on their climate change lawsuits.
Remember that most lawyers stopped math at the Pythagorean equation when they started using “not a perfect square” numbers
But all the roots I have seen are round…
“scientific advances are making it possible to precisely measure what portion of a disaster such as Harvey can be attributed to the planet’s changing climate.” — Anyone making this argument in a court proceeding should be prosecuted for perjury.