UC-Irvine Spends a Day Discussing the Weather and Justice

"Victims of the weather" conference
(Photo: New University)


The below story is from New University, campus newspaper of UC-Irvine.

http://www.newuniversity.org/2011/04/news/climate-concerns/

"On Friday, April 1, relevant characters in the fight for ecologic justice participated in “A3: A Conference on Climate Justice.”

Ecologic Justice. That's a new one on me.


"From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., the experts discussed social injustices that marginalized entities as a result of climate change. Each participant brought forth their own perspective under the broader blanket subject of rising temperatures and ecologic justice."

"Associate Professor of Environmental Ethics, Science and Law at Pennsylvania State University Donald Brown was a keynote speaker who focused on the importance of taking responsibility and prompting discourse at every level."


“A big issue here is the question: what is our fair share and who will pay for the damages?” he asked on Friday."

"Some members of international government, he said, are suggesting that separate nations should divvy up costs to pay back according to historical responsibility. In other words, whichever countries have used the most fossil fuels in the past should be required to refund the most."

Here we go. More transfer of wealth from us to the Third World-as if we don't give enough in foreign aid.



"Brown stressed the need for talk — the United States, he commented, must start actually discussing this topic in order for anything to get done at all."


"America has been well-known world wide to be a large contributor to the depletion of natural fuel and resources, he continued."

“Adaptation costs could be astronomically high. No one is talking about it here, and if the U.S. is worried about cost, we had better wake up to this issue,” Brown said.

Where was Al Gore?


"He ended on an equally sober note, prompting citizens to probe deeper into the subject of ecologic justice."


“The U.S. is being manipulated by fossil fuel interests and the environmental community is being tricked as a result of it,” Brown said."

Donald Brown. Isn't that the guy who was involved in that big scandal with East Anglia University in England? Climategate. Cooked books and all that?

"Uhhhh,..........yeaaaaah."

This is the guy who is on the attack against the "fossil fuel industries" and tried to make the case that climate change is a human rights issue. Sounds to me like a ......

"What's the word?

Environmental wacko.

"Next, Chevron resource engineer Udak Ntuk touched on a more location-specific level by speaking on the environmental and inherent social problems plaguing Bakersfield, an area less than 150 miles from Irvine."

Bakersfield. I spent a night there about 40 years ago and never went back. I remember it as a town full of unfriendly Okies in the middle of nowhere. Where is the injustice?



"Ntuk is a member of Sustainability Bakersfield, a multi-ethnic effort and environmental coalition in partnership with a group called Green For All. According to their website, the goals of SB are to “[improve] the lives of all Americans through a clean energy economy.”

Multi-ethnic? Y'mean they got some Yankees dumb enough to move there?




"For Bakersfield in particular, there is an especially sticky series of events that have directly affected the area’s economy, citizens and environment.


“Bakersfield is the No. 2 most toxic city in America,” Ntuk said. “The lack of water due to drought leads to unemployment and more dead trees that cause fires and pollution. This also leads to more cases of asthma and other respiratory illness.”

So why not move someplace that has water-as in rainfall, lakes and rivers. Let's say you choose to live in Death Valley. Where is the injustice?


"Despite these issues, Ntuk insists there is a way out.


“Everyone has something to offer,” he said. “Citizen action is key to getting out of this.”

"The Hopi employ traditional methods of farming in their self-sustaining society. Recently, however, their farming has been threatened by the hand of climate change, Elkind claims."

“They rely on the environment for their food,” he said. “Farming is also critical to ceremonial, religious and clan obligation aspects of culture.”


"With less rainfall, there is a serious diminishment in crop yield, leading to decreased edible native vegetation. In addition, invasive wildlife that also seek compromised feed create problems that lead to even more food shortages."




Hopi Indians? Aren't they in Arizona? When did they have a lot of rainfall in most of Arizona?

“We need resources for assessments and planning; we need help charting a future,” Elkind said. “We need to protect existing, local resources, local water supply, promote retrofitting and realize we are all connected in this.”

Translation? We need government programs. Translation? Raise taxes.

"For Neil A.F. Popovic, Cal lecturer and lawyer in San Francisco, issues of climate change were brought to his attention by the Inuit people of Alaska and Canada."



"The United State’s failure to control greenhouse gases caused changes in the Inuit’s environment including reduction of sea ice and reduced quality of snow, which led to change in weather and change of animals present. They argued that this was a threat to human rights and that the government was not protecting these rights."

"This led the community to bring their suit to the firm and since then, Popovic has been involved with the case on a pro-bono basis."


“What we’re looking at here is litigation as a way to address climate change and human rights issues,” Popovic said. “We can recognize certain harms that come from environmental degradation and affect human rights.”

Of course. That's what lawyers do-look for litigation. Climate change, environmental degradation, human rights.

This is a widespread issue, he continues, that goes beyond a domestic level. It is a problem felt by many, bringing about the humanitarian aspect of this issue.



"This is a human rights issue!!!"


"This promotes dialogue, something that all participants can safely say is a key to bringing about awareness."

There you go. Dialogue. Awareness.

“Everyone should be talking about this to spread awareness,” Chemerinsky said. “The symposium showed that global warming is a serious problem … The effects on people — from weather changes, food shortages and changes in what is habitable space — are tremendous.”

Of course, this "dialogue" is all about how the left tries to make Climate Change and Global Warming a human rights issue since they can't prove it really exists in the first place or that it is all caused by man. So why is the UC Irvine Law School involved in this? Maybe they think we can sue our way into enforcing a "Green Society".

I have a suggestion for people who live in dry areas like Bakersfield or Arizona. Move to West Palm Beach. Then you can achieve "Justice".

File this in the "You gotta be kidding me" department. I suggest next time they bring in Al Gore and a troupe of dancing bears.