The global warming hysteric, James Hansen, has brought a lawsuit claiming that government policy that support the fossil fuel industries is unconstitutional. From his “The Constitutional Right to a Healthier Climate,” published by the Boston Globe:
On Wednesday, a judge in US District Court in Oregon will consider whether a constitutional challenge to federal actions that underwrite fossil fuel emissions may proceed.
Brought by youth plaintiffs, and by me, on behalf of future generations, the lawsuit alleges that by permitting, authorizing, and subsidizing the exploitation, production, transport, and burning of fossil fuels, our government has caused or substantially contributed to the present emergency in which the very viability of a hospitable climate system is at stake.
We argue that such federal actions infringe upon the fundamental guarantees of the Fifth Amendment, including the rights to life, liberty, property, and equal protection of the law.
In other words, Hanson wants the court to declare a constitutional right to forced impoverishment.
As with most Green radicals, Hansen shows his authoritarian colors:
Congress and the president manifestly lack the requisite resolve. Accordingly, the court should immediately order the government to develop and implement a climate recovery plan.
Effective measures should include a rising fee on carbon emissions to ensure that fossil fuel industry costs now imposed on our health and our children’s future are accounted for in energy purchase and investment decisions. Such a plan could pave the way for deep decarbonization of our industrial system, and guide effective international action.
If courts can order certain policies enacted–or order Congress to enact particular measures–we will have devolved into an authoritarian state dictated by the “expert” technocratic class.
What folly. Even if global warming is true, the answer isn’t to destroy our economies and to force the impoverished in the world to remain in their misery.
As Bjorn Lomborg has repeatedly written, prosperity is the answer to a cleaner world. Right now, that requires fossil fuels for transportation, to heat homes, generate electricity, and keep our world modern.
Fanatics like Hansen won’t be satisfied until billions die for lack of technology and we are returned to Stone Age-style hunter-gatherer societies.