Hurricane Katrina Victims to Sue Oil Companies over Global Warming

By on March 5, 2010 in News 5

Via the Telegraph:

Victims of Hurricane Katrina are seeking to sue carbon gas-emitting multinationals for helping fuel global warming and boosting the 2005 storm.

The class action suit brought by residents from southern Mississippi, which was ravaged by hurricane-force winds and driving rains, was first filed just weeks after the August 2005 storm hit.

“The plaintiffs allege that defendants’ operation of energy, fossil fuels, and chemical industries in the United States caused the emission of greenhouse gasses that contributed to global warming,” say the documents seen by the AFP news agency.

The increase in global surface air and water temperatures “in turn caused a rise in sea levels and added to the ferocity of Hurricane Katrina, which combined to destroy the plaintiffs’ private property, as well as public property useful to them.”

More than 1,200 people died in Hurricane Katrina, which lashed the area, swamping New Orleans in Louisiana when levees gave way under the weight of the waves. The suit, claiming compensation and punitive damages from multinational companies including Shell, ExxonMobile, BP and Chevron, has already passed several key legal hurdles, after initially being knocked back by the lowest court.

Read More in the Telegraph

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  • FergalR

    Global tropical storm energy is at a 30-year low. In a supposedly warming world. If there is any justice in the world then this case will help continue the demolition of the patently false Dangerous Global Warming via Anthropogenic carbon dioxide scam.

    http://www.coaps.fsu.edu/~maue/tropical/

  • Hadrian999

    i'm guessing everyone who witnessed Katrina first hand will be long dead before that one gets settled

  • wfzlsster

    Why not sue God for that matter? It makes about as much sense.

  • 5by5

    They should be suing the Bush Administration for not finishing the final 20% of the repairs and reinforcement of the levees. The Clinton Administration managed to get 80% of it completed in their 8 years, but not only did Bush fail to finish the final 20% in the four years he was in control prior to Katrina, but he also loosened regulations that allowed developers to tear up more of the wetlands that provided a natural barrier to lessen the impact of hurricanes, making the disaster even worse.

    And don’t give me any of that Condoleeza-esque “No one could have imagined this shit.

    Plenty of people not only imagined it, but modeled it, and gave the Administration very specific warnings about it well in advance.

    http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/features/wetlands/hurricane_print.html

    The Bush Administration simply didn’t give a shit. Kanye was right, but incomplete. Not only does “George Bush hate black people”, he couldn’t give a happy damn about poor people period — no matter their color.

  • 5by5

    They should be suing the Bush Administration for not finishing the final 20% of the repairs and reinforcement of the levees. The Clinton Administration managed to get 80% of it completed in their 8 years, but not only did Bush fail to finish the final 20% in the four years he was in control prior to Katrina, but he also loosened regulations that allowed developers to tear up more of the wetlands that provided a natural barrier to lessen the impact of hurricanes, making the disaster even worse.

    And don't give me any of that Condoleeza-esque “No one could have imagined this shit.

    Plenty of people not only imagined it, but modeled it, and gave the Administration very specific warnings about it well in advance.

    http://americanradioworks.publicradio.org/featu…

    The Bush Administration simply didn't give a shit. Kanye was right, but incomplete. Not only does “George Bush hate black people”, he couldn't give a happy damn about poor people period — no matter their color.