Union County, NJ, Joins Call To Sue Fossil Fuels Companies

I’d like to see Union County survive without fossil fuels

Union County Joins Call for N.J. to Sue Polluters for Climate Change Damages

Union County leaders this week joined a growing number of elected officials, groups, and individuals across New Jersey calling on Governor Phil Murphy and Attorney General Gurbir Grewal to pursue legal action against fossil fuel companies to make them, rather than taxpayers, pay for the cost of damages caused by climate change.

The Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders voted unanimously on July 23 to support a bipartisan resolution before the New Jersey Senate that urges state leaders to “take all appropriate legal action” against “the companies who knew their actions were contributing to climate change and its dangerous impacts, but continued to product, promote, market, and sell fossil fuels.” Atlantic County Freeholders passed a similar resolution in support of the measure earlier this month.

Senate Resolution 57 cites the oil and gas industry’s decades-long knowledge that their products posed a “catastrophic” threat to the climate. It outlines many of the costly damages that climate change is now causing to New Jersey’s residents, property, and infrastructure, through more intense superstorms, flooding, coastal erosion, heatwaves, and more. (snip)

Earlier this year, the borough councils of Sea Bright and Bradley Beach passed their own resolutions calling on the state to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate change costs.

None of them would survive without fossil fuels, especially Sea Bright and Bradley Beach, which are right there on the coast. How are vacationers to get to the beach? What about all the attractions, maintenance, food, and so forth? How is Union County to operate all their trucks and such? Same with New Jersey? Give it a shot, folks, try it. And, again, all the companies to be sued should refuse to sell their products to those suing them.

Meanwhile

How Do I Teach My Kids About Climate Change?

The Hawaii Department of Education’s climate change curriculum is far-reaching — covering air pollution, insect disturbance and deforestation. But the pandemic has ushered in virtual school: stretching teachers thin and limiting options for student engagement.

“We’re going to have to push even more to really think about what we value the most during the face to face time that we have with students, because it will be very limited,” said Buffy Cushman-Patz, executive director of The School for Examining Essential Questions of Sustainability, a charter school in Honolulu.

Parents are worried that teachers might not be able to fully cover complicated subjects like climate change this school year, and a growing number of parents are considering homeschooling.

Hawaii would likewise not survive without fossil fuels, at least as a modern state. They have to bring in most products with fossil fueled ships and planes, and without fossil fuels their entire economy would collapse, as tourism would be done.