Even when you win, you lose. At least that’s the way it feels when you read the judges’ comments in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to throw out the lawsuit of 21 children who wanted to reverse hundreds of years of progress and send the United States into a new Dark Age because of their paranoid fear of fossil fuels.
I’ve followed this lawsuit with some interest since 2015 because I used to know one of the plaintiffs in his formative years. While he and the other 20 students are no doubt well-intentioned, they need to go back to school about both climate science and about the devastating effect of social engineering on human societies.
But it’s not them I’m worried about. It’s the grown up judges on the 9th Circuit who came within a whisker of allowing these 21 Science Fair refugees to establish a future-crushing ban on fossil fuels. In their 2-1 decision, the judges ruled the case lacks legal standing to proceed to trial, but said they sure wished they could help the kids save our lives.
“Reluctantly, we conclude that such relief is beyond our constitutional power,” Judge Andrew D. Hurwitz wrote in the majority opinion. “Rather, the plaintiffs’ impressive case for redress must be presented to the political branches of government.”
In a scary dissenting opinion, Judge Josephine Staton wrote that “the government accepts as fact that the United States has reached a tipping point crying out for a concerted response — yet presses ahead toward calamity.”
“It is as if an asteroid were barreling toward Earth, and the government decided to shut down our only defenses,” she added. “Seeking to quash this suit, the government bluntly insists that it has the absolute and unreviewable power to destroy the Nation.”
Dear God, woman! Turn off the Syfy Channel and come back to earth! Trust me, there is no such thing as a Sharknado!
Yet according to the New York Times, we are living through perilous times:
The five years since the case was first filed have been the five hottest years in the age of accurate records.
The 21 young plaintiffs, now between the ages of 12 and 23, claim that the government’s actions, and inaction, in the face of global warming violate their “fundamental constitutional rights to freedom from deprivation of life, liberty, and property.” Their personal stories include damage from rising sea levels and wildfire smoke, but they argued that they will be dealing with even more disastrous effects of climate change within their lifetimes.
Yeah, whatever. If you want to talk about deprivation of liberty, just imagine what the world would be like if we were unable to use our cars, fly in planes or heat our homes with fossil fuels! The fossil fuel economy has allowed the greatest advancement in quality of life ever known to man, nor can it be definitively proven that the greenhouse effect is creating a warmer climate.
I don’t really blame the children for not knowing any better. They have been brainwashed from an early age into thinking they had no future. Like St. Greta Thunberg, they have been indoctrinated by their parents and teachers into thinking that technology is something evil and that we would be better off living in igloos than air conditioned condos.
So be it. You are welcome to move to Alaska if that be your desire, but don’t make the rest of us go with you.
Final note: Although I would like to credit President Trump’s impact on the 9th Circuit through his many new appointments for the judges’ correct ruling, it should be noted that all three of the judges on the panel were appointed by President Obama.
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