Can federal courts help tackle global warming?  A journalistic
collaboration on climate change. April 20 2010 9:42 AM
Attractive Nuisance  Can federal courts help tackle global
warming?  Also from the Climate Desk: "The People v. CO2," by
Rachel Morris.   If Congress and the president fail to tackle
global warming, can courts step in? Can federal judges allow
people struggling with the losses of global warming to sue
polluters directly?  The idea may at first seem crazy. In a
legal world obsessed with claims of judicial activism, the image
of a judge taking on a global problem like climate change seems
like the punch line to a bad joke at an Exxon board meeting. But
it turns out there is a long and proud history of judges
addressing pollution in the absence of environmental regulation.
For much of the last century—long before Congress acted—federal
courts allowed plaintiffs to seek injunctions to stop all kinds
of pollution. Successful suits prevented an ore smelter from
releasing deadly atmospheric arsenic