'Biggest case on the planet' pits kids vs. climate change
A pioneering lawsuit against the U.S. government has won the right to a trial, overcoming the Trump administration's efforts to cancel it in court.
BY LAURA PARKER

-snip-

On November 8, 2018, the trial in the case of Juliana v. United States was delayed again by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which gave lawyers 15 days to respond. ( Read more on this update here.) The district court judge said she will set a new trial date after the appellate court lifts the stay. Below, read our article on this case that was originally published on March 17, 2017.
LEVI DRAHEIM IS a nine-year-old science geek. He founded an environmental club as a fourth grader and gives talks about climate change to audiences of grown-ups. His home is on a slender barrier island on Florida’s Atlantic coast, 21 miles south of Cape Canaveral and a five-minute walk from the beach. By mid-century, his sandy childhood playground could be submerged by rising seas. He will be just 42.

Nathan Baring is 17 and a high school junior in Fairbanks, Alaska—120 miles south of the Arctic Circle. He loves cold weather and skis. The Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Now winter snows that Baring once celebrated as early as August in Fairbanks can hold off until November.


https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/03/kids-sue-us-government-climate-change/

Was a grad student back in the early 90s. That was when the first global General Circulation Models (GCMs) were being run by researchers. Oil companies became interested running these models to look at past climate regimes. Their interest was in identifying upwelling zones in past climate periods since oil could be found in these areas. One of the offshoots of this line of research was that ice free periods such as the Cretaceous were full of snow and ice in the GCM simulations; modeled global temperatures were far too cold to match the fossil record. The only way that the model would match reconstructed global temperatures was if the CO2 levels were raised 6-10 times current levels. This happens to match the levels noted in air bubbles trapped in amber from this time period. IMHO there is no way any of these companies who were nose deep in the research would have not known the connection between atmospheric CO2 levels and global atmospheric temperatures.

For any of those executives that 'knew' and proceeded with the actions. Sure, they will try to hide behind the corporate personhood and its limitations of liability, but those limitations do not usually insulate from criminal matters.

Oh yeah, on this point of jail time as opposed to civil liability, has anyone of consequence gone to jail for their efforts in the Bush recession?