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Judge Orders Dutch Government To Finally Take Action On Climate Promises
New submitter Errol backfiring writes: Although the Dutch government has promised to make sure carbon emissions are lowered considerably, they have consistently failed to take action. Dutch climate group Urgenda and Dutch citizens have gone to court to force the government to take action, and the verdict (linked page is in Dutch) is that the government must reduce emissions by at least 25% compared to 1990 leves.
This 25% cut is seen as the minimum effort needed to keep the people safe from climate change dangers. 25% to 40% is the norm in international climate policy. The verdict is also important for similar climate groups in other countries.
This 25% cut is seen as the minimum effort needed to keep the people safe from climate change dangers. 25% to 40% is the norm in international climate policy. The verdict is also important for similar climate groups in other countries.
This is upside down. The elected government is sovereign, and derives its necessary powers from the consent of the people.
The correct way to change a government's course is by electing new people. Did the people of Holland appoint a judge to overlord the elected government?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Yup, as another poster said: "cue libertarian outrage" alright.
This isn't pulled out of the court's ass. The Dutch government made promises and then tried to back out of them. Their own court has said, "No, you made binding promises, now keep them." Which is what most contract law is about, and what most sane courts enforce.
It's all about government control and increasing taxation, while giving backhanders to the oligarchs that control the planet.
I can't believe people are falling for it. And as to those "scientists", they cost less than a single lobbyist for a real cause. The govt tells them to keep the story running or they'll lose tenure and grants. You think they care about the people when they have income for life for doing as they're told a few days of the year?
You do realize that a scientist who actually disproves anthropogenic climate change would become filthy rich from the oil companies, right?
You know, given how much of Holland is below sea level (26%) ... you can kind of see that they might give a damn about rising sea levels.
Since when the hell is it shocking that a government has an "independent legal obligation towards their citizens".
As opposed to, what, an independent legal obligation to its fucking corporations?
This isn't an authoritarian dictatorship, it's a rejection of the stupid idea that government doesn't owe a duty of care and concern for its citizens. That's kind of the purpose of governments, despite all the delusional rantings to the contrary we see around here.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Well the first action the government needs to take, is to make sure it meets part of the 25% goal by shutting down power and heat to the judges home, and it goes without saying confiscate any cars he may have,
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
You wouldn't be able to afford the device you're typing this on if that was the case
The problem is that things a lefty court might think are obligations are not necessarily things taxpayers can actually afford to do.
This would be a great precident too, if the courts could be used to actually force politican to uphold campaign promises.
No, it would lead politicians to give even vaguer statements of their proposed policies than they do now, so as to avoid saying anything that could legally be construed as a promise. It would also probably lead to politicians using more "weasel words", like "I want to cut taxes during my first term in office.' That's not a PROMISE to cut taxes, though it kind of sounds like a promise; it's expressing a DESIRE to cut taxes.
There's also the problem that a person can make a promise that he or she cannot fulfill. For instance, using a US example, if a presidential candidate promised to cut taxes by 50% on every American but Congress laughed in their face after they were elected and proposed such a change to the tax code, could a court force the President to do what he or she does not have the legal authority to do? Sure, the President could ASK Congress but the decision is ultimately up to them. Could the courts force Congress to uphold the presidential candidate's promise? Neither of those seem palatable.
So the police attempt to carry out the order, the Dutch parliament fights back by using the military to seize control. Recognizing the emergency nature of the situation they quickly pass a new law empowering a small "council for citizens safety" to make quick decisions. The council declares martial law and throws all of the Judges and activists in prison as "enemies of the state". With power consolidated and internal dissent quelled they surprise the world by launching an invasion of Belgium beginning with a night attack on Antwerp by elements of the 11th Airmobile Brigade swiftly followed up 13th Motorized and 43rd Mechanized in a lightning pincer maneuver on Brussels. Cut off and surrounded without access to their heavy weapons the Belgian forces quickly surrender. Emboldened by this move right wing forces rally to the Dutch cause and European countries fall like dominoes as the new Dutch empire rises out of the ashes.
Glad to finally have a like minded neighbor Russia offers an alliance which ends up incorporating the Chinese as well as they can see which way the wind is blowing. In a panic over the growing might of the tripartite pact the US launches a nuclear first strike hoping to catch the opposing forces unprepared. US missiles prove far more accurate than anyone expected and flatten the majority of their targets but even the limited retaliatory strike leaves Washington D.C., New York & L.A. as smoking craters and over a hundred million dead stateside.
Governments collapse worldwide as supply chains are stretched beyond their limits. The trucks stop rolling and grocery stores empty. As the food runs out civil order breaks down into mass violence. Over the next six months ninety percent of humanity starves to death and the rest are left to fight wars over cans of dog food in the blasted wastelands. All the dust kicked up by the nuclear exchange creates a cooling effect that cancels out global warming and the lack of working industry means CO2 emissions are way down, so it looks like the activists get their way after all even if none of them are still alive to see it.
If eliminating serious, measurable threats to the global environment
Like poverty, misuse of resources, habitat destruction, human corruption, and overpopulation? Oh wait, those are insignificant compared to the destructive power of the Earth warmed by 2 C over a century./sarc
My view is that if you deal with the five problems I mentioned, then AGW is just a bother, even if the ice caps melt over the next few thousand years. But if you deal with AGW by making the above problems worse, which is the current strategy (minus the pink-hooved unicorns who will keep that from happening. of course), then you have massive human die-offs.