CENTRAL MAINE • June 11, 2024
On May 21, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, in Hamburg, Germany, ruled that greenhouse gases are marine pollutants and nations must take action to “reduce, control and prevent” their effects. The tribunal was responding to a request from a consortium of small island nations disappearing under rising seas. The tribunal’s unanimous ruling will influence national and global court cases now being brought against the fossil fuel industry and its well-funded resistance to a carbon-free, renewable energy future. Donald Trump offered himself up to that resistance when he solicited a billion-dollar donation from oil executives by promising, if reelected, to reverse clean energy rules. Why isn’t climate change a major issue in the 2024 U.S. election? ~ David Helvarg, Blue Frontier, an ocean conservation group