*NEWS*LEGAL CASE AGAINST U.S. ON CLIMATE

[Anonymous]

Legal case against US on climate
The effects of climate change are well-documented and clearly visible in Glacier National Park
US conservation groups have begun a new legal case aimed at forcing government action on climate change.
They
have filed a petition with the UN arguing that Waterton-Glacier Peace
Park, a protected area, is being damaged by rising temperatures.
Similar
actions have been lodged over sites in the Himalayas and Andes.The
case, filed on the first anniversary of the Kyoto Protocol’s entry into
force, could compel the US to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Petitioners
argue that the US, as a signatory to the UN World Heritage Convention,
has a legal duty to protect areas with World Heritage status, including
Waterton-Glacier.
“The effects of climate change are well-documented
and clearly visible in Glacier National Park,” said the petition’s lead
author Erica Thorson from the International Environmental Law Project.
“Yet
the US has not taken action to protect the world heritage of the park
by reducing its greenhouse gas emissions pursuant to its obligations
under the World Heritage Convention.”
Straddling the US-Canada
border where the province of Alberta meets the state of Montana,
Waterton-Glacier was the first region in the world to be declared an
International Peace Park.
Conservation groups argue that climate change threatens to have four major impacts on the park:
   
* average summer temperatures have increased 1.66C between 1910 and
1980, and precipitation levels have decreased by as much as 20%
    * the loss of more than 80% of the park’s glaciers is the result of climate change
    * since 1850, the area covered by glaciers in the park has decreased by 73% and continues to decrease
    * loss of the glaciers will reduce stream flow
   
* climate change threatens mountain and prairie species which live in
the region, through a reduction in water and other mechanisms
In
2004 conservation groups co-ordinated by the legal environmental
organisation Climate Justice filed similar petitions on behalf of the
Sagarmatha National Park in the Himalayas, the Belize Barrier Reef, and
Huascaran National Park in Peru.
The Sagarmatha petition is
supported by Everest pioneer Sir Edmund Hillary, who said: “The warming
of the Himalayas has increased noticeably over the last 50 years…
this has caused several and severe floods from glacial lakes, and much
disruption to the environment and local people.”
In July, Unesco,
the UN cultural and scientific agency which manages the World Heritage
Convention, announced the establishment of a commission to examine the
cases.
It is due to report later this year.
Since then, other
legal actions have been initiated against the US over the impact of
climate change on Inuit peoples living in the Arctic, and on two
species of coral. 

[Author]

February 22, 2006 at 9:08 AM