Yale Experts Explain Climate Lawsuits
Articles/Websites
Grades9, 10, 11, 12Civics
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Provided by Yale University Office of Sustainability
What it is
- This article from Yale University Office of Sustainability uses a question-and-answer format to explain the recent history of climate lawsuits, what they may mean for the future, and how they compare to similar cases from the past.
- Students will understand the significance of these lawsuits and the possible courses of action that can take place as a response to them.
Teaching tips
Positives
- The format of this article makes it straightforward and allows students to quickly understand the main points.
- This article has an overall feeling of hope, reiterating that these cases are significant and explaining the power of truth, facts, and evidence in a courtroom.
Prerequisites
- Students should be familiar with the way lawsuits work and some related terms.
- Students should understand climate change and its impacts.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Before reading this article, teachers can have students research examples of environmental law, such as the Clean Air Act and others mentioned in the video. This can help give students some context when reading about the use of these laws.
- This article can be used to introduce or discuss the concept of precedence in terms of the law. Teachers can point to the story about the farmer suing RWE and explain or discuss what impacts a win or a loss could have on future cases.
- To further explain attribution science and its uses, students can watch this video.
- It may benefit students to have explored the past lawsuits against Big Tobacco and the impacts these lawsuits had in order to bridge the comparison in the article with their own understanding.
From the scientist review
This resource is a Q&A with a Yale Law professor about climate lawsuits. The scientific consensus on climate change is affirmed and linked clearly with the legal necessity of source attribution. Several news stories about climate lawsuits are linked, though one is broken. This resource strongly presents the intersection of climate science and law and is recommended for teaching.
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