27
February 2003
Climate change: Somebody's fault
Insurance companies take refuge in the term 'act of God' for catastrophes they cannot be expected to have foreseen, and for which nobody is to blame. A local flood cannot be linked via climate trends to a specific power station that provided the CO2 to tip the global warming balance. But, argues Myles Allen, in theory science could identify the contribution of a single vehicle to an increase in probability of a particular climate event. And the oil companies could be sued for the damage. Could society cope?
Liability for climate change
MYLES
ALLEN
Will it ever be possible to sue anyone for damaging the climate?
Nature 421, 891–892 (2003); doi:10.1038/421891a
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