Daily Climate Links: 4/11/2016

Sorry, Feds: Kids can sue over climate negligence, judge says. Climate Progress.

A group of youngsters just won a major decision in their efforts to sue the federal government over climate change. An Oregon judge ruled Friday that their lawsuit, which alleges the government violated the constitutional rights of the next generation by allowing the pollution that has caused climate change, can go forward.

more here: Judge Denies Motions by Fossil Fuel Industry and Federal Government in Landmark Climate Change Case. Our Children's Trust, ecowatch.

“This decision marks a tipping point on the scales of justice,” Kelsey Juliana, one of the youth plaintiffs from Eugene, said. “Youth voices are uniting around the world to demand that government uphold our constitutional rights and protect the planet for our and future generations’ survivability. This will be the trial of the century that will determine if we have a right to a livable future, or if corporate power will continue to deny our rights for the sake of their own wealth.”

Earth is tipping because of climate change. Scientific American.

Should the World Ditch the 2-Degree Celsius Target? Umair Irfan, ClimateWire, via Scientific American. Apr. 6, 2016.

The established international target of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius leaves too much wiggle room and doesn’t move the world fast enough to avert catastrophic warming, explained Oliver Geden, head of the E.U. research division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

“The whole discourse on 2 degrees is focusing on targets and not action,” Geden said. “If you say 2 degrees, you’re addressing us all, which is humanity, which diffuses responsibility.”

He made his case for setting an objective of driving carbon emissions down to zero in a commentary article published Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience