The spotlight will be on a San Francisco courtroom Wednesday, when climate science finally gets its day in court.
The cities of Oakland and San Francisco are suing several oil companies for the costs of adapting to climate change impacts, such as rising sea levels that threaten to flood critical infrastructure. Judge William Alsup has taken the unusual step of asking both sides to present their views on the state of climate science.
KQED’s Molly Peterson will be tweeting live from the courtroom during Wednesday’s hearing. Follow her at @Mollydacious and in special live online coverage from KQED Science.
But it might not be the “great debate” that many are anticipating.
Oil industry lawyers say they will not try to debate climate science in federal court during the hearing, but they will try to have the case thrown out. They’ve filed a motion to have the case dismissed, arguing that the courtroom is not the appropriate place to set climate policy.
“The courts have said over and over again that public nuisance claims in court are not the way to go about solving global policy questions like global warming,” Chevron lawyer Joshua Lipshutz told reporters in a Monday conference call. “They’ve all been thrown out of court.”