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28 Colum. J. Envtl. L. 1 (2003)
Warming up to a Not-So-Radical Idea: Tort-Based Climate Change Litigation

handle is hein.journals/cjel28 and id is 7 raw text is: WARMING UP TO A NOT-SO-RADICAL IDEA: TORT-BASED CLIMATE CHANGE LITIGATION David A. Grossman* I. Introduction ......................................................................... 2 A. Appropriateness of Applying a Tort Framework .......... 3 B. Obstacles to Climate Change Litigation ....................... 5 C. Scope and Content of this Article ................................ 7 II. Present Effects of Climate Change and Potential Plaintiffs ................................................................ 9 A. Global Effects of Climate Change ............................... 10 B. Present Effects of Climate Change in the U nited States ................................................................ 11 1. Sea-Level Rise ......................................................... 12 2. Melting Permafrost and Shrinking and Thinning Sea Ice .................................................................... 14 C. Potential Claims for Damages .................................... 16 1. Sea-Level Rise Claims ............................................ 16 2. Permafrost and Sea Ice Claims ............................. 18 3. Restrictions on Damage Recovery ......................... 20 III. Causation, Potential Defendants, and Liability for D am ages ...................................................................... 22 A. Generic and Specific Causation .................................. 22 B. Proximate Causation and the Substantiality Requirement ........................................ 25 C. Potential Types of Defendants ................................... 28 D. Liability for and Apportionment of Damages ............ 31 IV. Preem ption ........................................................................ 33 A. Federal Common Law ................................................ 33 * J.D., Yale Law School. I am indebted to Daniel Esty, Richard Revesz, Carol Rose, Don Strait, Jennifer Yelin, Kyle Graham, Phil Radford, and Gwen Parker for their assistance and advice about this project at various times over the past two years. I would also like to acknowledge Elbert Lin, Isaac Nesser, and Amy Hughes for their own excellent research efforts on portions of this topic.

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