Climate
Chaos in Undeniable
The
Supreme Court this week narrowly rejected an
attempt by the Navajo Nation to understand how
much water it is has rights to, under an 1868
peace treaty with the United States. In a 5-4
split, the
court threw out a decision by the Ninth
Circuit Court that could have led to an
accounting for water rights owed the tribe from
the dwindling Colorado River and other
waterways. These rights have never been
adjudicated, which means they remain unmeasured
and unfulfilled.
The answer
to that question has critical implications for
the tribe, which is severely under
resourced. And it has major implications for
how to divvy up the water of the Colorado River,
a process currently bedeviling Western
states.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh,
writing for the majority (and sidestepping the
issue entirely), claimed the US government was
not required to take “affirmative steps” to
provide water to Navajo Nation. The Navajo
Nation has vowed
to continue to seek
answers.
While I anticipate more
legal analyses on this issue in the weeks
ahead, I did notice another sidestep in the
decision by Kavanaugh: He almost —
but not quite — acknowledged that climate change
exists and is having an impact on our legal
landscape. In providing context for the
decision, Kavanaugh acknowledged the worsening
aridity of the Western United States. “Water has
long been scarce [there], and the problem is
getting worse. From 2000 through 2022, the
region faced the driest 23-year period in more
than a century and one of the driest periods in
the last 1,200 years. And the situation is
expected to grow more severe in future years.”
This is true, even if Kavanaugh elides the
underlying cause and even as the court shows
itself an
impediment to climate
action.
How much longer, I
wonder, can our political and legal systems keep
on the blinders? After all, climate change long
ago left the realm of theory and has entered the
real world, with real consequences. Insurance
companies know the truth, for example, and are
now refusing
to provide policies in certain areas prone
to wildfires and floods. A handful of children
are forcing the issue in
court in Montana. And every day we see more
and more evidence of a world
changed.
This week’s lack of legal
acumen by the highest court in the land does not
bode well for us in the short term, at a time we
need smart answers about where and how we put
our resources. However, in reading between the
lines, I see a ray of hope: The fact that our
climate is changing for the worse is becoming
undeniable, even among the
deniers.
Brian
Calvert
Associate Editor,
Earth Island
Journal
Photo of Lake Powell
by CEBImagery |
