By RACHEL D’ORO | 01/28/10 07:04 PM | AP ANCHORAGE, Alaska — One of Alaska’s most eroded villages wants to revive a lawsuit that claims greenhouse gasses from oil, power and coal companies are to blame for the climate change endangering the tiny community. The city of Kivalina and a federally recognized tribe, the Alaska Native village of Kivalina, filed the case in federal court in San Francisco in 2008, but it was dismissed in October. Now they’re appealing to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with their opening brief due March 11. 
Oil giants Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC are among two dozen defendants named in the lawsuit. Representatives for the two companies declined to comment Thursday. … Sea ice historically protected the village, whose economy is based in part on salmon fishing plus subsistence hunting of whale, seal, walrus, and caribou. But the ice is forming later and melting sooner because of higher temperatures, and that has left it unprotected from fall and winter storm waves and surges that pummel coastal communities. “The village is being wiped out by global warming and needs to move urgently before it is destroyed and the residents become global warming refugees,” Pawa said. “It’s battered by winter storms and if residents don’t get some money to move, the village will cease to exist.” …
Kivalina Appeals: Eroding Alaska Village Appeals Lawsuit’s Dismissal, Blames Corporations For Climate Change
