Monday links

Railroad CEO Wants To Send Oil Trains Through Town Where Derailment Killed 47 Last Year

via Think Progress

Oil trains could soon be traveling through Lac Mégantic, the tiny Quebec town that was the scene of one of the deadliest train accidents in Canadian history last July.The new owner of the railroad company responsible for the Lac Mégantic oil train disaster, a derailment which killed 47 people and destroyed much of the town’s center, said this week that within the next ten days he wants to have an agreement with Lac Mégantic officials to restart oil train shipments through the town.

If you want to read a book about the relationship between oil and slaves, check out "The Energy of Slaves" by Andrew Nikiforuk. 2012. Greystone Books. His previous book, "Tar Sands", won the Rachel Carson Environment Book Award.  

~Thanks, Dan

From The Nation magazine:

The New Abolitionism

As the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” What the climate justice movement is demanding is the ultimate abolition of fossil fuels. And our fates all depend on whether they succeed.

~Thanks, Claudia

34 Years Ago, Volcano!

Risk Assessment and Railroads
via Sightline

“There is not currently enough available coverage in the commercial insurance market anywhere in the world to cover the worst-case [train derailment] scenario.” —James Beardsley, global rail practice leader for Marsh & McLennan Cos.’ insurance brokerage unit.

In Landmark Class Action, Farmers Insurance Sues Local Governments For Ignoring Climate Change

via Thinkprogress

Last month, Farmers Insurance Co. filed nine class-action lawsuits arguing that local governments in the Chicago area are aware that climate change is leading to heavier rainfall but are failing to prepare accordingly. The suits allege that the localities did not do enough to prepare sewers and stormwater drains in the area during a two-day downpour last April. In what could foreshadow a legal reckoning of who is liable for the costs of climate change, the class actions against nearly 200 Chicago-area communities look to place responsibility on municipalities, perhaps spurring them to take a more forward-looking approach in designing and engineering for a future made different by climate change.

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