The damage has left the city and county spending millions of dollars on repairs and infrastructure to try to adapt to the rising risks.

Future costs will almost certainly be higher. More than $19 billion in property value, at todays dollars, is at risk by 2100 from projected sea level rise, driven by greenhouse gas emissions largely from the burning of fossil fuels. Elsewhere in Honolulu County, which covers all of Oahu, many coastal communities will be cut off or uninhabitable.

Unwilling to have their taxpayers bear the full brunt of these costs, the city and county sued Sunoco LP, Exxon Mobil Corp. and other big oil companies in 2020.

Their case one of more than two dozen involving U.S. cities, counties and states suing the oil industry over climate change just got a break from the U.S. Supreme Court. That has significantly increased their odds of succeeding.

Suing over the cost of climate change

At stake in all of these cases is who pays for the staggering cost of a changing climate.

Local and state governments that are suing want to hold the major oil companies responsible for the costs of responding to disasters that scientists are increasingly able to attribute to climate disruption and tie back to the fossil fuel industry. Several of the plaintiffs accuse the companies of lying to the public about their products risks in violation of state or local consumer protection laws that prohibit false advertising.

The governments in the Honolulu case allege that the oil companies are directly responsible for a substantial rise in carbon dioxide emissions that have been driving climate change. They say the companies should contribute their fair share to defray some of the costs.

The gist of Honolulus complaint is that the big oil companies have known for decades that their products cause climate change, yet their public statements continued to sow doubts about what was known, and they failed to warn their customers, investors and the public about the dangers posed by their products.

Were it not for this deception, the lawsuit says, the city and county would not be facing mounting costs of abating the damage from climate change.

Importantly, the complaint is based on state not federal law. It alleges that the defendants have violated established common law rules long recognized by the courts involving nuisance, failure to warn and trespass.

The city and county want the companies to help fund climate adaptation measures everything from building seawalls and raising buildings to buying flood-prone properties and restoring beaches and dunes.

Supreme Court could have killed these cases

Not surprisingly, the oil companies have thrown their vast legal resources into fighting these cases.

On April 24, however, they lost one of their most powerful arguments.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear challenges in the Hawaii case and four others involving the seemingly technical question of which court should hear these cases: state or federal.

The oil companies had removed the cases from state court to federal court, arguing that damage lawsuits for climate change go beyond the limits of state law and are governed by federal law.

That theory would have derailed all five cases because there is no federal common law for greenhouse gases.

The court made that position clear in 2011 in American Electric Power Co. v. Connecticut. Several state and local governments had sued five major power companies for violating the federal common law of interstate nuisance and asked for a court order forcing these companies to reduce their emissions. The Supreme Court refused, holding that the federal Clean Air Act displaced federal common law for these gases.

In Native Village of Kivalina v. Exxon Mobil Corp., a federal court of appeals extended that holding to also bar claims for monetary damages based on federal common law.

To avoid this fate, Honolulu and the other plaintiffs focused on violations of state law, not federal law. Without exception, the federal courts of appeals sided with them and sent the cases back to state court.

What happens next?

The Honolulu case leads the pack at this point.

In 2022, the 1st Circuit Court in Hawaii denied the oil companies motion to dismiss the case based on the argument that the Clean Air Act also preempts state common law. This could open the door for discovery to begin sometime this year.

In discovery, senior corporate officers perhaps including former Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, who was secretary of state under Donald Trump will be required to answer questions under oath about what the companies knew about climate change versus what they disclosed to the public.

Evidence from Exxon documents, described in a recent study by science historians Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran, shows that the companys own scientists knew as much as academic and government scientists knew about climate change going back decades. But instead of communicating what they knew, Exxon worked to deny it, Supran and Oreskes write. The company overemphasized uncertainties and cast doubt on climate models.

This is the kind of evidence that could sway a jury. The standard of proof in a civil case like Honolulus is preponderance of the evidence, which roughly translates to 51%. Ten of the 12 jurors must agree on a verdict.

Any verdict likely would be appealed, perhaps all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, and it could be years before the Honolulu case is resolved.

Lawsuits dont begin to cover the damage

It is unlikely that even substantial verdicts in these cases will come close to covering the full costs of damage from climate change.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in 2022 alone the U.S. sustained 18 weather and climate disasters that each exceeded $1 billion in damage. Together, they cost over $165 billion.

But for many of the communities most at risk from these disasters, every penny counts. We believe establishing the oil companies responsibility may also discourage further investments in fossil fuel production by banks and brokerage houses already nervous about the financial risks of climate disruption.

Patrick Parenteau is Professor of Law Emeritus, Vermont Law & Graduate School and John Dernbach is Professor of Law, Widener University.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

He was on the cusp of a management promotion and a move to Florida to begin a new chapter that would alter his familys financial future and break the cycle of generational poverty.

Yet, as his familys prospects improved, concerns about his health grew.

A severe bout of COVID-19 left the 52-year-old weak and in recovery for weeks. His wife, Melanese Marr-Thomas, worried he was pushing himself too hard to get back in the swing of things. Charles was a big man at 6 feet tall and 300 pounds. He struggled for years to get his weight under control.

Later in life, that struggle gave way to high blood pressure and a medley of medications.

In a nation plagued by high blood pressure, Black people are more likely to suffer from it and so, in the time of COVID-19, they are more likely than white people to die. Its a stark reality. And it has played out in thousands of Black households that have lost mothers and fathers over the past three years, a distinct calamity within the many tragedies of the pandemic.

It has devastated families like the Thomases of District Heights, Maryland.

Charles had an intense fear of hospitals, needles and doctors, partially because they had, in the past, brushed aside his concerns. He felt doctors were quick to blame any ailments solely on his weight, but slow to listen to his symptoms or examine other causes. He eventually gave up on seeking medical care for a long time because he was tired of feeling judged.

His family had recently found a Black doctor who, for the first time in his life, made Charles feel comfortable - and most importantly, heard.

He knew he needed to take better care of himself so we were trying to change his diet and be more active, Melanese said. His blood pressure was beginning to come down.

But then, COVID intervened.

___

EDITORS NOTE: This story is part of an AP series examining the health disparities experienced by Black Americans across a lifetime.

___

About 56% of Black adults have high blood pressure, compared to 48% of white people. Three in four African Americans are likely to develop the disorder by age 55.

When the force of your blood pushing against the walls of your blood vessels is consistently too high, it makes the heart and blood vessels work harder and less efficiently, which can lead to significant health issues.

While only 32% of white adults with high blood pressure have their condition under control with medication, the figure for Black Americans is even lower 25%.

And its likely to get worse: By 2060, the number of Americans battling cardiovascular disease is expected to drastically increase. High blood pressure rates alone are projected to rise 27.2%, or from roughly 127.8 million to 162.5 million Americans.

Among white people, the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and disease is projected to decrease over time. Yet significant increases are projected among people of color, especially Black and Latino Americans.

It is clear that high blood pressure has played a major role in COVID deaths, and especially in the COVID deaths of Black people. Together, high blood pressure and COVID have created a deadly combination: While high blood pressure is listed as a contributing factor in 15.5% of the deaths of white COVID sufferers, the figure for Black victims is 21.4% the highest of any racial group.

Like many conditions, genetics do play a part. Experts also blame poor diets, high cholesterol, obesity and smoking risk factors that often exist at higher rates in Black communities. In recent years, more academics and doctors have called attention to structural inequities.

The nations health disparities have had a tragic impact: Over the past two decades, the higher mortality rate among Black Americans resulted in 1.6 million excess deaths compared to white Americans. That higher mortality rate resulted in a cumulative loss of more than 80 million years of life due to people dying young and billions of dollars in health care and lost opportunity.

Until we reach health equity, these disparities are going to be a scar on the health care landscape in the United States, said Dr. Keith C. Ferdinand, the Gerald S. Berenson Endowed Chair in Preventive Cardiology at Tulane Universitys School of Medicine. He emphasized the importance of equal access to primary and specialty care and medications.

If we dont do that, then we dont have a just society, Ferdinand said.

___

Charles Thomas infectious laugh could fill any room he entered. He also was a great storyteller. Its what made his wife, Melanese Marr-Thomas, fall in love with him decades ago when she was still a college student at Howard University in the late 90s.

When they met, the two quickly hit it off and could spend hours just talking. But they were in vastly different places in life: While Melanese was focused on her studies, Charles was trying to survive in a particularly tough Maryland neighborhood.

He eventually cut off all ties from her with little explanation.

You deserve so much more than what I can give, Melanese recalled Charles saying to her. I was so hurt.

Years later, she found out it was because he was struggling to find his way out of a life of selling drugs.

Charles eventually had a son, Charles Thomas III, with another woman a child whom Charles tried to be heavily involved in raising. But his street life eventually caught up with him.

Charles was incarcerated off and on for much of his sons childhood and teenage years.

He was heavy in the streets, Charles Thomas III, 33, recalled. But he made his presence known even when he was in jail. He would still find a way to send me gifts for Christmas. Ill never forget the little toy car he sent me and I said My daddy sent me this present, not putting two and two together that he was in jail.

It took years for Charles to eventually begin the hard journey of changing his life. Years later, he acknowledged the vicious cycle he found himself in. As a young Black man, he grew up poor and bounced around various communities that all suffered from the simmering effects of racism and segregation-era policies, with little hope and few pathways to escape poverty.

Eating healthy was hardly at the top of his mind, and largely out of reach. His neighborhoods were filled with fast food options, yet few grocery stores. And he was inundated with the toxic stress of living in a dangerous environment.

While in prison, Charles health suffered, too. Healthy foods werent readily available and routine health care was sporadic. His wife believes his high blood pressure and other ailments could have begun while he was incarcerated.

It wasnt until his mother died while he was in prison that Charles felt a true spark to change.

She was his backbone, Melanese said. But after his mother passed, he had no sense of home and he said, I have to create my home and find my purpose and meaning.

Charles and Melanese reconnected in late 2009 and rekindled their romance. The couple eventually married and blended their families. He never shied away from talking about his earlier struggles in life. He acknowledged his mistakes and instead used it as a powerful way to teach his children to avoid the pitfalls he fell prey to.

My dad, he was a great father to me and my best friend, said Charles Thomas III, who is now a teacher. He taught me what I needed to know. He taught me how to be self-sufficient and stand on my own two feet. When he did things that were wrong, he never made excuses for it. He always told me the truth, so I never held anything against him.

Charles family is what mattered most to him. And Black fatherhood was something that he cherished. He often spent long nights staying up with his kids and wife, reminiscing and sharing fatherly wisdom sage advice they cling to today.

He worked his way up at his job as a concrete truck driver and became well respected in the company and within his community, as a known father figure to other Black boys at his youngest sons football games. He launched a food truck and catering business, Sol Familia Mobile Kitchen, with his wife. Everything was looking up, finally.

But Charles Thomas began to feel sick around Thanksgiving in 2020. He thought it was a passing cold, but his wife was worried; the number of COVID cases was climbing, both nationally and locally, and the vaccine wasnt yet widely available.

Melanese was right. The entire family parents and six children would be diagnosed with COVID. But as the others got better, Charles condition worsened.

His wife convinced him to go to the hospital, where his oxygen levels dropped severely and he spent eight days in the intensive care unit, where he was nearly placed on a ventilator. But he recovered, and went home in time for Christmas.

The family thought the worst was over.

Then Charles began having trouble breathing. The smallest tasks left him breathless and taking a few steps left him tired and struggling for air. Still, in late January 2021, he decided to go back to work.

He was so enthusiastic about trying to make sure we got our food truck back up and running, Melanese said. But I told him he just came out of the ICU with double pneumonia. I asked, Why are you going back so quickly?

She suspects Charles felt he still had to make up for time lost and his past mistakes.

The stress of it was toxic, and taxing on his health, and Melanese worried it exacerbated his high blood pressure and also his COVID complications.

I think that also killed him, Melanese said.

___

More and more, researchers acknowledge that high blood pressure and other ailments that strike Black Americans disproportionately can, in great measure, be traced to the inequities of Black life in America.

Black Americans are more likely to live in communities that lack access to fruits and vegetables and other healthy foods. Theyre also more likely to live in communities inundated with fast food options that are often cheaper and easier to access but less healthy.

The same Black communities that experienced discriminatory housing policies more than 60 years ago are at a greater risk of heart disease and other related risk factors today, according to a July study in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Residents of those neighborhoods also have less access to public transportation and health insurance. They also see lower life expectancies and higher incidence of chronic diseases that are risk factors for poor outcomes from COVID-19 including high blood pressure.

Research is examining the effect of stress on high blood pressure rates in Black communities, according to Dr. Anika L. Hines, director of the Equity in Cardiovascular Health Outcomes Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine.

For Black Americans in particular, psychological stress including discrimination or navigating racism and its ensuing effects could be a precursor to high blood pressure, Hines said.

Historically, medicine has overlooked the role of structural barriers to good health among Black Americans. Instead, genetics, individual choice and even race have been blamed.

As more people begin to embrace antiracism and accept race as a social construct and not as a biological construct, more attention will be paid to these social factors, psychosocial factors, cultural context, and history, Hines said.

Delmonte Jefferson, executive director of the Center for Black Health and Equity, said its important to understand how health inequities that date back generations created todays conditions.

This country has not, did not, does not at this point in time, value the health and well-being of people of color and so we keep having challenges with health and health disparities, Jefferson said.

___

Near the end of February 2021, Charles Thomas 16-year-old ran into the room one evening and shook Melanese awake. Something was wrong with Dad.

She rushed into the bedroom and found her husband on the floor on his hands and knees.

It looked like he had fallen and was trying to get himself back up, Melanese said. I said, Whats wrong? He couldnt speak. He couldnt say anything to me.

He struggled to get up, but collapsed on the floor and stopped breathing.

Emergency responders performed CPR, but it was too late. Charles died Feb. 28, 2021, of COVID-19 related complications. He was 52.

So much was lost that night. The family was getting ready to move to Jacksonville, Florida. Charles had just been offered a job he spent 10 years working toward. He was slated to be a plant manager. The family was in the midst of planning a trip to look at homes there.

I still relive that night, Melanese said. I was so numb and in disbelief that someone that was just talking to me is no longer here. He was the pillar of our family, the foundation, our protector. He was everything and it is an immeasurable loss.

Since Charles death, the family has worked hard together and in their own ways individually to keep his memory alive.

For his stepdaughter, Serena Marr, that means getting treatment for her own mental health in the wake of his death, and finishing college.

For Melanese, his beloved wife, that means cherishing his memory and their love.

Im spending my life reminding others that he was a husband, a father, a brother, an uncle, a nephew, a granddad, a co-worker and a friend to so many, Melanese said. He was not a COVID number. He was a person who had hopes and dreams, aspirations.

For his namesake, Charles Thomas III, that means imparting love and wisdom to his own 5-year-old daughter, who his father adored. It also means supporting Melanese and helping her with his younger siblings.

I cant look in the mirror without seeing my dad, he said. When I go to school as teacher and Im correcting my students, I see my dad. When Im talking to my daughter and my girlfriend, I hear my father. Everything I say. I can hear him. Hes going to live on through me.

___

Kat Stafford, based in Detroit, is a national investigative race writer for the APs Race and Ethnicity team. She is a 2022 Knight-Wallace Reporting Fellow at the University of Michigan. Follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/kat__stafford.

To combat password sharing, Netflix said it will limit U.S. viewership of its programming to people living in the same household. Those who subscribe to Netflixs standard or premium plans which cost $15.50 to $20 per month will be able to allow another person living outside their household to use their password for an additional $8 per month, a $2 discount from the companys standard stand-alone basic plan.

Without providing details how it authenticates subscriber identities or accounts, Netflix assured that everyone living in the same household of a U.S. customer will still be able to stream TV series and movies wherever they are at home, on the go, on holiday. The company based in Los Gatos, California has roughly 70 million U.S. accountholders.

The long-anticipated move, telegraphed by Netflix a year ago, seeks to end a practice that the company allowed to go unchecked for years while its streaming service was attracting subscribers in droves. At that time, management had little incentive to risk riling customers by reining in password sharing.

While Netflix looked the other away, an estimated 100 million people worldwide were getting passwords from family and friends to freeload on Netflix TV series such as The Crown and films such as All Quiet On The Western Front. Those passwords were funneled through Netflixs 232.5 million worldwide paying subscribers, who generated the bulk of the companys $32 billion in revenue last year.

But after a year of lackluster subscriber growth that included its largest customer losses in more than a decade, Netflix is putting its foot down.

In February, it began blocking freeloading viewers in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain, following similar moves in Latin America.

Before the crackdown on password sharing, Netflix began introducing features, such as the ability to transfer the profiles set up on subscriber accounts to make it easier for people to retain their viewing histories after they are no longer able to watch shows for free.

Netflixs effort to force more of its viewers to pay for access to its programming follows the launch of a $7 monthly plan that inserted commercials into its service for the first time. Netflix has picked up an additional 9 million worldwide subscribers since the ad-supported option debuted, although not all of those signed up for the low-priced plan.

Although the new U.S. surcharge for viewers living outside subscribers households is less than Netflixs basic streaming plan, it comes at a time that Amerians have been paring their discretionary spending because of high inflation. That inflationary squeeze, combined with more competition from other streaming services, is one of the main reasons Netflix has suffered a slowdown in growth.

Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters acknowledged in January the crackdown on password sharing might risk more subscriber cancellations.

Its worth noting that this will not be a universally popular move, Peters advised investors. Any attrition in the U.S. would deepen the erosion that occurred within a region where Netflix loss about 920,000 subscribers last year.

Netflixs shares fell 2% during Tuesdays afternoon trading, but the stock price is still up by about 20% so far this year.

DeSantis, who has long been seen as Donald Trumps leading rival for the Republican nomination, will reveal his plans in an audio conversation with the owner of Twitter, according to the two people, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they werent authorized to discuss the announcement publicly.

Musk, speaking at The Wall Street Journals CEO Summit event in London on Tuesday, seemed to confirm the news, saying DeSantis would be making quite an announcement on Twitter the next day. The first time something like this is happening on social media, with real time questions and answers, he said.

He added that he is not endorsing any particular candidate at this time.