September 2007 view of the eroding Kivalina, Alaska coastline. Photo: Rural Alaska Fuel Services

By host Tom Ashbrook

The Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar is underwater, thousands dead, and environmentalists say it's global warming. Monster tornadoes are plaguing the U.S. -- last weekend in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia.

Meanwhile, far away, on the west coast of Alaska, the tiny fishing village of Kivalina is falling into the sea. And its attorneys are suing 24 oil, coal and electric companies, saying their emissions are responsible.

Sound crazy? These same attorneys fought over Big Tobacco, and Big Tobacco lost.

This hour, On Point: the courts and climate change.

A housing unit repositioned after a storm in Kivalina, Alaksa, September 2005.
See more photos and information on erosion in Kivalina.

· Juliet Eilperin, environment and national politics reporter for The Washington Post · Steve Susman, co-lead counsel in the case of "Native Village of Kivalina and City of Kivalina v. Exxon Mobil," founding partner at the law firm Susman Godfrey, and former lawyer for Philip Morris · Steve Berman, co-lead counsel in "Native Village of Kivalina and City of Kivalina v. Exxon Mobil", managing partner at Hagens, Berman, Sobol & Shapiro, and former anti-tobacco lawyer · Enoch Adams Jr., chairman of the Kivalina Relocation Planning Committee · Jeffrey R. Holmstead, former assistant administrator for air and radiation at the United States Environmental Protection Agency and head of the environmental strategies group at the law firm of Bracewell and Giuliani.