Landmark Climate Case | March 21, 2025

what's up sunshine happy Friday Yay the weekend is upon us Spring has sprung March Madness tipped off My goodness Let's fuel our minds one more time before we kick this weekend off right I'm Koi Wire Welcome to CNN 10 your 10 minutes of news And we begin today in Peru where a landmark court case is testing the global limits of climate justice The lawsuit brought by a Peruvian farmer against a German energy company may soon answer the question of whether a corporation can be legally held accountable for past emissions contributing to climate change At the center of the case are Peru's high altitude tropical glaciers which are rapidly melting Farmer Saul Luchiano Uluya lives in a town in the heart of the Peruvian Andes His home lies below a glacierfed high alitude lake that's holding 35 times its normal water capacity because of the melting glaciers That's putting 50,000 people in the town below at risk of avalanches landslides and violent flash floods Melting glaciers are also causing the seasons to change making farming more difficult and exposing rocks full of heavy metals that have turned local streams toxic With the backing of a local nonprofit Ulia is using German property law to target the German energy company RWE The company is one of Europe's largest emitters of greenhouse gases from coal powered energy plants which the suit says accounts for. 5% of global carbon emissions The company has never operated in Peru and denies legal responsibility arguing that climate change has many contributing factors and that climate issues should be resolved by government policies instead of lawsuits Whatever the verdict the case will set precedents for future climate change related civil cases around the world Our Nick Valencia shows us what's at stake in Peru as the case is heard in a German court The World Bank says Peru is home to almost 70% of the world's tropical glaciers Glaciers that are in freezing high altitude mountain ranges despite also being in the tropics But climate change is causing those glaciers to melt In the high Andes of northern Peru glacier meltwater has caused Lake Balakucha's volume to swell more than 30 times in recent decades according to various studies Down the hill from the lake is the town of Huaras Farmers like Sao Luciano Lua worry about flooding in the town which has more than 65,000 people Louisa is also the center of a landmark global case that will determine if companies can be legally held accountable for past emissions contributing to climate change I am here to attend the court ham court because of the climate crisis in Haz The mountains the glaciers are melting and that has caused risks Risks to life and I am here to ask for climate justice Lua is suing the German energy firm RWE which his lawyers say is responsible for. 5% of global emissions His lawyers are therefore demanding that RWE pay.

5% of the cost of flood mitigation for the city RWE which has never operated in Peru says that a single emitter cannot be held responsible for global warming In a statement RWE said quote "If such a claim were to exist under German law it would also be possible to hold every motorist liable. " The decadel long case is based on a section of the German civil law code about property interference It was dismissed by a lower court but is now being appealed to a higher court in H Germany The hearing started Monday and will let first determine whether the melting glaciers are raising the lakes's water levels and whether this will pose a flood risk to Louisa's home in the next 30 years We didn't start out with a lot of hope but now it's caused a lot of attention and yes it is a precedent We have high hopes for this next hearing Pop quiz hot shot What NASA program plans to land the first woman and next man on the moon in the year 2027 artemis Apollo Quest or Juno answer is the Aremis program It will send astronauts back to explore more of the lunar surface while evaluating hazards astronauts will face in true deep space ahead of planned crude missions to Mars Welcome back Welcome back NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams are finally back home on Earth The two astronauts spent more than nine months in space after what was supposed to be a week-long mission went arry They splashed down off the coast of Florida this week ending their extended stay on the International Space Station With them were two other Crew 9 mission members NASA's Nick Heg and cosminaut Alexander Gorbongh of Russia's Roscosmos Space Agency Our Lee Waldman is here to tell us about their first moments back on Earth and shows us a special group that appeared to welcome them home Lots of cheers here at the Johnson Space Center when we saw that successful splashdown of the Space X Drgon capsule carrying four astronauts from the International Space Station back to Earth just off the coast of Florida the long awaited return of astronauts Sunny Williams and Bush Wilmore after more than 9 months in space 286 days Their mission was originally supposed to last only 8 days but that was extended after issues with the Boeing Star Liner deemed it unsafe to carry those astronauts back to space here Now we saw after that splashdown a pod of dolphins swimming near the capsule as the SpaceX crew who had met that capsule off of the coast of Florida in that body of water there They got those astronauts successfully loaded onto a ship and now they're undergoing medical evaluations But as we saw those astronauts for the first time it was all smiles and waves Once it's deemed that they are medically safe to fly from that ship to the Ellington Field they'll be reunited with their families before coming here to the Johnson Space Center to undergo further evaluations and further debriefs It's all part of a normal routine for astronauts that have spent time in space and are now returning back here to Earth It is a long journey for Sunny and Butch much longer than anticipated but finally coming to a successful end here in Houston I'm Lee Baldwin Today's story getting a 10 out of 10 The unicornlike sports star known as Shohei Otani It was Otani time in Japan The Los Angeles Dodgers star got a hero's welcome during a rare chance to play in his home country this week Thousands of fans were there at the Tokyo Dome for the MLB season opener Otani burst onto the scene and quickly became one of the most unique players we've ever seen He can hit and pitch with the best of them like a modern-day Babe Ruth All the hometown fans may have given some good mojo because Otani's Dodgers swept the Cubs in the twoame series Our Haneko Montgomery was there amongst the fans It's like a Beatles first came to Japan like back in ' 65 or something It's like the same fever Baseball has been big in Japan for over a century But thanks to Show Otani's stardom and his huge huge fan base he's truly elevated the profile of the sport here in the country People are coming out in droves to enjoy tonight enjoy Show Otani back on Japanese soil because of course this is a very rare opportunity for fans who don't get to see him play in Major League Baseball Who are you rooting for today oh Otani Yeah whoever Show is playing for So the Dodgers I'm a Yankees fan though Otani is very handsome isn't he but he got married That was unfortunate Oh my I'd be delighted if Otani ever sees me I'm excited for us but I'm excited for the Japanese people National treasure Yeah I like that All right for more Otani Live March Madness updates and more you can head to cnn.