California

Large cities like New York, along with smaller cities and counties in California, want the big oil companies to pay for the harm their products have caused in the form of rising seas, floods and drought. Better science and clear evidence of deception give these lawsuits far more traction than in the past.

Conditions are currently warming up in the Pacific, and the NOAA Climate Prediction Center expects a greater than 90 percent chance that El Niño will…