Look out, Uncle Sam, these 21 kids from across the country are suing you for screwing up the climate.
A group of kids—mostly from Oregon, but also from Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, New York, and Washington—filed suit today in U.S. District Court in Eugene, claiming that the federal government has failed to act to prevent catastrophic climate change and is thereby infringing upon their rights—and the rights of future generations—of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Today also happens to be International Youth Day.
Among the listed defendants are the President; the Office of the President; the Departments of Energy, Interior, Transportation, Agriculture, Commerce, State, and Defense; and the Environmental Protection Agency, according to a news release.
The kids don’t want money. Instead they’re trying to get a court order declaring that the federal government has violated, and continues to violate, the “the fundamental consitutional rights of youth and future generations to life, liberty, property, and public trust resources by causing dangerous CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere.”
READ DETAILS AFTER THE JUMP
“A key part of this is the defendants’ conscious decision to continue to make the climate system worse to the point where the world will be uninhabitable for future generations,” says Philip Gregory, an attorney representing the kids. “It’s the court’s job to determine whether these youth plaintiffs have a constitutional right under the Fifth Amendment to have a climate system in which they can exist.”
Gregory says the Obama administration’s Climate Action Plan is woefully inadequate and will not solve the problem in time. Climate scientist James Hansen, who joins the list of plaintiffs as a “guardian for future generations and for his granddaughter,” agrees.
“Our President proposes ineffectual actions, demonstrably short of what is needed, and persists in approving fossil fuel projects that will slam shut the narrowing window of opportunity to ensure a hospitable climate system,” Hansen says.
Gregory says the kids are particularly concerned about the government’s 2011 approval of a proposed liquefied natural gas facility from the Jordan Cove terminal in Coos Bay, saying that continuing to extract, produce, and consume fossil fuels is an unconstitutional violation of their Fifth Amendment rights.
“By 2020, the Jordan Cove Energy Project will be the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the whole state of Oregon,” says 18-year-old Alex Loznak, one of the eleven Oregon youth plaintiffs. “Science tells us we must sharply cut back on CO2 emissions, but my Federal Government has given the green light to massive LNG exports from this terminal. If constructed, the terminal would process one billion cubic feet of natural gas per day, locking us into dependence on fossil fuels at a time when we should be transitioning toward a renewable energy economy. My family has owned a farm near the proposed pipeline route for almost 150 years, and I’m worried about the impacts that increased drought and wildfire will have on the farm unless we act now on climate change.”
Gregory expects a judge to be assigned to the case today and expects the first hearing to happen in November or December.
Ahh, the Idealism – and IGNORANCE of Youth is so charming.
My heroes! If children can sue the government, so will I.
THESE YOUTH KICK ASS
Smart move. In the right hands a lawsuit like this has a real chance at affecting change. If it becomes a class action suit then the govt will actually have no choice…
The government has a duty to protect the public trust, those resources which belong to all of us, and to future generations. That is the basis of the suit here, and sure, it is idealistic, but it is rooted in the law and in justice.
We’re fucked, all of us are just totally screwed.
What’s IGNORANT is pretending the economy and environment are mutually exclusive!
We ALL need to sue local and Federal governments! They are blatantly ignoring the health and prosperity of their constituents (individuals, NOT corporations). Yeah, for these kids. I wish that we were all co-signers on the suit!
Wow, the stupid, it burns so badly.
Ok. Anyone with a brain knows that the catastrophic man made global warming hypothesis is completely debunked by the evidence. It is blatantly obvious that it’s a political scam designed to gain complete economic control over every aspect of our lives via CO2 as well as transferring wealth from the population and destroying production/prosperity in order to create an environment of poverty and suffering so they can get support for their world government.
Science time.
Watch this amazing video where an ex carbon modeller for the Australian Government breaks down the fatal flaws in the CAGW hypothesis brilliantly for the layperson.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI3doCKhI7Q
More science as no doubt the people who read this article won’t educate themselves by following the link.
1. It hasn’t warmed globally for 18 years despite rising CO2.
2. The Mediaeval, Roman and Minoan Warm Periods were as hot or hotter globally than today with much less CO2
3. The Ordovician Period involved an ice age with CO2 levels 11 times that of today.
4. No mid tropospheric hotspot disproves the warmists’ positive feedback hypothesis and proves the models wrong.
5. No sea level rise increase.
6. No sea temperature increase to account for the supposed ‘missing heat’ (ARGO buoy data) nor any explanation as to how heat would decide to jump into the ocean or violate the laws of thermodynamics and not warm the top layers on the way down.
7. Outgoing Longwave radiation increases with surface warming cooling the planet (ERBE satellite)
8. Low level cloud from water evaporation creates an albedo effect reflecting short wave radiation cooling the planet.
9. Arctic ice has recovered from the 2007 minimum somewhat and had much less ice almost 1000 years ago enabling the Vikings to easily navigate the Arctic, with much less CO2!
10. Antarctic sea ice is at record levels.
11. CO2 lags 800 years behind temperature rise in the climate record showing temperature drives CO2 not the other way round. (Vostok ice cores). The falling temperatures in these records accelerates much faster than the CO2 showing that CO2 is not a primary driver and has little effect on climate.
12. GCMs (Global Circulation Models) are consistently producing results at least 3 times that of the observed temperatures, showing the models have their climate sensitivity parameter drastically wrong. In other words there are zero to negative feedbacks in the climate system, not positive as the models assume.
13. CO2 heat absorption and emission is logarithmic which means that after a certain point an extra CO2 added absorbs less and less heat.
^^The delusion is strong with this one.
Are these the same brain surgeons that had their lawsuit thrown out of state court a few months ago? Something about suing Kitzhaber and the state in general for not protecting their future. I predict the same fate for this lawsuit.
I dunno about you guys, but I am really fond of the way Gregory speaks up and articulates the kids beliefs.
So very magnanimous of him.
The Federal Gov.? It is people, us, the guy next door and the woman downtown who do this. The Federal govt is really nobody. Pointless to sue yourself.
Ha the Australian government is about to build a giant coal export port directly on top of the Great Barrier Reef, and you are referring to them for climate science? Your facts are wrong, and the earth is not flat. I support these kids 100%
david7777 — More science as no doubt the people who read this article won’t educate themselves by following the link.
ME — Good job. People can find more climate truths at: sustainableOregon.com