Oregon Live: An Oregon teen who unsuccessfully sued Oregon’s governor for failing to act on climate change is taking her case to the White House. This time, 10 other Oregon youth and another 10 from other states are joining the fray. So is James Hansen, a longtime NASA scientist who just published some of the scariest climate change research to date.
Kelsey Juliana, a 19-year-old Eugene native, is one of 21 teens and children listed as plaintiffs in a suit filed Wednesday against President Barack Obama and the U.S. government.
The plaintiffs claim the government is violating their rights by enforcing policies that fail to protect present and future generations from a human-caused climate catastrophe.
They have asked the court to rule that government leaders “have violated and are violating Plaintiffs’ fundamental constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property by causing dangerous CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere and dangerous government interference with a stable climate system.”
They’re also asking the judge to order an inventory of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions and force government leaders to make a plan to phase out greenhouse gas emissions. It’s the largest yet of a series of lawsuits filed by youth plaintiffs working with the nonprofit environmental group Our Children’s Trust.
Hansen, the NASA scientist, gained international attention last month after publishing a paper indicating melting polar ice is causing sea level to rise far faster than the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change previously predicted.
Juliana and another Eugene teen, Olivia Chernaik, gained national attention after their lawsuit in Oregon gained a court hearing this year. Lane County Circuit Court Judge Karsten Rasmussen rejected the teens’ arguments and teens are appealing his rulings.
In a statement Wednesday, Juliana called the federal government out for policies that rely upon “Sustained exploitation and consumption of fossil fuels. If the Government continues to delay urgent annual emissions reductions, my generation’s wellbeing will be inexcusably put at risk,” Juliana said.
Whether or not you agree with AGW, you can already assume that her generation’s well being is inexcusably at risk.
DCG