Why Nearly Two Dozen Young People Are Suing The Federal Government Over Climate Change

We talk to one of the 21 young people who are suing the federal government for failing to take sufficient action to address climate change.

Victoria Barrett, one of 21 plaintiffs in the case of Juliana vs. United States, scheduled to begin later this month in federal court in Oregon. She studies political science and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin (@vict_barrett)

E&E News: Kids' Case Tests 'Hail Mary' Climate Argument — "The plaintiffs make their case in a two-pronged attack, arguing that the government's reaction to and fueling of climate change has eroded both rights of theirs protected under the Constitution and the safeguards of the public trust doctrine. The climate, they argue, must be protected for current and future generations.

'The laws that we really turn to in this effort are foundational laws; they're laws that explain why we have government in the first place and what our basic human rights are,' Julia Olson, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, said in San Francisco at the Commonwealth Club of California in February of 2017.

'And one of those is the public trust doctrine," Olson said. It holds that the government must guard common supplies, like air and water, in perpetuity,' she said."