Climate Action Expands Trajectory After 16-youth Led Legal Action

Terra

I was asked to respond to a 2020 judicial case. Friends at Living Well Black, Inc. were interested in this case because the message aligns with the very fabric of the organization’s mission, and the two most notable and related ideas are advancing health equity through information and advocacy. As you will read, a threat to health equity will be a major part of the Held v. Montana case. The response I share reads:

A climate change lawsuit. This is the kind of legal proceeding that asserts its relevance.

In the case of the 2020 lawsuit won by 16 youths all between the ages of 5 and 22 in Montana (defendant), the issue detailed the cost of neglecting to consider climate change in fossil fuel projects. As a result, the state not only received a lawsuit but contributed to revealing yet another social issue to another group— the younger generation.

Proceedings like this come about from the negligence of those who choose not to comply with constitutional grounds. For instance, in a worry that a project won’t land if a corporation is incompliant with even one law, they may attempt to avoid the potential disapproval initially through unconstitutional means. Some of these reasons for avoidance of compliance may be that, doing so, may delay the project’s progress and the stakeholder’s profit gains. It may even be inconvenient to change the habits that they’ve practiced for so long.

However, the attempt to avoid may come at a cost in the form of a lawsuit.

You don’t say. This is a push.
Chrisselle

Why is it important that the youth are leading this legal action? When youth are taking center stage over a subject that is perceivably insurmountable — climate change — a sense of initiative and drive in youth is perceived as encouraging. It also adds another level of relevance to the overall climate cause. This proceeding shows that states or corporations not admitting to procedure, are not only violating the rights of those who have more say in their lives, the adults, but of all youth who are not at fault for current conditions or hold enough control over political actions, although this case now supports a slightly contrary stance.

According to Montana First Judicial District Court judge Kathy Seeley’s court findings, the “The plaintiffs, who are young adults and children, have provided support to their claim that they are disproportionately harmed by fossil fuel pollution and climate impacts (Held v. State of Montana 2023, p.87). Plaintiffs’ injuries will grow increasingly severe and irreversible without science-based actions to address climate change” (Held v. State of Montana 2023, p.87) … Some of these injuries may include the “likelihood of cumulative trauma that leads to mental and physical illness … an increased risk of early death (Held v. State of Montana 2023, p.34)” as well as disrupting education.

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Younger generations are reaping the effects of climate change. Look at it this way, while the adults are long gone and fertilizing the earth, within years, the ones that remain; those who were once children; having no control over what their predecessors do, are now the ones trying to manage, mitigate, and develop modern ways to handle the lingering effects brought about by their predecessor. Environmental health is a constitutional right, which the youth argue, was violated.

What we’ve known for some time now is that failure to consider the impact that any action has on the environment and various groups supports greater risk of consequences by large companies or state actions.