Future Lives Matter - Seattle Judge Rules For Children On Climate Change

Climate Change, Anthropocene, & Associated Issues

Date posted: 11/24/15

Dr. Conca reports that in Seattle, King County Superior Court Judge Hollis R. Hill issued a groundbreaking ruling in the unprecedented case of 8 child petitioners who brought suit to force the Department of Ecology to write a carbon emissions rule that protects the atmosphere for their generation and those to come. And in an era where corporations are considered people, the atmosphere itself could be protected by the government as well. In this landmark decision, Judge Hill declared that the youths very survival depends upon the will of their elders to act now, decisively and unequivocally, to stem the tide of global warming ... before doing so becomes first too costly and then too late. The judge found the public trust doctrine mandates that the state act through its designated agency to protect what it holds in trust. The court confirmed what the Washington youth, and youth across the nation, have been arguing recently in the courts, that the state has a constitutional obligation to protect the public interest in natural resources held in trust for the common benefit of the people. Eight youth petitioners, age 8 to 18, brought suit to force the Department of Ecology to write a carbon emissions rule that protects the atmosphere for their generation and those to come. Last Thursday night, King County Superior Court Judge Hollis R. Hill in Seattle agreed with them, saying that the state has a constitutional obligation to protect the public interest in natural resources held in trust for the common benefit of the people. The young plaintiffs have filed a brief with supporting testimony from some of the world leading climate change and ocean acidification scientists, including Dr. James Hansen, Dr. Richard Gammon, Dr. Ove Hough-Guldburg. The case went to Judge Hollis Hill earlier this month, and resulted in the recent decision for the plaintiffs. Rodgers hopes that Governor Inslee takes this message to the Paris Climate meeting and heeds Judge Hill finding...