Dozens of young Americans are challenging the Biden administration and state officials over their alleged climate policy failings through a series of explosive lawsuits.
Civil cases launched by Gen Z plaintiffs are spreading like wildfire following a historic win by 16 kids and teens against Montana lawmakers last summer.
Two federal complaints against the US government and the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) have been launched in Oregon and California respectively, along with three state-level cases in Hawaii, Utah and Virginia.
District Judge Ann L Aiken approved the Oregon case for trial in December after years of bitter wrangling between the kids’ attorneys and the DOJ.
The Hawaii case has also been tabled, while the others are at various stages in the legal system.
Judge Aiken said the incoming judicial deluge represents a desperate attempt by schoolkids to avert ‘code red for humanity’.
The plaintiffs in Juliana v United States are among dozens of American youths suing the Biden administration and state officials over alleged climate policy failings
Lead plaintiff Kelsey Cascadia Rose Juliana (pictured) was 19 when the suit was filed. She is 27 and claims that natural resources including vital food supplies in her hometown of Eugene, Oregon, are dwindling thanks to rising global emissions
District Judge Ann L Aiken (pictured) approved the Oregon case for trial in December after years of bitter wrangling between the kids’ attorneys and the DOJ. She said the incoming judicial deluge represents a desperate attempt by schoolkids to avert ‘code red for humanity’
Her December 29 ruling put an end to an eight-year bombardment of ‘aggressive’ motions against the suit by the DOJ, according to Our Children’s Trust who represent the kids across each litigation.
In her 54-page opinion, Judge Aiken said the plaintiffs are too young to influence climate policy through voting, so they are resorting to the justice system – as explored in a 2020 Netflix documentary about the case called Youth V Gov.
The case also garnered support from Leonardo Di Caprio, who urged his fans on X to ‘stand with the 21 kids demanding government action on climate change’ as they faced their first legal hurdles in 2016.
The complaint, named Juliana v United States, argues that the climate crisis has been catalyzed by the government’s policies – and that this crisis is causing them an array of material and emotional harms.
Lead plaintiff Kelsey Cascadia Rose Juliana was 19 when the suit was filed. The now 27-year-old claims that natural resources including vital food supplies in her hometown of Eugene, Oregon, are dwindling thanks to rising global emissions.
Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh, now 23, who is of Aztec descent, says his ability to engage in ‘sacred indigenous spiritual and cultural practices’ is being threatened by wildfires, drought and extreme flooding in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado.
Meanwhile Alex Loznak, 26, claims his family’s centuries-old 570-acre farm beside the Umpqua River in Kellogg, Oregon, is increasingly plagued by ‘drought conditions, unusually hot temperatures, and climate-induced migration of forest species’.
Victoria Barrett, 24, says she was harmed when Hurricane Sandy hit her White Plains home in New York, forcing her school to shut down – while rising sea levels threaten her family’s plot which resides on low-lying land.
The case also garnered support from actor Leonardo Di Caprio (pictured at the Our Oceans conference in 2016)
Di Caprio who urged his fans on X to ‘stand with the 21 kids demanding government action on climate change’ as they faced their first legal hurdles in 2016
The Juliana lawsuit follows the landmark trial in Montana where in August a judge ruled in favor of 16 youths who claimed the state government’s use of fossil fuels was harming their health
The youngest plaintiff, Avery McRae, who was 10 at the time the suit was filed and is now 18, argues that her ability to enjoy the natural environment in her hometown of Eugene is being marred by the destructive effects of global warming.
Several of the plaintiffs also lament how they have taken measures to reduce their own impacts on the climate – for example through eating meat-free diets and driving electric vehicles.
Many of them have also launched campaign groups of their own while taking part in mass protests before resorting to legal action – including the Great March for Climate Action spanning 1,600 miles from Nebraska to Washington DC in 2014.
The Juliana v United States complaint argues that successive governments have been ignoring scientists warnings about CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere for more than 50 years.
They claim the nation’s fossil fuel-based energy system is unconstitutional because it infringes on their right to grow up in a healthy environment.
Like the Obama and Trump governments before it, the Biden administration had tried to strike down the case by claiming that climate change was an issue for politicians, not the judiciary.
But Aiken disagreed, saying the courts must keep the government in check when it seeks to ‘deprive people of their constitutional guarantee of a God-given right to life’.
In her ruling on the case, Aiken clarified that the lawsuit is not concerned with proving that climate change is happening or that human activity is driving it. ‘For purposes of this motion, those facts are undisputed,’ she wrote.
Xiuhtezcatl Tonatiuh (pictured) now 23, who is of Aztec descent, says his ability to engage in ‘sacred indigenous spiritual and cultural practices’ is being threatened by wildfires, drought and extreme flooding in his hometown of Boulder, Colorado
Alex Loznak (pictured), 26, claims his family’s centuries-old 570-acre farm beside the Umpqua River in Kellogg, Oregon, is increasingly plagued by ‘drought conditions, unusually hot temperatures, and climate-induced migration of forest species’
Victoria Barrett (pictured), 24, says she was harmed when Hurricane Sandy hit her White Plains home in New York, forcing her school to shut down – while rising sea levels threaten her family’s plot which resides on low-lying land
‘I have no doubt that the right to a climate system capable of sustaining human life is fundamental to a free and ordered society,’ she added.
‘Just as marriage is the foundation of the family, a stable climate system is quite literally the foundation of society, without which there would be neither civilization nor progress…
‘Federal courts too often have been cautious and overly deferential in the arena of environmental law and the world has suffered for it.’
Judge Aiken also outlined how in 2023, the US witnessed ‘record-breaking levels of oil and gas production’ – while the government provides the oil and gas industry with $20 billion each year in ‘an array of subsidies’.
The case follows the Montana trial where Judge Kathy Seeley sided with youths aged five to 22 who claimed the state government’s use of fossil fuels was harming their health.
The plaintiffs did not seek a payout but wanted defendants to ‘bring the state energy system into constitutional compliance’.
Another national lawsuit taking aim at the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) is also taking shape in California.
In Genesis v EPA, 18 children aged eight to 17 are suing the agency and its administrator Michael Regan, claiming it ‘intentionally allows life-threatening climate pollution to be emitted by the fossil fuel sources of greenhouse gases it regulates’.
Avery McRae, who was 10 at the time the suit was filed and is now 18, argues that her ability to enjoy the natural environment in her hometown of Eugene, Oregon, is being marred by the destructive effects of global warming. Avery is the youngest plaintiff
In California, 18 children aged eight to 17 are suing the EPA and its administrator Michael Regan for allegedly ‘intentionally allows life-threatening climate pollution to be emitted by the fossil fuel sources of greenhouse gases it regulates’ (Pictured: some of the plaintiffs)
Judge Aiken said the plaintiffs are too young to influence climate policy through voting, so they are resorting to the justice system – as explored in a 2020 Netflix documentary about the case called Youth V Gov (pictured)
The complaint says they are ‘experiencing life-threatening injuries’ such as the loss of homes from wildfire, adverse health effects, displacement from floods, and being exposed to dangerous levels of air pollution, with lifelong consequences.
Rather than monetary damages, they are seeking a declaratory judgment that the EPA has violated their fundamental constitutional rights to equal protection of the law and their fundamental rights to life.
The case was filed on December 10, 2023, and is awaiting assignment to a judge and a response from the defendants.
In Hawaii, 14 youths ranging in age from 10 to 19 are claiming they have been ‘seriously injured’ due to the government violating constitutional pledges to decarbonize the transport sector by 2045.
Their complaint says global warming is threatening age-old agricultural industries in Hawaii, while rising sea levels are projected to wipe out entire communities within the plaintiffs’ lifetimes.
Fourteen Hawaiian children are suing the transport department for infringing on their right to grow up in a healthy environment by polluting it with greenhouse gases. (Pictured: some of the plaintiffs protesting against their government’s climate policies)
Like the Obama and Trump governments before it, the Biden administration had tried to strike down the case by claiming that climate change was an issue for politicians, not the judiciary
It also laments the emotional distress suffered by the young Pacific islanders – sparked by ‘climate anxiety’ and the destruction of their cultural traditions, citing examples like the bones of their ancestors being washed up by rising tides.
Their case, called Navahine F v Hawaii Department of Transportation is set to play out in the Environmental Court of First Circuit in June 2024.
Another fossil fuel case brought by seven youths called Natalie R v State of Utah was struck down by a lower court last year – but on September 19, the plaintiffs appealed their case in the state’s Supreme Court.
They will present their argument in the court at a date TBC.
Layla H. v. Commonwealth of Virginia is also in the midst of legal wrangling over whether the case can go to trial.
