{"id":1076225,"date":"2023-06-09T10:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-09T10:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/grist.org\/?p=611675"},"modified":"2023-06-09T10:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-09T10:30:00","slug":"youth-vs-fossil-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/06\/09\/youth-vs-fossil-fuels\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth vs Fossil Fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
This story was co-published with Teen Vogue<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The complaint in the groundbreaking climate lawsuit Held v. Montana<\/em> reads like a history of grief and loss in the short lives of its plaintiffs. In it, displayed simply in a numbered list, are the ways the 16 youth have spent their childhoods watching the world burn. A rancher\u2019s daughter recalls the sadness and stress of seeing a river cycle through droughts and floods, endangering and even killing her family\u2019s cattle. Two brothers who love to hunt and fish recount how the forest they rely upon for food is deteriorating around them. A toddler struggles to breathe as wildfire smoke aggravates his asthma. A young Indigenous woman worries that inexorable changes to the seasons will cause her tribe to lose the ancient cultural traditions that have seen them through seasons of war, genocide, and dispossession. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Each is tired of politicians not only failing to mitigate the problem, but, in their view, actively making it worse. In response, they have taken the bold step of suing the government of Montana, arguing that its enthusiastic support of fossil fuels violates their inalienable right, enshrined in Article II of the state constitution<\/a>, to a \u201cclean and healthful environment.\u201d They accuse the governor and other officials of neglecting their constitutional duty to preserve and protect the environment for future generations<\/a>. \u201cAlthough defendants know that the youth plaintiffs are living under dangerous climatic conditions that create an unreasonable risk of harm, they continue to act affirmatively to exacerbate the climate crisis,\u201d the suit states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n