Thursday, June 6, 2024

OMNI CLIMATE CHANGE AND CHILDREN, EDUCATION, LAW ANTHOLOGY #2, June 6, 2024

 

  • OMNI
  • CLIMATE CHANGE AND CHILDREN, EDUCATION, LAW ANTHOLOGY #2, June 6, 2024
  • Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology,
  • http://omnicenter.org/donate/
  •  

What’s at Stake:  What Shall We Tell The Children?

Contents
UN World Environment Day: UNESCO.  2024.

Heather Short.  A vision for transforming education in the face of climate and ecological breakdown.”  2024.

MarjorieCohn.  “Youth Plaintiffs in Court Against Montana.”  2023. 

From guns to climate, America keeps proving it doesn’t care about kids.”  2022. 

Olivia Rosane.  Young Victims Of Climate Disasters Sue EU States Over Energy Treaty.”   2022.

“’aDULT EDUCATION’” has been confused….”  2019
Richard Hunziker.  Greenhouse Gas Concentrations in Atmosphere Are Accelerating.”  2019.

Faramarz Farbod.  Making Capitalism History.”  2019. 

Arun Gupta.  “The Children’s Crusade.”  2019

Green Team at Shiloh Museum on frogs. 2019.

Dick Bennett.  “What Shall We Tell the Children?”  2019

Julia Rosen.    In a federal courtroom in Eugene, Oregon, 21 young people are scheduled to face off against the U.S. government.  2018 (2015).

 

SOURCES

Arctic News

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

Canadian Dimension

Change-Links

CounterPunch

EcoWatch

In These Times

MRonline.org

Science

Truthout

UNESCO

 

TEXTS

Top of Form

Bottom of Form

World Environment Day: UNESCO launches new initiatives for “greening education” in classrooms

UNESCO in education 6-5-24         UNESCO EDUCATION NEWSLETTER - June 2024

View in your browser   |||   Forward to a friend   |||   Update your profile  |||   Sign up
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

World Environment Day: UNESCO launches new initiatives for “greening education” in classrooms

 

 

On World Environment Day (5 June), UNESCO unveils new tools for greening schools and curricula, highlighting the need to empower young people to play a concrete role in tackling the climate crisis. "Greening schools and curricula is one of the best levers to tackle climate disruption in the long-term,” said UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay. “It’s time to mainstream environmental education across school subjects, at all levels of education with an action-oriented approach that helps young people understand their power to make a difference.”
Read more  

 

 

 

 

Q&A: Why greening education is the long-term solution for our planet


Record-breaking temperatures, devastating floods and fast-melting ice shelves have become regular news headlines all over the globe. Climate change is happening today, and millions are affected by its deadly consequences. Yet education today is not helping the next generation adopt a greener and more sustainable lifestyle. There is an urgent need to shift the way we teach and learn to empower students to take tangible climate action. That is the core message UNESCO is conveying on World Environment Day as it unveils new guidelines for greening schools and curricula.
Read more    

 

 

 

 

What you need to know about building strong foundations

With many more children now in primary school, learning about health and well-being is an opportunity to advance our children’s education and futures. Children and young adolescents thrive in the classroom when they are in good health, and learn about their well-being early on. That is why UNESCO established the Building strong foundations initiative which demonstrates its unwavering commitment and support for the education and health of all learners.
Read more    

 

 

 

 

Gaza: More than 1,500 children reached by UNESCO’s mental health and psychosocial support
Amidst the ongoing conflict and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, UNESCO has been supporting displaced children and families, helping them cope with the trauma they are enduring. Since February 2024, a total of 1,580 displaced children have received assistance through UNESCO’s mental health and psychosocial support initiatives in shelters across Khan Younis and Rafah in the Southern Gaza Strip, in partnership with the Teacher Creativity Center. Additionally, 810 caregivers have participated in psychosocial support workshops, enhancing their capacity to provide support to both themselves and the children in their care.
Read more    

 

 

 

 

Unlocking Africa’s potential by investing in STEM education

Science and technology are transforming the world at an unprecedented pace. From addressing global challenges like pandemics and climate change to driving innovation and sustainable development, the role of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education has never been more crucial. The African continent holds a huge potential to transform its education sector and labour market through science, technology and innovation. “We need to unlock the potential of STEM education across Africa. And African girls represent the greatest untapped population to become the next generation of innovators,” said Stefania Giannini, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Education, at the Africa Dialogue Series 2024.
Read more    

 

 

 

 

 

READ MORE EDUCATION NEWS

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the launch of the Building strong foundations inititative in Zambia, a set of four briefs were released with UNICEF as part of the initiative to help ensure children stay in school, keep safe and grow up to lead healthy and thriving lives. In the photo, UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Education, Stefania Gianinni, joined a group of students during a school visit to Chainda Primary School in Lusaka, which included lessons on health and education, such as the human body and development, and substance use.

Read more 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A vision for transforming education in the face of climate and ecological breakdown.”

Editor.  mronline.org (3-10-24).

People from more than 160 countries participated in the People’s Climate March on September 21, 2014. It was the largest climate demonstration in history. Photo by Heather Craig/Survival Media Agency/Flickr.

Preparing students for their futures requires nothing short of transformative systemic change in all aspects of society.

Originally published: Canadian Dimension  on March 6, 2024 by Heather Short (more by Canadian Dimension)  |  (Posted Mar 09, 2024)

Climate Change, Education, Environment, MovementsAmericas, CanadaNewswire

In the fall of 2021 I resigned from my tenured teaching position at a Québec college, in conscientious objection to business-as-usual education with a ‘green twist.’ I had taught Earth and climate science for nearly 15 years in the system, and had finally fully realized the implications of what the science has been telling me (and them) all along: that these young people in my classroom didn’t stand a chance at a livable future unless the adults in their lives stepped up. I have since been trying to educate ‘the adults in the room’ about our climate and ecological crises, but unsurprisingly, not many want to know the details. So when I heard that my former college was hiring a new director general, I decided to apply for the position. The following is a slightly modified version of my cover letter. . . .

 

MarjorieCohn.  “Youth Plaintiffs in Court Against Montana.”  Truthout.  June 14, 2023.

The potentially far-reaching case is based on the state constitution, which enshrines the right to a clean and healthful environment, writes Marjorie Cohn. 

In a case that could have far-reaching implications for the struggle against the climate crisis, the trial in a lawsuit brought by a group of youth plaintiffs began in Montana on Monday.

The first such case about climate change to go to trial, Held v. Montana involves the specific impacts the climate crisis has on young people.

This trial is a bellwether for other cases throughout the United States. Mat dos Santos, general counsel for Our Children’s Trust, which represents the youth plaintiffs, said that the lawsuit “is not just about Montana. It’s really about the climate here in the United States and around the world.”

[This is just one of a spate of lawsuits underway challenging governments over their fossil fuel policies that drive climate change, as The Guardian reports: “‘Game changing’: spate of US lawsuits calls big oil to account for climate crisis.”]

If this suit is successful, it would be a “watershed moment” that could lead to a “cascade of legal victories around the country,” dos Santos added, and would likely have global implications.     MORE   https://consortiumnews.com/category/commentary/

The Youth Plaintiffs charge in their complaint that the defendants have abdicated control over “Public Trust Resources in favor of the short-term interests of private parties, authorizing those private parties to treat our atmosphere as a dump for their carbon emissions and profit off of developing Montana’s fossil fuel resources to the detriment of Youth Plaintiffs and future generations of Montanans.”

That explains why the Republican officials in Montana are fighting so hard to throw this lawsuit out of court.

On June 6, the Montana Supreme Court rejected the defendants’ 11th hour petition for the extraordinary remedy of a writ of supervisory control, asking the state’s high court to dismiss the case. “Trial, with preparation literally years in the making, is set to commence less than a week from now; we are not inclined to disturb the District Court’s schedule at this juncture,” Montana’s Supreme Court wrote.

The two-week bench trial before Judge Seely (sitting without a jury) began on Monday and runs through June 23 in her Helena, Montana, courtroom.

See here for information about how to watch this historic trial.

Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, former president of the National Lawyers Guild, and a member of the national advisory boards of Assange Defense and Veterans For Peace, and the bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Her books include Drones and Targeted Killing: Legal, Moral and Geopolitical Issues. She is co-host of “Law and Disorder” radio. 
This article is from  Truthout and reprinted with permission.

 

CLIMATE CHANGE

From guns to climate, America keeps proving it doesn’t care about kids.”  Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists BAS (6-2-22).

It is no coincidence that the climate movement is primarily led by youth, says Bulletin editor Dawn Stover. "Do something, children are pleading. And still the authorities hesitate outside the door." Read more.

 

Young Victims Of Climate Disasters Sue EU States Over Energy Treaty By Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch. Popular Resistance.org (6-24-22).   In the latest attempt to use the courts to address the climate crisis, five young people are suing 12 EU countries over membership in a treaty that they argue puts the needs of fossil fuel companies above climate action. The young people brought their case before the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday, as Euractiv reported. The lawsuit targets the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), which gives energy companies the right to sue governments for compensation when their policies threaten profits. “Governments are still putting profits of the fossil fuel industry over human rights.  -more-

 

 

CLIMATE ADULT child EDUCATION: greta

“aDULT EDUCATION” has been confused by the addition of “adult bookstores“ and “adult films” to our vocabulary.

     In my town, look up “adult bookstore” in your computer and you receive Adam & Eve Stores, Seductions Lingerie, and Salomé Boutique.  Adult entertainment means sexual excitation, masturbatory anticipation, secret dreams.

        Meanwhile, our adult leaders have pursued wars against alleged enemies so frequently as to be sequential since 1941, and our leaders have produced CO2 wars against climate into increasingly extreme weather since the 1950s.   Because understanding the causes of wars and warming would be worth its weight in gold, at least as valuable or expensive as the Apollo moon landing, one would suppose the libraries would be packed with eager learners and the colleges offering hundreds of courses on wars and warming.

     But not so.  Attention, excitement, urgency are elsewhere, the newspapers reveal daily, with far more distractions than sexual.  

      A few decades ago Allan Ginzburg and  Kenneth Patchen howled: Sleepers Awake! with their poetry and paintings to melt the arrogance congealing our exceptional nation.   A few months ago the child Greta Thunberg renewed their cry.  “We need new politics.  We need new economics.  We need a whole new way of thinking.” 

     But, as we read daily, the wars and warming continue, as Greta says, because the “system that you [so-called adults] created is all about competition. . . ..to win, to get power.” 

       Change-Links

http://change-links.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/sunrise_rally_sf_-_peg_hunter.jpg

WAR ON NATURE: CLIMATE CATASTROPHE?

·        CHANGE-LINKS

Greenhouse Gas Concentrations in Atmosphere Are Accelerating”

by Richard Hunziker [excerpts from Counterpunch:  https://www.counterpunch.org/2019/05/21/custers-last-stand-meets-global-warming/

A recent article in Arctic News on the outlook for global warming foresees a frightening scenario lurking right around the corner. Hopefully, the article’s premise of impending runaway global warming (“RGW”) is off the mark, by a lot. BTW… the worst-case scenario happens within one decade!

Here’s a snippet: “… such a rise in greenhouse gas levels has historically corresponded with more than 10°C or 18°F of warming, when looking at greenhouse gas levels and temperatures over the past 800,000 years….” (Source: “Greenhouse Gas Levels Keep Accelerating,” Arctic News, May 1, 2019)

It is important to mention that mainstream science is not warning of imminent Runaway Global Warming (“RGW”), as outlined in the Arctic News article. Still, the article does have credibility because it is the product of academic scientists.  [By 2024 the scientific consensus is “imminent Runaway.”  --Dick]

The Arctic News article would not be out there if  the US Senate had taken seriously Dr. James Hansen’s warnings about global warming in 1988. The NY Times headline June 24, 1988 read: “Global Warming Has Begun, Expert Tells Senate.”

[In response] no solar initiatives were suggested for the country. In fact, since Dr. Hansen’s warning 31 years ago, Congress is MIA, not even one peep about efforts to contain global warming. [Thus the] Children’s Climate Crusade, originating in Sweden, is stewing about the global warming crisis, addressing a long list of failures by “the establishment.”

The Arctic News article is a haunting commentary on the status of global warming; [it] describes a powerful combination of greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrogen oxide (NO2), and nitrous oxide (N2O) [that]  in combination with oceans and ice taking up less planetary heat, threaten life on Earth within a decade.

“So, how fast and by how much could temperatures rise? …rapid warming of the lower troposphere could occur very soon. When including the joint impact of all warming elements … abrupt climate change could result in a rise of as much as 18°C or 32.4°F by 2026. This could cause most life on Earth (including humans) to go extinct within years,” Ibid.

That can’t possibly be true, or can it? Nobody knows for sure. Some really smart scientists think it could happen. According to the article, the setup for the worst-case scenario is falling into place faster and sooner than thought possible. Read the entire article: https://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2019/05/greenhouse-gas-levels-keep-accelerating.html.

The oceans as well as glacial and ocean-bearing ice have been absorbing up to 95% of the planet’s heat, minimizing atmospheric global warming. However, those two huge natural buffers are losing their mojo. Ocean stratification and loss of ice minimize the effectiveness of those two crucial buffers, forcing the atmosphere to take up more and more planetary heat.

One of the primary [signs] of upcoming acceleration of global warming [is] a recent study about nitrous oxide, N2O, which is 300xs more potent than CO2 and has a lifetime of 120 years, found in huge quantities (67B tons) in Arctic permafrost: “The study by Wilkerson, et al https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.8b02271 shows that nitrous oxide emissions from thawing Alaskan permafrost are about twelve times higher than previously assumed. A 2018 analysis (https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.8b02271) by Yang et al points at the danger of large nitrous oxide releases from thawing permafrost in Tibet. Even more nitrous oxide could be released from Antarctica,” Ibid.

In addition to N2O as a powerful greenhouse gas, it’s also an ozone depleting substance, which brings to mind the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer of 1987. For those who missed class back in the day, the ozone layer of Earth’s stratosphere (10-30 miles above ground level) absorbs most of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation! Without it blindness, skin cancers and other will increase, and some life forms will go extinct.

According to James Anderson (Harvard professor of atmospheric chemistry), co-recipient of the 1995 Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on ozone depletion, speaking at the University of Chicago about global warming in 2018: “People [think] we can recover from this state just by reducing carbon emissions, Anderson said in an appearance at the University of Chicago. Recovery is all but impossible, he argued, without a World War II-style transformation of industry—an acceleration of the effort to halt carbon pollution and remove it from the atmosphere, and a new effort to reflect sunlight away from the earth’s poles… This has do be done, Anderson added, within the next five years.” (Source: Jeff McMahon, We Have Five Years To Save Ourselves From Climate Change, Harvard Scientist Says, Forbes, Jan. 15, 2018).

Based upon that gauntlet as laid down by professor Anderson, only 4 years remains to get something done to “save us.”  Sadly, there is no “WW-II style transformation of industry” under consideration, not even a preliminary fact-finding mission.

But, there is a very active ongoing Children’s Crusade prodding adults to do something. At Katowice, Poland, COP-24 (Conference of the Parties) in December 2018, Greta Thunberg, a 15-year-old from Sweden, addressed the UN secretary general António Guterres. “For 25 years countless people have stood in front of the UN climate conferences, asking our nation’s leaders to stop the emissions. But, clearly, this has not worked since the emissions just continue to rise. So I will not ask them anything. Instead, I will ask the media to start treating the crisis as a crisis.

“Instead, I will ask people around the world to realize our political leaders have failed us. We are facing an existential threat and there is no time to continue down this road of madness… So we have not come here to beg the world leaders to care for our future. They have ignored us in the past and they will ignore us again.

We have come here to let them know that change is coming whether they like it or not.”

 

Making Capitalism History.”  Mronline.org (7-12-19).

To perish or to radically transform the way we relate to one another and to nature, that is the question humanity has never had to face until now.  Source    [This is Greta Thunberg’s question to us all.  –Dick]

By Faramarz Farbod (Posted Jul 11, 2019).

Originally published: Change Links  on July 4, 2019 (more by Change Links) .

Capitalism, ImperialismGlobalNewswire

To perish or to radically transform the way we relate to one another and to nature, that is the question humanity has never had to face until now.

The evidence backing the above assertion is strong and accumulating. Nevertheless, there remains a stubborn problem of awareness as many who understand the perils facing humanity fail to connect them to its source: the capitalist organization of planetary life. Failure to address this problem will only guarantee that the predictable future characterized by immense suffering associated with a generalized social collapse and ecological ruination on a planetary scale will come to pass.

In this brief essay, I will tackle this problem of awareness by addressing a series of thematically-related questions that are often raised by those who question whether the source of the problems we currently face can reasonably be said to be the capitalist system.

 

 KIDS SUE US GOVERNMENT FOR CLIMATE   
Arun Gupta.  The Children’s Climate Crusade.”  In These Times (August 2019).  This is the title in the August no.  It’s different online, but the texts are identical. “Life, Liberty and a Stable Climate: These Kids Are Arguing for a New Constitutional Right.”  After a June hearing, the youth suing the government await news on whether their case will proceed to trial.

https://inthesetimes.com/article/21935/life-liberty-stable-climate-trial-youth-juliana-trump-constitution

“We spent another day in court facing our government, the apparent strongest government in the world, showing fear of young people and showing fear of facts.”

Summary

Next week, barring a last-minute intervention by the Supreme Court, climate change could go to trial for just the second time in U.S. history. In a federal courtroom in Eugene, Oregon, 21 young people are scheduled to face off against the U.S. government, which they accuse of endangering their future by promoting policies that have increased emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other planet warming gases. The plaintiffs aren't asking for monetary damages. Instead, they want federal District Judge Ann Aiken to take the unprecedented step of ordering federal agencies to dramatically reduce the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere. Government attorneys are not expected to challenge the scientific consensus that human activities, including the burning of fossil fuels, cause global warming. But the outcome could hinge, in part, on how Aiken weighs other technical issues. Each side has recruited a roster of high-profile scientists and economists, including Nobel laureates, to bolster their argument. "It's clearly going to be a battle of the experts," says Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, who is not involved in the case.

 

Local media Ref.  Becca Martin-Brown   bmartin@nadg.com  “Green Team Activity Day Inspires Kids To Save The Planet.”  NADG (6-28-19). 5B. 

 

story.lead_photo.captionCourtesy Photo Any group can use Green Team materials, says spokesman Tom Krohn, including school teachers, Girl Scouts, civic clubs and museums.

The Shiloh Museum of Ozark History is going to the frogs Saturday -- or more accurately, to an organization that has expanded its conservation footprint from frogs and toads to "all living things."

Green Team Activity Day will give youngsters in second through sixth grades -- and their adult friends -- a chance to learn how to protect the world they live in. It's hosted by Saving Nature Now, whose spokesman Tom Krohn answered these questions for 'SUP.

FAQ

Green Team Activity Day

WHEN — 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday

WHERE — Shiloh Museum in Springdale

COST — Free

INFO — Register at 750-8165

Q. When did Saving Nature Now come into existence?

A. Our nonprofit was originally Arkansas Frogs and Toads, and we conducted training around the state in support of the citizen science program FrogWatch USA since 2013. And after several years, it occurred to us that it is not only frogs and toads that are important, in trouble, and in need of help. So in 2018 we broadened our approach and changed our name more accurately reflect our mission.

Q. Were young people always the target audience?

A. If people don't grow up with an appreciation and responsibility to protect nature, then it is hard to add that to their plates in adulthood. Many children today have very little interactions with nature. Our Green Team mission is to empower our youth to take actions that directly help nature and encourage sustainable living. We do that with activity booklets that they can complete to earn the Green Team patch. And as children complete the activities they will bring their parents along with them.

Q. What will the program at the Shiloh Museum be like?

A. There are nine activities in the Green Team booklet. At Shiloh, we will help them create a nature journal, make a leaf rubbing, and study insects. There is no cost for the booklet or materials at the event. When they mail or email their completion certificate to us, we'll send the Green Team patch, also at no cost.

Q. What have you found that resonates most with kids?

A. The front page in the nature journal they create says, "Don't forget to look up, look down, and look all around!" It is a revelation to most children to see how much is there to be discovered.

-- Becca Martin-Brown     bmartin@nwadg.com

 

WHAT TO TELL THE CHILDREN?  By Dick Bennett, 2019.      A subject worth some time at one of OMNI’s CLIMATE FORUMS soon: what should we tell children—the half or less of the truth, or more of the truth?    The Green Team and Saving Nature Now urges education of young people “in an appreciation and responsibility to protect nature,” and they distribute a booklet on 9 activities, including keeping a journal, making a leaf rubbing, and “study insects.”  I applaud all that.  But  I wonder if such education omits too much and fails to prepare the youth with knowledge of the causes of cc and explanation for the long failure of our leaders to try to halt global warming.  I heard Ms. Greta Thunberg on Ted Talks, and she knew about the politics of cc.   A friend of mine wrote about Greta, that she was “hugely inspired by young climate activists...especially Greta Thunberg from Sweden and the Sunrise Movement. Greta has fired up millions of youth around the globe to talk about climate change and their future. “

    Maybe the Green Team and Saving Nature Now underestimate our youth and thereby cripple them, when heavy responsibilities will fall upon them soon.  How can they save the planet if they are not taught also the consequences of our economic system, the history of fossil fuel industry deceptions and denial, and other realities they must face?  

 

Julia Rosen.    In a federal courtroom in Eugene, Oregon, 21 young people are scheduled to face off against the U.S. government.   Science 26 (Oct 2018).

Judge Andrew Hurwitz arched an eyebrow. “You’re asking us to do a lot of new stuff, aren’t you?” He was grilling Julia Olson, executive director of Our Children’s Trust, who was arguing before a panel of three judges on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to allow a groundbreaking climate justice lawsuit, Juliana v. U.S., to proceed to trial in federal court.

Filed in 2015, Juliana includes 21 plaintiffs, then aged 8 to 19, asking the judiciary to order the federal government “to swiftly phase-down CO2 emissions … [and] develop a national plan to restore Earth’s energy balance” because their lives are in danger from government-caused climate change. To make the case, the plaintiffs, more than a dozen of whom packed the benches behind Olson, need to prove the government is violating their constitutional rights by facilitating climate change.

The question of government culpability is central to the Juliana lawsuit. The government can’t be held liable for inaction to a danger—but it can be held responsible for creating that danger. The lawsuit hopes to prove youth are being discriminated against in favor of the present generations of adults who will experience few of the consequences of catastrophic climate change.

While the right to a “stable climate system” is not enumerated in the Constitution, the Ninth Amendment states that other rights exist even if not listed. Olson argues a stable climate system is one such right, and it is essential to the Fifth Amendment right of not being “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.”

Jeffrey Clark, assistant attorney general of the Environment and Natural Resources Division, argued to the judges June 4 that the lawsuit is “a dagger at the separation of powers.” He claimed that, if elected officials fail to stop an imminent threat to life, the solution is “the political remedy of removing them from office”—not having the courts to step in.

Hurwitz’s gravelly voice interjected, cutting through the thicket of legalese. The government position, he summarized, is if the plaintiffs faced immediate harm and the legislative and executive branches did nothing, “The plaintiffs would have no option but to die.” He added, “That may well be constitutionally correct.” 

But the judges did express skepticism of the government’s case. Judge Josephine Staton asked Clark why the right to a life-sustaining climate wouldn’t “fit comfortably within the nature of other unenumerated rights—such as the right to an abortion, the right to bodily integrity, the right to marriage—that the court has found exists in the ‘life, liberty and property’ rights of the constitution.”

Clark answered with the same arguments made by the Obama administration, which also sought to quash Juliana: The youth have no standing to sue, their grievances are not redressable and the problem is outside the powers of the judicial branch.

“The Trump administration appears even more determined to quash the lawsuit than its predecessor—which is not surprising given its hostility to climate policy. This animosity is shared by Clark, who, in a 2010 panel discussion, called the EPA’s greenhouse gas regulation “reminiscent of kind of a Leninistic program from the 1920s to seize control of the commanding heights of the economy.”

The ruling may take months, but the plaintiffs and their legal team were in a celebratory mood, pouring out of the federal courthouse to a sunny day, TV news cameras and cheers from supporters. Led by the Unpresidented Brass Band, they paraded through the streets to a plaza in downtown Portland.

A grandmother and granddaughter team from climate-justice group 350.org performed a skit outside, reading scientific warnings about climate change going back to 1961 followed by puppets of presidents, from John F. Kennedy to Donald Trump, describing the policies they enacted to burn more oil, coal and natural gas. The granddaughter would ask, “Did the government know?” and the audience of hundreds would yell, “The government knew!”

Politically, the focus on children has helped to change the face of the climate-justice movement from older and white to youth-led and diverse.

Speaking at the rally, plaintiff Vic Barrett, 20, said, “We spent another day in court facing our government, the apparent strongest government in the world, showing fear of young people and showing fear of facts.”

The youngest plaintiff, 11-year-old Levi Draheim, also spoke. “It’s been four years since I got involved with this case. That’s literally one-third of my life that I have dedicated to this lawsuit.” Rising sea levels are threatening to submerge the barrier island he lives on off the Atlantic coast of Florida, a place where, he says, “I can watch dolphins, turtles and manatees, and I can go barefoot all year round.”

As the rally dispersed, a marimba band struck up. Olson and a handful of plaintiffs started dancing. When asked if they were looking for the government to do something new, Olson said, “We’re asking them to apply bedrock constitutional law to new factual circumstances.” Excusing herself, she continued dancing.

 

 

OMNI CLIMATE CHANGE AND CHILDREN ANTHOLOGY #1

http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2016/04/climate-change-and-children.html

Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace, Justice, and Ecology, April 2, 2016

 

No comments: