Disruptive inquiry

The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals currently is reviewing the fate of a landmark constitutional climate-change lawsuit brought against the US federal government by 21 youth plaintiffs-ages 9-21-from across the country seeking to secure their legal right to a stable climate and healthy atmosphere.

While you may haven't a clue who lead plaintiff Kelsey Cascadia Rose Juliana and her coplaintiffs are, you should. Their commitment to seeing the US through to nationwide climate recovery already has compelled major industry groups the American Petroleum Institute, American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, and the National Association of Manufacturers to aggressively intervene-and later quietly be removed-as codefendants in the case. It's also forced the federal government to seek an extraordinarily rare review of US District Court Judge Ann Aiken's November 2016 order denying a motion by defendants to dismiss the case.

What these young Americans are bringing to light via their lawsuit, however, is-and will be-doing a great deal more. For now, it's forcing all of us into the uncomfortable but necessary place of having to ask difficult questions of our government officials, of our corporate and industry leaders, and-most importantly-of ourselves that most of us probably rather wouldn't.

Lay of the land

As the parties and courts acknowledge, this is no ordinary lawsuit, and the host of legal doctrines at play in this case are impossible to address here in this space. Essentially, the plaintiffs allege that, despite its more than 50-years' knowledge of the destabilizing effects carbon dioxide pollution from burning fossil fuels was having on the climate system, the US government-including the president, the Council on Environmental Quality, the Office of Management and Budget, the Office of Science & Technology Policy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the departments of Energy, Interior, Transportation, Agriculture, Commerce, Defense, and State-exercised its sovereign authority over the nation's atmosphere and natural resources in a way that valued short-term economic interests of multinational corporations-and their profits-over human life by permitting, encouraging, and otherwise enabling continued exploitation, production, and combustion of fossil fuels.

As such, the plaintiffs allege that, whether by direct actions or inaction, the federal government deliberately allowed atmospheric CO2 concentrations to escalate to levels unprecedented in human history, depriving future US generations of a constitutional right to life, liberty, and property without due process of law.

Rights, wrongs

This case, believe it or not, isn't about climate change at all. In their answer to the Juliana complaint, federal defendants previously admitted the accuracy of a great many of plaintiffs' allegations, including an acknowledgment of the facts of climate change as well as an awareness of the role authorized CO2 emissions contribute to it.

Despite the federal government's myriad protests over what rights belong to whom to do what, at its undeniably vital core, this case is about the inescapable duty charged to each of us to be caretakers. Not just of the land, air, and oceans that sustain us, but also of those to whom we entrust ensuring this caretaking is rightfully accomplished.

Like one of the Louisiana plaintiffs in this case, this editor lives along the US Gulf Coast. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I'd live to see my parents require rescuing from Hurricane Harvey's 1,000-year flood event in an area that-despite three such events in Houston during the last 3 years-hadn't experienced its first 500-year event.

To live through something like that begs questions and answers, even for those of us whose livelihoods depend on an industry whose premiere trade groups moved to dismiss themselves as codefendants in this lawsuit just days before having to respond to plaintiffs' requests for admissions.

Pending a contrary ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, this case is scheduled for trial on Feb. 5, 2018. Further case information, including court orders and filings, may be found at www.ourchildrenstrust.org, www.ord.uscourts.gov, or www.ca9.uscourts.gov.