Young People Suing Their Government Over Climate Change Just Won Another Big Case
Young People Suing Their Government Over Climate Change Just Won Another Big Case
The kids are telling adults to do what needs to be done now.
05/20/2016 07:30 pm ET
Peter Andrew Hart
Front Page Editor, The Huffington Post
A group of teenagers who sued the Massachusetts state government over its failure to adequately address the threat of climate change won a major court case this week, adding to a string of victories for young activists.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of the four young plaintiffs on Tuesday, agreeing that the state Department of Environmental Protection was not making good on its goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The court ordered the agency to produce and implement stronger and more expansive regulations that lead to the “type of mass-based reductions in greenhouse gases” that the state legislature called for in a 2008 law.
“This is an historic victory for young generations advocating for changes to be made by government,” 17-year-old plaintiff Shamus Miller said in a statement. “The global climate change crisis is a threat to the well-being of humanity, and to my generation, that has been ignored for too long.”
The verdict in Kain v. Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection comes just weeks after another group of young people forced Washington state to craft science-based emission rules this year. The King County judge there ruled that the urgency of climate change and the government’s responsibility to protect citizens required that the state Department of Ecology be held to a deadline.
more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/massachusetts-teens-climate-change_us_573f1bf5e4b045cc9a70b23c