*[Enwl-eng] Climate Rights

[enwl]

Climate RightsMontana has constitutional right to a clean environment. Could 
other states guarantee it too?


                                News of the world environment

                                 NEWSLETTER | AUGUST 25, 2023

















                                Climate Rights
                                MICA KANTOR IS a long-distance runner. At 15 
years old, he enjoys unplugging from his phone while he runs outdoors. But 
as wildfires have become more frequent in recent years, smoky days have 
increasingly limited his ability to train outside. That makes him “feel 
trapped,” he said recently in a Montana state courtroom, “like I can’t get 
my mind off of things.”

                                Sariel Sandoval, 20, a member of the 
Bitterroot Salish, Upper Pend d’Oreille, and Diné tribes, grew up picking 
huckleberries with her family and listening to coyote stories. Some tales, 
which have been passed down through generations, are told only when there is 
snow on the ground. “One day we’re not going to have any snow on the 
 ground,” she testified in court. “What happens to those stories?”

                                Olivia Vesovich, a 20-year-old artist, says 
her allergies have become more and more painful in recent years, even 
swelling her eyes shut at times. On top of that, wildfire smoke has been 
triggering her asthma. “I feel like I can’t breathe, and that’s a terrifying 
feeling,” she said.

                                Kantor, Sandoval, and Vesovich are among a 
group of 16 young people, ages 5 to 22, who sued Montana in 2020 for 
contributing to the climate crisis. All three took to the witness stand this 
summer in Held v. Montana, laying bare, in sometimes emotional testimony, 
the ways in which climate change has impacted their physical, mental, and 
cultural health. In August, the district court judge ruled in their favor in 
a landmark win for the climate movement.

                                The lawsuit was highly anticipated in 
climate circles. It was the first youth-led climate case to go to trial in 
the United States. It was also the first constitutional climate case to go 
to trial in the country, meaning the legal argument for this case rested on 
inalienable rights bestowed to all Montanans in the state constitution.

                                “There’s never been a trial like this in our 
history,” said one of the lead attorneys in the case, Nate Bellinger, of Our 
Children’s Trust, the nonprofit law firm representing the plaintiffs. There 
are, however, sure to be more: Youth plaintiffs across the country are 
gearing up to fight for their climate rights in several other cases.


                                Journal Managing Editor Zoe Loftus-Farren 
writes about this ground-breaking climate case and how it is centered around 
a relatively unique constitutional protection — a “green amendment” that 
guarantees the right “to a clean and healthful environment in Montana for 
present and future generations” in our Autumn 2023 print issue. “The growing 
movement to pass green amendments like this in other states around the 
country... could be a game changer in the fight for climate action,” she 
writes.




                                READ MORE


                                Photo by UN Women / Amanda Voisard




                                THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!


                                As you may know, in June, National 
Geographic laid off all of its staff writers. Next year, the historic 
magazine will no longer be sold on newsstands in the US. This is all to 
deliver more profits into the pockets of the Walt Disney Corporation, which 
acquired the magazine in 2019.

                                Earth Island Journal is not immune to the 
challenges of running a newsroom in the twenty-first century. Reporting on 
environmental movements around the world is costly and time-consuming. But 
we are still here because of you. Funding from our readers is key to our 
news gathering. Your contribution supports the future of investigative 
reporting on climate change, land and wildlife conservation, and 
environmental justice issues worldwide.

                                This is why we’re hoping we can count on 
you. Please consider making a tax-deductible donation to our Green 
Journalism Fund.

                                Brian Calvert, Zoe Loftus-Farren, and 
Maureen Nandini Mitra




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                                SUGGESTED BROWSING


                                Toxic Trash
                                Neighbors to one of California’s biggest 
hazardous waste recyclers say they’re unfairly exposed to pollution, but can 
California afford to lose one of the few facilities that still takes in some 
of the millions of tons of toxic waste it produces every year?  (CalMatters)

                                Space Junk
                                While on the subject of trash — on 
Wednesday, as part of the new race to space, India became the fourth country 
to successfully land a craft on the moon. Among the many issues associated 
with the recent rush to colonize the moon here’s one more: The surface of 
the moon could start to get littered with our junk. (Vox)

                                Legal Acrobatics
                                This one is a head-scratcher: In a recent 
ruling, a Trump-appointed judge equated anti-abortion activists to wildlife 
lovers, writing that medical providers challenging abortion care suffer 
“aesthetic injury from the destruction of unborn life” similar to the pain 
animal lovers suffer when a development project threatens wildlife. 
(Politico)

                                America's Bees
                                “The problem of bees in America is not a 
question of peace with the environment. It’s not really even a matter of 
conservation, per se.” Instead, it is a “quagmire linked to antiquity and 
the modern world” and the shortcomings of American commerce. (The Ringer)




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      From: Earth Island Journal
      Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2023 3:44 AM
      Subject: Climate Rights



 
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