By Rmuse
...The Judge, (click here) Thomas Coffin of the Federal District Court in Eugene, ruled that the 21 8-19 year old plaintiffs could continue their “landmark constitutional climate change case.” Despite the federal government’s battle being enjoined by powerful fossil fuel to get the young people’s case dismissed, Judge Coffin said the case is going forward specifically because,
“The government has known for decades that carbon dioxide (C02) pollution has been causing catastrophic climate change and has failed to take necessary action to curtail fossil fuel emissions resulting in carbon pollution of the atmosphere, climate destabilization and ocean acidification.”
The ruling also upholds the young plaintiffs’ claims that by not doing everything in its considerable power to combat global climate change, the federal government violated their Fifth and Ninth Amendment protections. As Judge Coffin said, “by denying them protections afforded to previous generations, and by favoring short term economic interests of certain citizens.”
The Judge specifically noted, and agreed with the youngsters, that both ignoring climate change and enabling it was also a violation of the “public trust doctrine.” It means that the government must adhere to the “principle that certain natural and cultural resources are preserved for public use, and that the government owns and must protect and maintain these resources for the public’s use. Thus, any use or sale of such land must be in the public interest.” Exacerbating anthropogenic climate change and all of its devastating effects is certainly not in “the public interest.”
It was a major win for the young people and all Americans, and a defeat for fossil fuel’s opinion that “the public trust” is an abomination. That opinion informs why Republicans in the employ of the fossil fuel industry oppose the government either owning or regulating, protecting or preserving land and water.
