Of youth and idealism and carbon

And adult irresponsibility.

Natural Law

Kelsey Juliana and Julia Olson are among dozens of teenagers and their attorneys across the country who are putting UO law professor Mary Cjristina 
Wood's theory of atmospheric trust litigation into practice, demanding a judicial remedy to a climate in crisis.  

Does the public trust doctrine that protects air, water, and endangered species apply to climate? We’re going to find out.

Oregon Quarterly, Autumn 2014 By Mary Democker

It’s January 16, 2014, and the Duncan Campbell Auditorium at the University of Oregon law school isn’t just a classroom—it’s a battleground. On one side is the Oregon state government, on the other are two teenagers whose suit demanding the state protect the climate was dismissed by a lower court. Three Oregon Court of Appeals judges have journeyed from Salem to hear the teenagers’ appeal in UO classrooms, giving law students the opportunity to witness an appeals court hearing right on campus. TV cameras in the rear of the packed, makeshift court pan from the young plaintiffs and their mothers—coplaintiffs in the suit—to the teenagers’ dozens of friends who are skipping history class today in favor of partaking in the real thing, and finally to Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, in attendance to support the teens. But the UO law professor sitting quietly next to the mayor is the reason anyone is gathered here at all. It is, after all, Mary Christina Wood’s pioneering atmospheric trust litigation that enabled these kids to sue their government. 

In nine lawsuits or petitions currently making their way through state and federal courts as well as courts overseas, Wood's innovative legal theory is shaping new precedent in environmental law.  ...it calls government, as trustee, to restorative duty, which means not just preventing future damage, but repairing past harms scientists now identify as threatening to current and future generations.  Hence the relief demanded by the children: an order requiring the governor and the legislature to use the best available scientific methods to create and implement a plan to reduce carbon emission by 6% per year until at least 2050.  

USC Note:  At this rate, in 35 years, carbon emissions would be reduced by 90% to 10% of 2013 levels.  

Wood decided to propose something no one else had: application of the public trust doctrine to the climat crisis.  ...Sich inclusion would open the door for Wood to mastermind the groundbreaking legal framework she called atmospheric trust litigation (ATL).  "I took the concepts from the leading public trust cases and wove them together so they could be useful as a full paradigm shift."

Answering the rhetorical question, does the public trust doctrine that protects air, water, and endangered species apply to climate? 

No.  The judicial branch of government is not and cannot act as scientific mediators without expert knowledge of data underlying the debate over climate change.  

Leading climate scientist do not agree on the causes and results of anthropogenic climate change.  How can unknown science be related to action take in the name of "public trust" and "climate recovery"?

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EUGENE TAKES THE LEAD

On July 28, 2014, the Eugene City Council adopted the nation's first Climate Recovery Oreinance. Promoted by local youths with the help of Our Children's Trust, the ordinance legally commits Eugene to a host of internal carbon-neutral goals, city-wide targets, etc.  
"It was awesome!" exclaimed 10-year-old Zealand Bell, one of the young people who testified.  "I'm glad that the City of Eugene is helping us to stop climate change."