EPISODE 7: On the Streets and In the Courts: The Youth Climate Movement

Episode Summary

In September 2019, 7.6 million people around the world participated in the largest climate strike in history. The Youth Climate Movement is forcing international discussion but can it achieve climate action?

Episode Notes

On Juliana vs. United States
Pat Parenteau - “There's a doctrine embedded in this case. It's an ancient doctrine. It's a doctrine that the government is not supposed to create a danger for people. It's not supposed to knowingly take actions that are putting people's lives and property at risk. That is what the plaintiffs are saying the government is doing. And in my judgment, they're right.”

Why they’re striking
Erik Dorfman - “This movement is coming out of this real fear that we might not have a livable future. And all of the real chaos socially that that future entails. It's movement for justice. As a human being, living in this time period, and also being a white male living in the global north, I have a deep moral duty to not be a bystander and a witness and actually be an active tool of change and being like, not on my watch, not in my name and not with my money.”

Gus on being a key witness in Juliana vs. United States
Gus Speth - “... that's the gist of the lawsuit: that by steering our energy use towards fossil fuels for all this time, the government has created a danger to them, especially the new generation that's coming along, and that that creation of that endangerment is a deprivation of their constitutional right to due process to life, liberty and property.”