Backed by an environmental group and climate activist James Hansen, 21 kids appeared in an Oregon District Court on Wednesday, part of a lawsuitagainst President Obama for encouraging the use of fossil fuels. They also claim this is leading to increased global warming, which is a violation of their constitutional rights. Similar to a suit that was filed last summer in Massachusetts, in which the judge threw out the case, the children aged 8 to 19 seek to hold “President Obama and various federal agencies responsible for continued fossil fuel exploitation” and the “alleged failure to prevent the harmful impact of climate change.”
The suit was originally filed on August 12, 2015, and Judge Thomas Coffin heard oral arguments yesterday on whether to dismiss the climate change case brought by 21 young people from around the nation. The plaintiffs saythat the government has known for 50 years that using fossil fuels like oil and natural gas are causing global warming and that “continuing to burn fossil fuels would destabilize the climate system.” They hope their case will put the science of global warming in “front of the federal judiciary” and show how the government has been complicit in exploiting the usage of these dino fuels.
