NPR excerpt: Eighteen California children are suing the Environmental Protection Agency, claiming it violated their constitutional rights by failing to protect them from the effects of climate change. This is the latest in a series of climate-related cases filed on behalf of children.
The federal lawsuit is called Genesis B. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency. According to the lawsuit, the lead plaintiff “Genesis B.” is a 17-year-old Long Beach, California resident whose parents can’t afford air conditioning.
As the number of extreme heat days increases, the lawsuit says Genesis isn’t able to stay cool in her home during the day. “On many days, Genesis must wait until the evening to do schoolwork when temperatures cool down enough for her to be able to focus,” according to the lawsuit.
The other plaintiffs range in age from eight to 17 and also are identified by their first names and last initials because they are minors. For each plaintiff, the lawsuit mentions ways that climate change is affecting their lives now, such as wildfires and flooding that have damaged landscapes near them and forced them to evacuate their homes or cancel activities.
“Time is slipping away, and the impact of the climate crisis is already hitting us directly. We are running from wildfires, being displaced by floods, panicking in hot classrooms during another heat wave,” 15-year-old plaintiff Noah said in a statement provided by the non-profit, public interest law firm Our Children’s Trust, which filed the suit.
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More Kids File Lawsuits: A group of children in California filed a lawsuit against the U.S. EPA on Sunday, claiming that the agency disregarded climate change and allowed levels of pollution that have “destabilized the very foundation, and ordered liberty, of Children’s lives.” Eighteen children between the ages of 8 and 17 are represented in the lawsuit, with the lead plaintiff named “Genesis B.,” a 17-year-old in California whose parents can’t afford air conditioning and who says in the suit that she often has to wait for the sun to go down before she can concentrate enough to do her homework. The group is represented by Our Children’s Trust, an Oregon-based law firm that notched a win in Montana this summer after a group of kids sued the state.The firm also represents the first climate lawsuit brought by children, the 2015 Juliana v. U.S. case, which is still pending. “There is one federal agency explicitly tasked with keeping the air clean and controlling pollution to protect the health of every child and the welfare of a nation — the EPA,” Julia Olson, executive director and chief legal counsel at Our Children’s Trust, told E&E News. “The agency has done the opposite when it comes to climate pollution, and it’s time the EPA is held accountable by our courts for violating the U.S. Constitution and misappropriating its congressionally delegated authority.” (E&E, The Guardian, NPR)
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Morano on OAN: “Here’s a funny thing about the case, Allison. The lead plaintiff is a 17-year-old girl from Longport California, named Genesis. The lawsuit claims she can’t do her schoolwork during the day because it’s too hot and her parents can’t afford air conditioning. So she has to wait until the evening to do her homework because she can’t focus because of the heat. That is the literal basis of this lawsuit by the lead plaintiff.
Now, the really funny part about this is California more than any other state and Joe Biden’s EPA, who they’re suing — has done everything possible to make air conditioning, more expensive and rationed.
So if their actual complaint should be, why can’t we afford air conditioning? And the reason is, Obama and Biden are supporting international treaties to make air conditioning rationed and more expensive. (See: Uncool: Biden Pushes Senate to Ratify Treaty That Would Raise Cost of Air Conditioning)
The media, the UN, the Environmental Protection Agency, and all sorts of regulations, are doing everything to make thermostat controls, to make you live in hotter temperatures. (See: Green New Deal in Action! ‘Businesses in Spain have to keep summer air conditioning above 80 degrees F under new govt rules’. & Energy Lockdowns Have Arrived: During Colorado heatwave, thousands locked out of control over their home thermostat during ‘energy emergency’)
The LA Times, where she lives, actually wants to have public cooling centers because they don’t want people to have air conditioners in their own home and use, and they want public transit to pick you up and take you to your public cooling center in a government building. So, that should be the real lawsuit!” (See: LA Times: Instead of air conditioning running in your home during heatwaves, the LA Times interviews experts suggesting “investing in a wider network of cooling centers, with transportation to help people get there.”
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Climate Depot Note: Ironically, the climate agenda seeks to limit air conditioning!
NYT: Do Americans Need Air-Conditioning?
Some Americans willing to ditch air conditioning to reduce carbon footprint
Uncool: Biden Pushes Senate to Ratify Treaty That Would Raise Cost of Air Conditioning
Related Links:
‘The Earth has a fever’ – the only solution is 14 billion air conditioners
‘Turn up the AC — please! – Air conditioning is a human right’ – “If this heatwave has taught me anything, it’s that the 30 UN human rights — including equality, privacy, freedom of expression, food, clothing, housing and time off work — are essential and admirable. But they can’t beat air conditioning.”
2016: Washington’s War Against Your Air Conditioner – John Kerry explained in a speech in New York last month, the Obama administration targeted HFCs. Kerry conceded that since ratification of the Montreal Protocol “nearly 100 of the most ozone-depleting substances have been completely phased out. As a result, the hole in the ozone layer is shrinking and on its way to full repair.” “The bad news is that the substances banned by the Montreal Protocol have been replaced by substances that cause a different kind of danger,” Kerry said. “HFCs may be safer for the ozone, but they are exceptionally potent drivers of climate change itself, often thousands of times more potent than, for example, carbon dioxide.”
Kerry: Regulating refrigerator chemicals are ‘of equal importance’ to battling ISIS – Kerry made the remarks as part of a pep talk for negotiators working through the weekend to amend a 1987 treaty called the Montreal Protocol to deal with the chemicals used as refrigerants. “Yesterday, I met in Washington with 45 nations — defense ministers and foreign ministers — as we were working together on the challenge of [the Islamic State], and terrorism,” he said. “It’s hard for some people to grasp it, but what we — you — are doing here right now is of equal importance because it has the ability to literally save life on the planet itself.”
2015: Discovery Mag.: ‘Is Air Conditioning Killing the Planet?’ – ‘The desire for a more comfortable and cooler home and office will likely make the planet bake even faster.’
2013: NYU Sociologist: Stop using air conditioning to save planet from global warming
2010: Lifestyle Control: In the heat wave, the case against air conditioning — Call to end ‘lavish use in everyday life’ – ‘Turning buildings into refrigerators burns fossil fuels, which emits greenhouse gases, which raises global temperatures, which creates a need for — you guessed it — more air-conditioning…health benefits during severe heat waves do not justify its lavish use in everyday life’
2018: ‘The World Wants Air-Conditioning. That Could Warm the World’
NYT: ‘Should Air-Conditioning Go Global, or Be Rationed Away?’ — Is A/C a modern-day right like clean water…or an unsustainable luxury that we should give up or ration?’ – Author Stan Cox [email protected] says A/C is ‘A Luxury the World Can’t Afford’ — ‘The resulting greenhouse emissions create need for even more air-conditioning there’s little we can say until we end our own society’s dependence on lavish cooling’
NYT laments: ‘How Bad Is Your Air-Conditioner for the Planet?’ ‘Releases 100 million tons of CO2 each year’ – NYT: ‘Air-conditioning releases about 100 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.’ ‘The widespread availability of air-conditioning has allowed for more development in the hotter parts of the country — the South and the Southwest — where air-conditioning use is the highest in the country.’ ‘There may be a time in the future when the climate in some places will be so hot that air-conditioning won’t be able to maintain comfortable temperatures.’